IMPROVEMENTS IN POSTING OR EXHIBITING ADVERTISEMENTS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander William Anderson, of Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, News Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander William Ander-
son at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition;
on the 25th January 1855. -
I, ALEXANDER WILLIAM ANDERSON, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, News Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN POSTING OR EXHIBITING ADVERTISEMENTS" to be as follows,
that is to say:
I propose to affix to the side of a house, wall, or other blank space suitable for
posting advertisements, a case or frame of wood or metal, roofed at the top to
carry off the wet, and furnished with a roller or rollers, fixed either vertically
or horizontally; upon these rollers is wound a length of canvas, upon which
when open may be pasted or painted any advertisement; by winding up this
canvas on to the rollers it is preserved from destruction at night. Sometimes
I prefer using a case opening with folding doors, and having spaces for
advertisements to be painted inside the case and on the inside of the doors;
this when open affords commodious surface for advertisements, and may be.

page_text: completely shut up at night. When I employ the canvas above named,
employ therewith suitable gearing for rolling and unrolling it, either to its full
extent or partially, and this may be done from the inside of a building by
having a spindle through the wall and a winch handle inside.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander William Anderson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 24th July 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
WILLIAM ANDERSON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, News
Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Alexander William Anderson; Her special license that I, the
said Alexander William Anderson, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Alexander William Anderson, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein ex-
pressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and
Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN POSTING OF EXHIBITING
ADVERTISEMENTS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alex-
ander William Anderson, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, 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 Alexander William Anderson, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement (reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon), that is to say:
My improvements consist in constructing suitable frames or cases to be

page_text: erected on blank walls and other similar spaces, and also in adapting them to
perambulating vans, in which cases advertisements and posting bills may be
exhibited, and (if necessary) withdrawn and protected at night.
The Drawings annexed shew various modes of carrying out my Invention,
differing according to locality or requirements.
Figure 1 is an elevation, and Figure 2 a section, of one form of my
apparatus, the framework of which may be made of any suitable design,
either in wood or metal. A sheet of canvas, extending the entire length of
the frame, and kept in position by suitable guides, is attached at one end
to a roller (see Figure 2). Upon this canvas advertisements may be painted,
or posting bills may be pasted, or otherwise attached, and, by means of a
key fitting the spindle (a), the whole sheet of canvas is wound upon the
roller, and protected from damage by being enclosed behind that part of
the frame seen at (b, Figure 1). The canvas may be unrolled by means
of a cord attached to the end opposite to that which is fastened to the
roller, which cord passes over a pulley behind the part of the frame corre-
sponding to that which encloses the roller. This frame is secured to the
blank wall, or other surface for which it is destined, and, if required, may be
worked from the inside of a building by providing a spindle passing through
the wall with any simple and suitable gearing for winding and unwinding the
canvas.
(Figures 3 and 4) shew another form of case or frame in which the adver-
tisements may be either pasted or painted on the whole of the surfaces when
open, and may be shut up and secured by means of folding doors, as seen at
(Figure 4).
(Figure 5) is a modification of the arrangement shewn in (Figure 1), save
that the length of the canvas being vertical instead of horizontal, it may be
raised by a common roller blind spring or pulley and cord.
(Figure 6) shews an apparatus constructed in manner similar to a Venetian
blind, and may be made of metal or wood laths, on both sides of which
advertisements may be painted, affording an opportunity of changing and
exhibiting them alternately; these may be formed into an endless band of laths
passing over rollers at the top and bottom, or when in a single length may be
drawn up in the same manner as Venetian blinds into the facia at the top.
For some purposes I prefer to use glass in the front of cases, similar to those
shewn in (Figures 1, 5, and 6), behind which are fixed suitable gas burners or
other lights, and by posting bills of various colours on the glass, a transparency
having the appearance of coloured glass is produced; or the advertisements
may (if desired) be painted or attached in letters or sheets of coloured glass.

page_text: These last-described modes would of course apply to exhibiting advertisements
at night. Another modification of my Invention consists in constructing per
ambulating vans having sides composed of any or all of the forms of cases or
frames I have described, and in which a continuous succession of different
advertisements may be exhibited...
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be carried into effect; I wish it to be clearly understood that I
do not confine myself to these precise details, nor to the mere designs of the
cases shewn in the Drawings; but that which I claim as of my Invention is,
the improvements described in posting or exhibiting advertisements by means
of suitable cases or frames; in which (if necessary) advertisements may be
enclosed and protected from injury by weather or otherwise, in manner herein
fully set forth and specified..
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander William Anderson, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five."
ALEXANDER WILLIAM (L.S.) ANDERSON.