US2448302A - Toy highway traffic signal light - Google Patents

Description

Aug. 31, 1948. EYERKUSS TOY HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SIGNAL LIGHT 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 21, 1947 INVEN TOR.

Y M t q 7A1TORNEY.

Aug. 31, 1948.

L. EYERKUSS TOY HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SIGNAL LIGHT 2 Sheets-:Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 21, 1947 ATi'o RN EY.

merits Patented Aug. 31, 1948 2443362 a s Toy iIrGHWA-i TRAFFIC EISIGNAL men's LeslieL. l l yerkuss,.Bel leui llegN. Jt I Application February 21, 1947; SerialNi i. 73mm? 1: The invention relates partieularly' to highway fifaflic'signa'l lights for my electric-railroads.

In such to s'ignal lights, the hou'sing" for the signal lamps is so small that diflicult'y ha's been experienced inserting's-uch lamps intheir socke'ts: and im removingsame when necessary; Difficul'tyhas also b'een experiencedinrnouriting and pc'sitioningthe colored elements, such as strips of transparencies, to provide the differently colb'red windows A prime objectof the present invention is to demonstrate to a child the modern arrangement or traiflle control at crossing; points on the highway or railroad by means of differently colored light signals in s'uch a; mannerthat the child can control the traflic at will. Y

Another object is to facilitatethe installation and removal of'the lamps.

' A- further objectis to provide improved means for mounting and positioning the colored ele- I for providing the differently colored windows.

Yet another object is to provide novel means for partitioning the lamp housing into separate compartments for receiving the lamps.

Still another object is to provide a signal light of this character that is simple in construction, inexpensive to manufacture and new eflicient 1121.158;

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description thereof to mnow taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a side elevational view of a signal lightembodying my invention, part's'bein'g shown in SCtiGIlL I Figure 2 is an emarged vertical sectional view of the housing forthe lamps.

Figure 3' is a similar view taken on aplane at right angles to the plane of Figure 2.

Figure 4 is an enlarged cross sectional view takenon the plane of the line 4'4 of Figure 1.

Figure 5 is a fragmentary side view' of the lamp housing, with parts omitted" and parts shown detacked;

75 Claims (Cl-r1779329) Figure 6 is a perspective view of a partition Figure 11 is an edge View thereof.

Figure- 12- is a diagrammatic view showi lamp circuits. I

Referring to the drawings," a sectional: tubular metal post I is-s'upported on an insulating base 2-; Near the top, t'he post is providediwith1a latera'l'ly extending metal arm 3. A Wine 511%? one end secured to the top of the post by: meansof a rivet 5 and its other end secured tothe outer end of the arm, v

The lamp housing Giis suspended: from the outer end of the armb'y'meansof a ring'l'. This housing is formed of sheet-metal having a front Wall 8, side walls 9 and: arear wall: Hi: and: is square in cross-section. The front wall; 8 at its top and bottom ends xtend's 'rearwa'rdl'y totprovide top; and bottomwalls I211 and mg res'pective- 1'3}; The front and side walls; are formedf with aligned spaced Windows 113;, and; the side edges of said wens are suitably secured together b n-solder:- ing or't'he' like:

The rear wall It]? isvremovable andi is formed with an. inwardly: extending" ma'rginall flange I94, which flange frictib'nally: fits; over the inner free edges of the'f'ront and side'wal'ls; Spaced'o'p'er'rings' I 5 are formed in the rea'rwallin alignment withv the windowsin' the front and side walls;

The interior-oithe housing is divided by partrtion walls l 6l'into'lan upper compartment I'l-,' a lower compartment mi and. an intermediate comipartment. I19; Each partition'wall consists of a plate with a. flange 2 0; alongone edge thereof which is positioned behind and interlocked" with an instruck portion 211 forme'don therear wall MI.

The windows: i3 inthe front andside walls are covered by strips 22' of transparent material such as Lumarith'. Ea'ch: stripis substantially the-length ofthe housingand iszsuitabl y colored indifferent colors; such as red at one end as' .indi cated at 23, greemattheother end as indicated ati24land'yellow'or amber in between as indicated at 25". Thesestrips are positioned-'- on th inner surfaces of the front and side walls acrossthe windows and are'securedthereinby clampin same between the free edges or the partition walls I 6 and the inner surfaces of the fron't' an'd side Walls. The strips are so arranged thatin the side windows: of the upper and lower coinpartments the colors are the same, witha different color in the front windows of saiii'coni'partmerits, but thewcolors are displaced in the lower compartment as compared with the upper one. For example, by referenceto" Figures 1 and 9, it will be seengthatthe two opposi e side windows in the'upper' compartment red and thefront ng the window green. The two opposite side windows in the lower compartment are green and the front window red. The windows in the intermediate compartment are yellow, indicating caution.

