Improvements in Luminous Advertisements.
Year: 1898

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Luminous Advertisements.
HENRY FOOTE and LEONARD MILNE, Electrical Engineers, both of 68, Victoria
Street, in the County of London, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to
be as follows:-
Our invention relates to improvements in luminous advertisements whereby a
series of letters words or designs can be exhibited in succession and in which all
the details of an elaborate picture can be rendered visible from a distance at night.
To effect this object we employ a continuous length of canvas on which is depicted
the series of advertisements to be exhibited. This canvas passes over two or more
rollers and by rotating these rollers the series of pictures can in turn be brought to
the front. The advertisement is preferably illuminated from the back in which
case the names or pictures are painted as transparencies and the illumination can
most conveniently be effected by a number of incandescent electric lamps.
The before-mentioned rollers can be rotated by a small electric от other
mechanical motor. When the motor is rotating the rollers the illumination can be
turned off and when a new picture is brought into position the rotation of the
rollers can be stopped and the illumination turned on.
In place of a continuous canvas we can employ a length of canvas which is first
rolled upon a roller at one extremity of the picture and then upon a roller at the
opposite extremity of the picture but in this case the series in which the pictures
are presented to view will be reversed.
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Dated this 17th day of Fahr 1808
HENRY FOOTE.
LEONARD MILNE.
CUMPLEIN DIECIFICATION.
Improvements in Luminous Advertisements.
We, HENRY FOOTE and LEONARD MILNE, both of 68, Victoria Street, Westminster,
in the County of Middlesex, Electrical Engineers, 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 :—
Our invention relates to improvements in luminous advertisements whereby a

page_text: series of words or designs can be exhibited in succession, and in which all the
details of an elaborate picture can be rendered visible from a distance at night.
To effect this object we employ a continuous length of canvas on which is
depicted the series of advertisements to be exhibited. This canvas passes over
two or more rollers and by rotating these rollers the series of pictures can in
turn be brought to the front. The advertisement is preferably illuminated from
the back in which case the names or pictures are painted as transparencies and the
illumination can most conveniently be effected by a number of incandescent electric
lamps. The before mentioned rollers can be rotated by a small electric or other
mechanical motor. When the motor is rotating the rollers, the illumination can be
turned off and when a new picture is brought into position the rotation of the rollers
can be stopped, and the illumination turned on. In place of a continuous canvas
we can employ a length of canvas which is first rolled upon a roller at one extremity
of the picture and then upon a roller at the opposite extremity of the picture, but
in this case the series in which the pictures are presented to view will be reversed.
And in order that our invention may be better understood we now proceed to
describe the same in reference to the drawings hereto annexed and to the letters and
figures marked' thereon.
Fig. 1 shews a side view of our device for exhibiting advertisements, pictures and
the like. Fig. 2 is the front elevation of same. A is the endless belt on which are
the pictures, this belt is stretched on the rollers B B B B, one of these rollers is
flxed on the shaft C. The whole of the mechanism is driven by the motor D. On
the shaft of the motor is fixed a worm wheel d. This worm wheel engages the cog
wheel d¹ and rotates the pulley d² and thus imparts the driving motion to the
rollers through the belt d³, causing the endless belt A to expose fresh pictures to
view, and in order that the pictures may cease rotating and be illuminated we
attach projections a to the endless belt, one projection to each picture, as these
projections in turn come in contact with the roller E¹, the striker E is forced along
so that the belt ³ is transferred from the fixed pulley C¹ to the loose pulley C² thus
the picture becomes stationary, at the same time the striker completes the circuit of
the lamps F behind the picture and illuminates the same, it will be observed
that C2 is a double pulley. The moment the picture becomes stationary the
belt d³ having been transferred from C¹ to C2 causes C2 to revolve thus driving the
belt H which is provided with the projection H¹ which projection coming in contact
with the roller E2 on the striker, forces the striker to return, thus transferring the
belt d³ from the loose pulley C2 to the fixed pulley C causing the picture belt to
again revolve, or to feed on to the next picture, at the same time the striker breaks
the circuit of the illuminating lamps so that the pictures during the changing
process is invisible.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :-
1st. In an advertising device, an endless belt of pictures stretched on rollers and
actuated by a motor substantially as described.
2nd. In an advertising device, a belt of pictures in combination with projections
for automatically stopping the same substantially as described.
3rd. In an advertising device, a subsidiary belt provided with a projection in
combination with a striker to start the pictures again in motion and to give the
necessary pause for the exhibition of separate pictures substantially as described.
4th. In an advertising device, an automatically actuated striker to adjust the
duration of illumination during exposure of each picture substantially as described.
5th. In an advertising device, an endless belt of pictures in combination with an
automatically controlled device for stopping and starting pictures, and also for
illuminating them only when stationary substantially as described.
6th. In an advertising device, a continuous series of pictures reversible in its
travel and actuated by a motor, substantially as described.

page_text: 7. In an advertising device, a continuous series of pictures reversible in its direction
of travel in combination with a motor, and an automatically controlled device
for stopping and starting pictures and also for illuminating the same only when
stationary, as and for the purposes substantially as described.
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