Patent GB-205788-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in apparatus for displaying illuminated advertisements and other matter
IPC: G09F19/18
Filed: 1923-07-30
Abstract: 205,788. Lennard, F. M., and Steer, V. G. Oct. 20, 1922, [Convention date]. Endless-chain and like carriers, apparatus with: cylinders, prisms, and like elements, rotating; optical-projection apparatus, applications of.-Advertisements or other matter are displayed by a suspended lantern having any number of open sides around which passes an endless translucent band, an optical-projection device being optionally provided within the lantern. The advertisement-carrying band may be of silk and is attached by snapfastenings 21 to vertical bars 19, Fig. 13, riding on wheels 25 and slotted behind brackets 24 for connedtion to chain lengths 13 which make up two endless upper and lower chains passing over guide rollers 11, 12 on vertical corner spindles 7 - 10. The spindle 8 is mounted in spring-retracted bearings 114 to tension the chains 13. The chains 13 engage teeth 84 on the rollers 12 which are driven by the spindle 10 intermittently through a distance sufficient to transfer each representation to the next side of the lantern. The driving mechanism comprises a solenoid 47 having a core 57 from which a cord 69 passes round the shaft 61 of a toothed wheel 63 in gear with a wheel 14 loosely mounted on the spindle 10 and fixed to a ratchet wheel 15 engaging a spring- pressed pawl 17 on a disc 16 attached to the spindle 10. On a pulley on the shaft 61 is wound a strap 65 pulled by a spring 66. The wheel 63 is geared also to a one-way brake 75. Attraction of the core 57 within the solenoid 47 causes the wheels 63 and 14 to rotate and to drive the spindle 10 and endless band, and cutting-off the current allows the spring 66 to rotate the wheels 63 and 14 in the opposite direction, the ratchet 15 slipping past the pawl 17 and leaving the band stationary, and the brake 75 slowing down this return motion, during wich the core 57 is drawn out. Fig 11 shows the brake mechanism, consisting of a ratchet-wheel 80 driven from the wheel 63 and rotating in its anti-clockwise movement a spring-pressed pawl 81 on a disc 76 carrying spring-mounted leathers &c. 79 which rub against the interior of the drum 75. Fig. 6 shows the switch whereby the solenoid 47 and a lamp 26 are energized. A switch arm 27 is pivoted by a slot 31 about the spindle 10 and is held against the contact 28 by a spring stop 41. When the solenoid core is estended it presses a bell-crank which pulls a sliding bar 34 which catches a pin 32 on the arm 27 and drags the arm as allowed by the slot 31 till it is free of the stop 41, when a spring 42 brings it over to the contact 37, thus re-energizing the solenoid 47 and cutting out the lamp 26 so that the movement of the band takes place in darkness. The arm 27 is returned to the contact 28 to light the. lamp and stop the band by the oncoming chain-bar 19 contacting with a foot 46 on the arm 27, the arm 27 having been pressed back for this purpose during its outward swing by a disc 36 thereon engaging a fixed curved member 38. The optical-projection device, when provided, comprises a saucer-shaped intermittently rotated carrier 106, Fig. 3, on which transparencies 108 are detachably mounted in grooves or recesses and held by spring or other clips. Motion is imparted to the carrier 106 during inward movement of the core 57 bv a projection 85 thereon engaging rock levers 86, Fig. 14, and through a rocker 89, spring 90 and pawl 104 turning a notched disc 97 on the spindle of the carrier 106. The pawl 104 has a sliding and tilting movement, and when allowed to return, after being dragged down by the spring 90, is raised by a compression spring 103. The lamp 26, which serves for both the endless band and for the optical projection devices, and a condenser 110 are each adjustably supported on a vertical rod 109, Fig. 3. The objective 105 serves to throw the image on a foot-path &c. Stencil panels are arranged on the lantern above and below the band.