Improvements in and relating to animated display devices

摘要

449,716. Moving signs. AIRD, H., 1326, Burrard Street, Vancouver, Canada. June 6, 1935, No. 16511. [Class 3 (i)] A display device shows the apparent lighting of a cigarette, its intermittent glowing during smoking, the gradual shortening of the cigarette, and light effects simulating spirals of smoke rising from both ends of the cigarette. The device is bounded bv a cabinet 1 the front of which comprises a translucent screen 6 having a transparent window 7 and bearing a painted representation of a face the lips of which are disposed at one end of the window. The cigarette 33 is carried by a frame 31 actuated by a rack 23 to reciprocate the cigarette. At the end of its outward movement a lamp 59 is lit and when it reaches this lamp a glow lamp 34 in the cigarette end is illuminated together with a lamp 60. The cigarette is then slowly withdrawn, a spring contact 40 moving over a rack switch 41 to give intermittent glow to the lamps 34 and 60. The effect of rising smoke is produced by the shadows of two wire spirals 49, 50 rotated between the lamp 60 and the screen 6. The spirals may be covered with fluffed cotton batting and a second shaded or coloured diffusing screen may be introduced between the wires 49, 50 and the screen 6 to improve the effect. The wire 50, representing smoke issuing from the mouth of the figure, is carried by a sheave 47 carried by a fixed standard 48, while the wire 49 is carried by a sheave 38 mounted on the cigarette-carrying frame to travel to and fro with the cigarette. The sheaves 38, 47 are rotated by an endless belt 45 passing also round a stationary sheave 44 on a motor driven shaft 12 and a sheave 46 carried by a spring- retracted arm to tension the belt. The rack 23 is moved toward the face 8 by a pinion 22 driven by a wheel 17 from the motor 15 through a clutch 20, and is returned rapidly outward by a spring 28 pulling a cord 27 wound round a pulley 25 connected to a pinion 26 gearing with the rack, when the clutch 20 is released. The release of the clutch 20 is effected by a ramp 51 bearing against a fork lever 21, and is held in this open position during outward movement of the cigarette by the attraction of an electromagnet 58 for an armature 57 carried by the lever 21. A switch 55 actuated by abutments 53, 54 on the frame 31 controls the magnet 58. The lamp 59 is momentarily lit by a contact switch 63 when the frame 31 reaches its outermost position, and the rapidity of the outward motion prevents the rack switch 41 from effectively lighting the lamp 34 during said movement.