Improvements in Means for Advertising and Displaying the Names of Streets and Places and for Giving Publicity to Trade and other Notices.
Year: 1888

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Means for Advertising and Displaying the Names
of Streets and Places and for Giving Publicity to Trade and
other Notices.
I SAMUEL RIDEAL of Wards Buildings Deansgate, Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this Invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement and accompanying drawings:-
My said Invention relates to means for displaying the names of streets and
conveying indications of direction and locality and for advertising and giving
publicity to trade and other notices. The said means consist of removable tablets
or flags or slabs let into the pavement at suitable places and carrying inscriptions
composed of letters sunk into the flags or slabs. The said sunk letters consist pre-
ferably of metal likely to retain a lustrous surface or they may be composed of some
inaterial other than or different in colour from the rest of the slab or flag.
In carrying my invention into effect I employ flags, tablets, slabs or blocks made of
cement, concrete, asphaltum bitumen or of any suitable material or composition which
will resist wear and the action of the weather. The said slabs or flags may be
strengthened if desired by the introduction of metallic bars or wire-work or borders of
metal or they may be without such metallic strengthenings. I make them of any
suitable dimension or shape and I imbed therein letters, characters, numbers or
designs which can be easily seen and which will wear equally with the material in
which they are sunk. When the said letters are formed of metal I find that a
suitably lustrous yellow brass can be composed of two parts of copper and one part of
spelter this composition giving a mixture which will be of about equal wear with good
concrete or cement. The letters and characters may however be composed of material
other than metal but always of a different material or if of the same material then of a
different colour from the material composing the slab. When the slab has been
formed and the inscription run in erted or pressed into it so as to leave the top of the
letters flush with the top of the slab, the slab is dried and hardened and when fit for
use is laid or inserted into the pavement of the public streets in such a manner as to
present the inscription to passengers. The pavement might be composed entirely of

page_text: such inscribed slabs or flags but as a rule they would be inserted among the existing
flags and as they can be easily lifted they need not be destroyed or injured when it is
necessary to remove them in course of street repairs or the like. My present
intentions are that the corners of the streets should be reserved for displaying the
names of the streets and for giving prominence to directions and notices for the safety
and guidance of the public, and such announcements should if possible be so placed as
to be well lit up by the lamps usual at the corners of streets, so that the said notices
would be apparent by night as well as by day. In situations other than at the corners
of streets or if desired at the corners of streets also I would introduce slabs or flags
bearing trade announcements, addresses of business firms or notices relating to public
amusements.
In the accompanying sketch Fig. 1 is a plan view of a slab bearing the name of a
street. Fig. 2 is a section, the perpendicular shade lines showing the insertion of the
letters. Fig. 3 is a slab bearing a trade announcement. Fig. 4 shows the inter-
section of two thoroughfares. At the street corners the names of the intersecting
streets may be inscribed on the slabs A, and other information may be carried by the
same or by other slabs. The corner lamps B will throw light upon the inscriptions at
night. Other portions of the streets marked C may be devoted to trade and other
announcements and are preferably placed on each side of the usual street lamps D so
as to be seen at night.
The rental paid to the Corporation of a town for permission to lay down such
advertising slabs would form an important source of revenue which could be applied
to the reduction of the local rates.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is :-
The employment of removable slabs or flags made of suitable materials and capable
of being inserted in the ordinary foot pavements of public streets the said removable
slabs or flags bearing letters, numerals and inscriptions either for the purposes of
guidance and control or for giving publicity to trade and other notices, and con-
structed and arranged substantially as herein before described and as indicated in the
annexed drawings.
Dated this 14th day of November 1888.