A NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD OF AND MEANS FOR ADVERTISING ON OR DECORATING WALLS, FLOORS, OR OTHER SITUATIONS OR PLACES
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Cotter, of Holloway, in the County of
Middlesex, Auctioneer, for the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED
METHOD OF AND MEANS FOR ADVERTISING ON OR DECORATING WALLS, FLOORS,
OR OTHER SITUATIONS OR PLACES."
Sealed the 19th January 1875, and dated the 21st. July 1874.

page_text: .
According to my Invention I employ a plate of metal or other
suitable material, and perforate the same with holes of any desired form
and size. I find it most convenient however to make the perforations
small, say of from a fourth to a half inch in diameter, and to have them
in as close proximity to one another as possible. Through these
perforations I protrude spheres or discs of corresponding form and size
and of various colours, and by arranging them according to their colours,
letters, words, and devices may be formed as required, and may of course
be also changed as often as may be thought proper. The said discs or
spheres when arranged are kept in position by a back plate of any
suitable material.
In practice I find it most convenient to make the perforations of
circular form, and to use small spheres for making up the required
lettering or device, the spheres being of a little larger diameter than
the perforations, and protruding through for about one-third of their
diameters.
Blocks or plates made up as above described with the required
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, a
filed by the said William Cotter in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 21st January 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
COTTER, of Holloway, in the County of Middlesex, Auctioneer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-eighth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said William Cotter, Her special license that I,
the said William Cotter, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said William Cotter, my exccutors, admini-
strators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
6

page_text: time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within tho
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and
Isle of Man, an Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD OF AND
MEANS FOR ADVERTISING ON OR DECORATING WALLS, FLOORS, OR OTHER SITUATIONS
OR PLACES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
William Cotter, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in.
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to
be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Cotter, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention relates to new or improved method of and means for
advertising on walls, floors, or in other situations or places.
.
According to my Invention I employ a plate of metal or other
suitable material, and perforate the same with holes of any desired form
and size. I find it most convenient however to make the perforations
small, say of from a fourth to a half inch in diameter, and to have them
in as close proximity to one another as possible. Through these
perforations I protrude small blocks of glass, stone, or other suitable
material corresponding in form and size with the holes in the plate, and
of various colours. Thus by arranging these blocks according to their
colours, letters, words, and devices may be formed as required, and
changed as often as may be thought proper. The said blocks when
arranged are kept in position by a back plate of any suitable material.
In practice I find it most convenient to make the perforations of a
circular form, and to use small spheres for making up the required
lettering or device, the spheres being a little larger in diameter than
the perforations, and protruding therethrough for about one-third of
their diameters.
When an illuminated advertisement is desired I perforate both front
and back plates, and make the intermediate spheres of glass, which

page_text: Daca
having thus an aperture in the plates at both their front anu
become practically lenses, and enable a strong light to be projected
through them, producing very great effect. The glass spheres may of
course be of various colours, and the design formed may be varied and
changed as required.
In the accompanying Drawings Figure 1 is a plan of an advertising
block constructed according to my Invention; Figure 2, a section
thereof; and Figure 3, a like section, but shewing both plates perforated,
and the glass spheres protruding on both sides.
The front plate A. and back plate B are screwed or otherwise suitably
attached to a framework C, the spheres D being between the two.
plates.
Blocks or frames made up as above described may be used for
advertising on walls, floors, stairs, pavements, or in other situations or
places.
Having thus particularly described and ascertained the nature of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to or may be
performed, I claim as my Invention to be secured by the herein-before
in part recited Letters Patent, the new or improved method of and
means for advertising on walls, floors, or in other situations or places,
substantially as herein-before described and illustrated in the accom-
panying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Cotter, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of January, in
the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five