Combining Prism Pavement and Prism Plate Placed Midway between the Sections thereof for Lighting Basements.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 13th July, 1897-Accepted, 21st Aug.,
1897
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Combining Prism Pavement and Prism Plate Placed Midway between
the Sections thereof for Lighting Basements.
I, JOHN MEIGGS EWEN, of No. 1129 The Rookery, Chicago, County of Cook,
State of Illinois, United States of America, Mechanical Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of my invention and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
My invention relates to a device for lighting basements and the like and has for
its object to provide a new and improved device for this purpose, of which the
following is a description. My invention is illustrated in the accompanying
drawings wherein
Figure 1 is a view of a basement showing one form of my device;
Figure 2 shows a modification.
Like letters refer to like parts throughout the several figures.
A is the basement or room to be lighted; B, the vault beneath the pavement
which is composed of the tile sections C and 1 faced in opposite directions and
adapted both of them to throw the light upon the prism plate E, which is prefer-
F F are
ably composed of a series of prism lights united by electro-glazing.
Of course the size, form,
prisms which throw the light in some other direction.
proportion and arrangement of the several parts may be greatly varied without
departing from the spirit of my invention. The angles of the prisms in the tiles
and also of the prisms in the plates will be varied, and the angle of inclination of
the plate may be varied to suit varying conditions. The device is applicable to the
illumination of rooms, whether basements or otherwise. The tiles are made up
into a so-called pavement, though of course this pavement is nothing more than a
pavement-like construction projecting substantially horizontally from the building.
I have illustrated my device as applicable to basements, but it is evident that it
will be applicable to other situations where illuminating effects are to be produced.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said in-
vention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:-
1. A device for lighting basements comprising several series of prism tiles and
transparent prism plates arranged as shown and for the purpose specified.
2. A device for lighting basements and the like comprising a series of prism tiles
combination with a prism
arranged in sections, oppositely faced, in
one side with a prism
plate having a comparatively smooth surface on
surface on the other side, the several prisms set at an angle so that
the light will be thrown from the one section of the prism tiles upon the
prism surface of the plate and be thence reflected into the direction desired, while
light from the other section of tiles will be thrown upon the smooth surface of the
plate and will be transmitted therethrough and be refracted thereby so as to bo
directed into the room to be illuminated.

page_text: 3. A device for lighting basements and the like comprising two sets or sections
of prism tiles, a receiving prism plate intermediate between said two sets or sec-
tions and suspended in a substantially vertical plane, said prism plate so formed as
to refract the light received from one set of prism tiles and direct it into the base-
ment and reflect the light from the other set of tiles and also direct it into the
basement.
4. A device for lighting basements and the like, comprising a transparent pave-
ment-like body projecting substantially horizontally from the building and
provided with two sets of prism tiles adapted to throw the light in opposite direc-
tions, a substantially vertically arranged transparent prism plate so suspended
between the two sections that light from one section of tiles passes through the
prism plate and is refracted into substantially horizontal lines, while the light
from the other section of tiles is reflected from the prism plate into substantially
horizontal lines.
Dated this 13th day of July 1897.
For the Applicant,
W. LLOYD WISE.
46 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Chartered Patent Agent.