US832643A - Street and station indicator. - Google Patents

Description

PATENTED OCT. 9, 1906.

H. G. WALLACE'. STREET AND'STATTON INDICATOR.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 18, 1904.

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UNITED STATES PATENT oEEIcE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 9, 1906.

Application filed November 18, 1904. Serial No. 233,308.

To all whom, it may concern.-

Beit known that I, I-IowEs C. WALLACE, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Salt Lake City, in the county of Salt Lake and State of Utah, have invented a new and Improved Street and Station Indicator, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to devices for indicating the names of stations or streets in railwaycars, street-cars, and like vehicles; and the purpose of the invention is to provide a device of the character described by means of which an advertisement may be made to appear simultaneously with the display of the name of a station or a street.

Another purpose of the invention is to provide a very simple device capable of producing the above-mentioned results and one which will be reliable in action and under the perfect control of the operator and whereby the device will eectually operate to display the names of the proper streets and stations whether the vehicle be traveling toward one or toward the other terminal of the route.

The invention consists in the novel construction and combination of the several parts, as will be hereinafter fully set forth, and pointed out in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the igures.

Figure 1 is a front elevation, partly in section, of the device applied to the clearstory of a car, which latter appears in section. Fig. 2 is a vertical transverse section taken about centrally through the indicator, and Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the web, showing the arrangement ofthe station-names thereon.

A represents the clearstory of a car, B the body thereof, and B a door at the end of the car or a window at such point, above which the indicator is secured within the said clearstory A, as is illustrated in Fig. 1. The indicator consists of a casing D of any suitable form. Preferably, however, the casing is made rectangular, as illustrated. The said casing at the front is provided with three SYht-openings-namely, an upper opening 10, an intermediate one 11, and a lower one 12-the said sight-openings being one above the other and in parallelism, as is shown best in Fig. 1.

A roll-shutter 13 is provided for the upper sight-opening 10, which roll-shutter when not in use, as is shown in Fig. 2, is located between a guide 14 and the top of the casing D. A second roll-shutter 16 is provided for the lower sight-opening 12, and when this shutter is not in use it is located between a guide 18 and the bottom of the casing D. In the drawings the lower shutter 16 is shown closed, as in the operation of the device if one shutter is opened the other is closed. These shutters are usually operated byhand through the medium of a knob or handle 15, attached to their outer end portions and extending out through the opening.

The sight-opening 10 is provided with a transparent pane 10a, over which the shutter 13 passes when said shutter is closed, and the intermediate sight-opening 1 1 is provided with a transparent panel 11a, which is always uncovered. The sight-opening 12is provided with a transparent panel 12a, which is covered by the shutter 16 when the said shutter is closed, as is shown in the drawings.

A drum 19 is journaled in the casing D at the rear of the upper sight-opening 10, and a second drum 22 is mounted to revolve in the said casin at its lower portion and at the rear of the ower sight-opening 12. The trunnions of the upper drum 19 extend through the casing at its ends, and one trunnion is provided usually with a bevel-gear 20 and the other trunnion with a sprocket-wheel 21, as is shown in Fig. 1.

With reference to the lower drum 22, but one of its trunnions 23 extends out beyond the end of the casing D, and this trunnion is provided with a sprocket-wheel 24, located beneath the .sprocket-wheel 21 of the upper drum. A crossed belt 25 is passed over the two sprocket-wheels, as is illustrated also in Fig. 1. A curtain C is employed in connection with the two drums 19 and 22, the endsof the said curtain beinOr secured to the said drums, as is illustrated 1n Fig. 2. This curtain is of greater width than the length of the sight-openings, and the said curtain when passing from the upper drum 19 is carried over a guide-pulley 26 above and to the rear of the drum and then over a corresponding front guide-pulley 27 and from thence downward in front of the upper sight-opening 10 and the intermediate sight-opening 11. At the bottom of the intermediate sight-opening 11 the curtain is carried under and in engagement with a front guide-roller 28 and thence horizontally rearward over a second guideroller 29, forming a stretch of the curtain IOO IIO

above the said lower drum, and then the said curtain is carried vertically downward from the guide-roller 29, which may be termed an intermediate guide-roller, down to and.

