AN IMPROVED INDICATING APPARATUS OR UNIVERSAL GUIDORAMA.
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Bristow Hunt at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 7th July 1881. (A communication from
abroad by Alphonse Lagrange, Alexandre Aubert, and Georges Nos, all of
Paris, France.)
""
BRISTOW HUNT, of Serle Street, Lincoln's Inn, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman. "AN IMPROVED INDICATING APPARATUS OR UNIVERSAL GUIDORAMA.'
(A communication from abroad by Alphonse Lagrange, Alexandre Aubert, and
Georges Nos, all of Paris, France.)
In large towns or cities (such as Paris), a great number of persons experience
daily in the streets the greatest difficulty in procuring rapidly and exactly
information which is indispensable to them.
The Annuaire Didot-Bottin" (or Directory) is intended to lessen this incon-
venience, but it is necessary in order to consult the same (when in the street) to
enter a public establishment, such as a café; thus the information cannot be
obtained without some expense and loss of time. Lastly, at night one is deprived
of all such means of information.
It is in order to fill up this gap and to supply a real want that this means of
information, which takes the form of a simple and convenient apparatus, has been
invented.
This apparatus placed conspicuously in the public thoroughfares gives to all
passers-by necessary information without causing inconvenience or loss of time.
It is composed of a box of oblong form and of suitable size mounted on a
pedestal or other support and placed within reach of the public. The top of the
box is covered with a piece of transparent glass, allowing natural or artificial
light to illuminate the interior. Inside the box on the back thereof is the printing
or writing in microscopic characters, containing all information relative to the
street or neighbourhood, such as addresses of all the inhabitants in alphabetical
order, the numbers of the houses, and if necessary, professions. The front of the
box is provided with a special lens, the magnifying power of which enables a
passer-by to read very easily the microscopic text. In this manner a great
quantity of information may be inscribed on a relatively small surface. The text
[Price 2dr

page_text: is illuminated during the day by means of the glazed portion forming the top of
the box, and on this top is placed a lamp, gas jet, or other light, provided with a
reflector to illuminate the interior of the box during the night time.
Besides the particular information above mentioned, the box will also give
indications of a general character relative to the mails, telegraphs, town halls, police
offices, fire-stations, fire-plugs, schools, museums, libraries, government offices, and
so forth. These indications will, by preference, be inscribed on the outside of the
box, but they may also be placed inside. The exterior portions not occupied by
the indications mentioned may be reserved for advertisements, notices, and other
announcements.
It will be evident that the general form of the apparatus may be varied so as to
The
produce a decorative effect, which will contribute to embellish the streets.
upper glass will be protected by a cover or cap of artistic form. On a face-plate
or architrave will be inscribed the name of the street, district, and parish, the
whole being surmounted, for example, with the arms of the town or city in which
the apparatus is placed; but this forms no essential part of the Invention.