An Improved Method of, and Apparatus for, Advertizing.
Year: 1899

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Method of, and Apparatus for, Advertizing.
We, AUGUSTE ERNEST GRIGNON, LOUIS CHARLES FRÉDÉRIC DIUICQUE, and
MAURICE PIERRE BERNARD DAVID-VAUDEY, all of 8, Boulevard Saint-Denis, Paris,
in the Republic of France, Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of this in-
vention to be as follows:-
Our invention relates to an improved method of advertizing or exhibiting ad-
vertisements or other public notices, or information, in streets or other public or
private places, or in buildings, vehicles, or ships, or other positions.
For this purpose, supposing our invention is applied to advertizing in a
public street, we place a chamber or case below the level of the pavement on which
the passers-by walk, and we make the part of the pavement above the case of
strong glass, or other sufficiently strong material, upon which the announcement
is printed, painted, or otherwise formed or fixed. The interior of the case is
illuminated by electric lights, gas, or other convenient means of illumination,-
and the advertisements or notices to be exhibited-are-in-this way brilliantly dis-
played-under-the very feet of the spectators or passers by. The transparent top
may be made moveable, so that easy access can be got to the interior of the case,
within which reflectors may be placed to reflect the light in the required direction.
The apparatus described may evidently be used for exhibiting advertisements,
or announcements, underneath the surface of water, such as rivers, or the sea,
as well as of the ground; and it may, in fact, be used in almost any situation,
as it occupies little space, is inexpensive, and is very effective for the purpose
required.
We do not confine ourselves to any precise details of construction and arrange-
ment, which may be varied more or less to suit different circumstances.
1000

page_text: in the Republic of France, Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of our said
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
drawing, that is to say:
-
Our invention relates to an improved method of advertising or exhibiting ad-
vertisements or other public notices or information, in streets or other public or
private places, or in buildings, vehicles, or ships, or other positions.
Our novel method of advertising differs entirely from those employed and used
up to the present time. Such ordinary methods consist either of notices or ad-
vertisements placarded vertically upon walls, columns, or buildings of different
kinds, or of advertisements or notices painted upon the surface of vertical glass,
lighted inside either by gas lamps, or by electric lamps grouped together, and
operated so as to form combinations of letters and words, but always in a vertical
position. Our present invention is entirely different, the advertisements or
announcements being horizontal instead of vertical.
In order to put our invention in operation, supposing, for instance, that it is
to be applied to advertising in a public street, we use apparatus of a kind illustrated
in the accompanying drawing, which is in illustration of our invention, Fig. 1
being a perspective view of the apparatus, and Fig. 2 a similar view of electric
lighting apparatus which is placed inside the case shown in Fig. 1. A is a case
or frame or other suitable holder, rectangular, oval, or of any suitable shape,
which is embedded in the ground in such manner that the cover B is about level
with the surface of the latter. This cover is attached to the case by hinges, bolts,
or other convenient means, and it consists of two parts, the lower of which is
hollowed or cut away so that it consists of a simple frame which fits freely into
a corresponding recess in the upper edge of the case A. The interior of this
frame is filled with a plate of glass, horn, celluloid or other suitable transparent
material C, and it may be divided into several compartments or plates independent
of each other, and separated by cross bars D in the frame; the several plates of
glass or other transparent material forming, together with the frame, the cover
of the case, and being held on three sides by the recesses in the frame whilst they
can be removed and replaced through the fourth side so that when the cover is in
its place the transparent plates cannot move or get out.
Upon the plate of glass or transparent material is cemented the notice, announce-
ment, or advertisement, or the latter may be painted in letters of different colours
and in any language, and designs of all kinds may be placed upon the plates in
one or more colours or shades.
The notices, announcements, and advertisements, thus placed, formed, and
arranged, are lighted from below by any suitable device fitted in the interior of
the case. All kinds of lighting may be used, such as candles mineral or other
oil, gas with or without smoke-consuming devices, acetylene, electricity, and the
like. By the use of electricity a satisfactory result is produced by the distribution
of the light in the manner shown in Fig. 2. Five incandescent electric lamps E
are arranged upon the two faces of a triangular prism G, the third face of which
forms or rests upon the bottom H of the case A, three lamps being arranged upon
one side and two upon the other alternately; by this means a regular and com-
plete illumination is obtained upon all the parts of the upper surface The
electricity is supplied to the lamps by conducting wires I, J which are led to the
inside of the prism at the bottom of the case or frame, and connect each of the
lamps to the source of electricity or to a main conducting wire. A commutator
or switch arranged outside the apparatus allows the electricity to be supplied and
to be cut off as desired, and the latter may be made to operate either continuously
or intermittently. In order to increase and render more uniform the effect of
this lighting, reflectors may be arranged in an inclined position between the
support of the lamps and the vertical sides of the case or box. The improved
apparatus may be used beneath the surface of rivers, or the sea, or in other

page_text: places. We do not confine ourselves to the precise forms of the apparatus, which
may be varied more or less as may be found desirable, but:-
-
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said in-
vention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is:-
1. The novel system of luminous advertising beneath the surface of the ground
or of rivers or the sea, or in other places, consisting in placing, horizontally and
without interfering with the public road or path or the place where it is carried
an apparatus containing notices, announcements, or advertisements of different
kinds, illuminated from below in such manner that they are displayed in an
illuminated form under the feet of spectators and passers-by substantially as
described, and illustrated.
Dated this 20th day of August 1900.
EDWARDS AND Co.,
Chartered Patent Agents,
65 and 66, Chancery Lane, London, Agents for the Applicants.