' this guide-roller 32 the curtain is carried and secured to the said lower drum 22, thus providing a vertical forward stretch of the curtain at the rear of thelower sight-opening 12, as the guide-roller 31 is adjacent to the lower ed e of the said sight-opening 12 and the rol er 32 is adjacent to the upper edge of the same opening. y

The names of the stations are produced uponboth faces of the curtain; but the name of thev last point on the route is on one side of the curtain opposite the first name on the route which is at the other side of the curtain and upon what may be termed practically the front face of the curtain, advertisements of any description are produced immediately following the names of the stations, as no matter whether the curtain is moving from the drum 19 to the drum 22 or the reverse the advertisements are to be displayed at the intermediate sight-opening 11, while the names of the stations when the vehicle is traveling in one direction are read at the upper sight-opening 10, and when the car is traveling in the opposite direction, or toward the other end of the route, the names of the stations are read at the lower sight-opening 12, and by reason of the arrangement of the guideulleys 29, 30, 31, and 32 the reverse side o the curtain is presented to the lower sight-opening 12, while the opposite or front face of the curtain is presented to the intermediate sight-opening and the upper sightopening, as is shown in Fig. 2. Consequently when the car is traveling toward one end of the route the shutter of the lower the shutters is made.

The curtain or apron C is operated usually through the medium of a shaft 33, journaled in suitable bearings in the clearstory, and one end of the shaft is so located as to be within ""3 convenient reach of the conductor orother operator. At this end of the shaft a crankarm 35 is shown attached to facilitate the turning ofthe shaft in either one or the other direction to turn the drums 19 and 22 in cor- A responding directions, and this action is obtained usually by securing a bevel-gear 34 on the shaft 33 and causing it to mesh with the gear 20, carried by the upper drum 19. In

order that attention shall be drawn to the change of display at the sight-openings in the casing, a bell 36 is mounted on the casing, and this bell has a different tone from that usually employed in the working of a streetcar. This bell is shown operated through the medium of a connected crank-arm 37, to which one end of a bell-cord 38 is secured, said bell-cordv 38 being led to any convenient point in the car over suitable guide-pulleys 39.

The indicator shown in the drawings is intended to be used in a car where the seats face in the direction lthe car is traveling, and in such case it is obvious that there must be an indicator at each end of the car, because when the return trip is made the seats are turned over and face the other end of the car. One indicator is used in the down trip, for example, and the other upon the return trip, the first sign or name shown on the return trip being that of the last street or stop on the down trip. For instance, if the car is traveling on Washington avenue and One Hundredth street is the last stop, at which point the seats are turned and the return trip is commenced, the indicator in view will show 100th st. The next street will be 90th st, the next 89th st, and so on. When the starting-point is reached, the last street shown will be 1st st, for example. When the car starts upon its second trip and the seats are again turned, the indicator then faced and which was formerly operated will show 1st st., since the last street shown on that indicator was 100th st., and the shutter at that opening was closed and the shutter at the other opening was opened, opposite which latter opening the name 1st st. was left by the movement of the curtain. Thus it will be observed that the upper and lower openings will show 1st st. every alternate trip and that duplicate names on both sides of the curtains are necessary.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. In a station-indicator, a casing having two sight-openings for the display of the names of stations, and an interposed sightopening for the simultaneous display of an advertisement, independent shutters for closing either opening for displaying the names of stations, a curtain crossing all of the sightopenings, having names and advertising matter produced consecutively thereon, the name of one terminal of the route on the curtain being opposite the name ofthe other terminal of the route on the other side of the curtain, and guide and actuating devices for the curtain.

2. In a station-indicator, a casing having alining sight-openings therein, including an upper, a lower and an intermediate opening, roll-shutters for the upper and lower sightopenings, drums journaled in the casing, one

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back of the upper ysight-opening and the mechanism for moving both drums simultaother back of the lower sight-opening, a curneously in one orthe other direction. I tain having its ends attached to the drums In testimony whereoi` I have signed my and provided with display matter on both name to this specification in the presence of 5 Jfaces, which matter refads in oppositiel dirpctwo subscribing witnesses.

tions on the opposite aces, gui e-ro ers or the curtain, arranged to direct the curtain to HOWES C' WALLACE' the sight-openings in two display-stretches, Witnesses: *one stretch facing two sight-openings and the J. FRED. AOKER, 1o other stretch a single sight-opening and a JNO; M. RITTER.

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