Patent GB-190321687-A (GB)
Title: An Improved Means for Advertising.
Inventor: ROBISON WILLIAM COWPER
Filed: 1903-10-08
Granted: 1903-11-12
Abstract: 21,687. Robison, W. C., and Purslow, G. A. Oct. 8. Advertising.-Consists in apparatus for advertising or displaying in which a transparent or translucent plain or coloured surface is placed between a source of light and the sheet, disc, or curved plate on which the advertisement appears, whereby various coloured effects are produced. In one form, an outer casing 43, Fig. 12, with one or more openings in which the advertisement discs 44 are placed, is mounted on ball bearings 47 in a tray 48 containing clockwork gearing 53, 52 which drives the casing by means of a wheel engaging a toothed rim 51 on a projection 50 carried by the casing. At the same time a revoluble tray 55, for carrying the transparent or like screen 56, which is mounted on ball bearings 59, is driven by the clockwork, on account of a spindle 63 which engages in a square slot on the end of a shaft 61 which carries the tray 55. A form is described in which the inner cylinder alone is rotated, its carrying tray being driven by frictional engagement with the driving-pulley of an electrio motor ; also in which two concentric cylinders are each frictionally driven by a separate motor ; also in which two cylinders, one inside the other with axes perpendicular, are both driven frictionally by the same motor. The outer case may be any desired shape and made of metal, or partly of metal and partly of transparent or translucent material. The advertisement plates or disc may be of glass, celluloid, or the like, plain or coloured, and with a smooth or rough surface. The cylinders may be of glass, plain or roughened, and designs &c. are painted in transparent colours on it, or stamped or out from celluloid or the like and suitably secured to the cylinder. They may be formed of various crosssections, with irregular faces to produce varying effects, and also with sides of locally-varying thickness to act as lenses and concentrate the light upon the advertisements. Opaque cylinders with irregular slots or openings for the passage of the light may also be used, while dished advertisement discs may be used instead of flat ones. Varying effects are produced by filling up the portions of the ground glass disc not containing advertisements with an opaque pigment, or by interposing the advertisement disc between a front disc of ground glass and the inner cylinder. The rotating cylinders may be replaced by an endless band carried by a series of vertical rollers, Fig. 13, one roller being driven so as to cause the band to move. In this case a reflector 71 is placed so as to throw the light on to the portion of band in front of the advertisement disc 65, or the light may pass through the whole band when its other part is in such a position as shown by the dotted line. The band may be of celluloid or the like, or of a series of flat strips held on endless flexible bands, in which case square, hexagonal, or like rollers are used, or it may be composed of glass tubes, which maybe coloured, or contain a coloured liquid, the ends being closed by corks suitably secured to endless rubber bands. The bands may be made with suitable rubber plugs formed thereon for closing the tubes ; in both cases the bands are of sufficient diameter to keep the glass tubes clear of the rollers, Fig. 14. A form of transparent or translucent cylinder may also be used in which glass tubes are coiled round the circumference, the tubes being of different lengths, as shown in Fig. 18, and containing liquid, so as to produce an effect owing to the tumbling of the liquid as the cylinder rotates. A cylinder with vanes of transparent or translucent material, tinted or coloured as desired, may be used. In all cases, the flanged top of the outer casing is readily removable so that access may be had to the interior.