Lenticular Window Lights for Forming Window Plates.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 7th Dec., 1897-Accepted, 26th Feb.,
1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Lenticular Window Lights for Forming Window Plates.
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 this 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 lenticular window lights and the like and has for its
object to provide a new and improved window light of this description.
My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein
Figure 1 is a plan or face view of a window light embodying my invention:
Figure 2 is a section on line 2-2 Figure 1;
Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 1 with the projecting lens like parts placed
more closely together;
Figure 4 is a section on line 4-4 Figure 3;
Figure 5 is a view showing a modified construction;
Figure 6 is a section on line 6-6 Figure 5;
Figures 7, 8 and 9 are sections through modified constructions.
Like letters refer to like parts throughout the several figures.
The ordinary prism light, having prisms extending across one face thereof, is
commonly designed to receive the light from a constant or unvarying source and
direct it into a given apartment. One of the objects of my present invention
is to provide a device to receive the light and direct it into an apartment, said
device so constructed that the source of light may vary in position and most of the
rays of light still be successfully utilized in lighting the apartment.
Referring now to the drawing, Figure 1 shows a section or plate A of glass
or other transparent material provided with a series of projecting lenses B. These
lenses may be of any suitable construction and are preferably, at least in part,
surfaces of revolution. As shown in Figures 1 and 2, these lenses consist of
simple cones. In Figures 3 and 4, I have shown the lenses B placed closer
together so as to intersect each other at the base, thereby enabling me to use more
lenses in a given area than if they were positioned as shown in Figure 1. When
the lenses are made in the shape of cones, they may be cones having
straight line elements, as shown in Figures 1 and 2, or they may be surfaces of
double curvature having curved line elements, as shown in Figure 9. In
Figures 5 and 6, I have shown a series of what may be called mutilated lenses,
the upper part of the lenses being removed so as to form the inclined planes C.
The lower surfaces of these mutilated lenses are preferably surfaces of revolution.
In Figures 7 and 8, I have shown modified constructions embodying my inven-
It is of course evident that other constructions than those herein shown may be
used and I have not attempted to show all the forms of my device, but have con-
fined myself to a few constructions which I consider sufficient to make my inven-
tion clear. When my invention is used in connection with a moving source of
light, as for example when it is placed in a window exposed to the sun, the rays
tion.

page_text: of light from the sun are acted upon by the lenses in all the various positions
of the sun,
where such rays fall upon the window, and are directed into the
apartment so as to produce an increased illuminating effect. This same result
is produced even when the sky is clouded, for the reason that the part of the
sky in which the sun is located is lighter than the other parts and acts in the
same manner as the sun. By means of my construction, the dazzling effect pro-
duced by the ordinary prism light when the sunlight falls upon it is also obviated.
In prism lights, which are provided with prisms as distinguished from the pro-
jections, which I have here called lenses, it is found that the rays from the bright
or principal source of light to give effective service must be within a certain angle
of the principal plane of the prism, and by the principal plane of the prism I
mean the plane perpendicular to the axis of the prism. When prisms having the
average refracting angles are used, the rays of light which make an angle with
this principal plane greater than 45°, instead of passing through the prism plate
into the apartment, are reflected externally and hence are wholly lost. It will
thus be seen, that when the sun, for example, is acting upon the ordinary prism
plate, the prisms cease to give any very valuable result from the direct rays when
the sun has descended so that these rays make an angle with the principal plane
of the prism light greater than 45°. With the lenses as herein shown, the rays
from the sun or bright source of light will pass through the plate and be directed
into the apartment throughout the entire range of the sun or bright source of light,
and hence these rays may be successfully utilized during all the various positions
of the bright source of light, provided of course the rays strike the window con-
taining the lenses.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:-
1. As a new article of manufacture, a window light or the like, comprising
a substantially flat relatively thin body portion of transparent homogeneous
material provided on one side with a substantially flat surface and on the other
with a series of cone-like projecting lenses systematically arranged so as to pro-
duce an increased illuminating effect and placed so that their bases are in con-
tact with each other, thus to cover substantially all of such surface with such
cone-like projections.
2. As a new article of manufacture, a window light or the like, comprising a
substantially flat relatively thin body portion of transparent homogeneous
material provided on one side with a substantially flat surface and on the other
with a series of cone-like projecting lenses systematically arranged so as to pro-
duce an increased illuminating effect and placed so that their bases are in contact
with each other, thus to cover substantially all of such surface with such cone-
like projections, the upper side of each of said cones cut away, substantially as
shown and described.