A hood or shield member 25 is provided above each window |3 in the front and side walls. The hood member comprises an upper wall 2'! and integral side walls 28. The inner edge of the upper wall is bent upwardly to form a flange 29 and the lower inner edge of each side wall 28 is formed with a protuberance 30. The hood member is mounted on the outside of the wall with its flange 21 fitted behind and in interlocking relation with an out-struck portion 3| formed on the wall just above the window, and with its protuberances 3|] inserted in holes 32 in the wall below the window.

Miniature lamp sockets 33 are mounted in the openings l5 in the rear wall l and extend rearwardly of the wall. The sockets threadedly receive lamps 34 which extend forwardly of the wall into the compartments of the housing. The lamps are energized through a step-down transformer 35, the primary of which is connected to an ordinary household lighting system. A suitable change over switch is positioned remotely from the signal light for switching over the lights from one direction of control to the other. The switch comprises an insulating base 36 having a terminal 31 and three spaced stationary contacts 38, 39 and 40, and a movable contact 4| adapted to be moved into contact with either of said contacts 38, 39 or 40 by a knob 42. Conductors 43, 44 and 45 connect the stationary contacts 38, 39 and 40, respectively, with binding posts 45, 4'! and 48, respectively, on the insulating base 2. Leads 49, 50 and passing upwardly through the post and out through an eyeletted Opening 52 in said post connect the insulated central terminals 53 of the lamps 34 in the upper compartment l1, intermediate compartment l9 and lower compartment l8, respectively, with the binding posts 46, 41 and 48, respectively. It will be understood that the threaded shells of the sockets 33 are connected to the metal rear wall ID of the housing and grounded, thus grounding the other terminals of the lamps. Current is supplied to one end of the movable switch contact 4| from the transformer through a lead 54 which is provided with a plug 55, and said current is conducted by said movable switch contact 4| to either of the stationary contacts 38, 39 or according to the position of the movable contact.

In using the signal light, the housing 6 is positioned alongside the track of the toy railroad with its arm 3 over the railroad crossing or intersection of highways so that when danger is indicated for one track or highway clear is indicated for the other track or highway.

Referring to Figure 1, the movable switch contact 4| is shown in contact with the center stationary contact 39, closing the circuit through the lamp in the intermediate compartment H! for indicating caution in both directions. The current passes through conductors 44 and to the cen-- tral terminal 53 of the lamp 34 in said compartment, and through said lamp to the shell of socket 33 which is grounded.

When the movable switch contact 4| is moved by the knob 42 to the. stationary contact 40 at the right of the switch base 36, current passes through conductors 45 and 49 to the central terminal 53 of the lamp in the upper compartment l1 and through its socket causing the red win.

dows along the track or highway facing the sides of the housing, and the green window along the track or highway facing the front of the housing to light up; and vice versa when the movable switch contact 4| is moved into engagement with the stationary contact 38 at the left of the switch base 36, current passes through conductors 43 and 5| to the central terminal 53 of the lamp in the lower compartment l8 and through its socket causing the green windows along the track or highway facing the sides of the housing and the red windows along the track or highway facing the front of the housing to light up.

In assembling the housing, the shields 26 are easily inserted into position adjacent the windows. When the side and front walls are suitably secured together the strips 22 of colored material may be readily inserted in place against the inner surfaces of such walls. The partition walls I6 and lamps 34 form a unit with the rear wall I0 and this unit can easily be mounted on the housing by inserting the'partition walls and lamps from the rear and sliding the marginal flange M of the rear wall over the rear edges of the front and side walls whereby the free edges of the partition walls will clamp'the colored strips 22 against the front and side walls. .Whenever necessary to give attention to the lamps or colored strips, the rear wall II] can readily be removed by forcing the marginal flange |4 off of its seat whereby the wall and the lamps and partitions carried thereby will be accessible.

The improved signal light is simple and inexpensive to manufacture and operate and may be used with all types of electrically operated toy railroads.

What I claim is:

1. In a trafiic signal for toy electric railroads, a lamp housing having fixed front and side Walls and a removable rear wall, windows in said front and side walls, lamp sockets carried by said rear Wall, transverse plates carried by said rear wall for partitioning the housing into compart- .ments, and colored transparent strips extending across said windows and clamped between the edges of said transverse plates and the inner surfaces of said front and side walls.

2. A toy electrical signal comprising a housing having a plurality of compartments each having an opening therein, and a strip of transparent material overlying all of said openings and. having a differently colored portion for each opening.

3. A toy electrical tramc signal including a lamp housing having fixed front and two oppositely disposed side walls and a rear wall, transverse plates carried by said rear wall for partitioning the housing into compartments, each compartment having a window in each of its front and side walls, an electric lamp in each of said compartments, a colored transparent strip for each of said walls extending across all of said openings therein, the strip for each side wall having green, yellow and red portions for the openings in said wall respectively in opposed relation to the green, yellow and red portions respectively of the strip for the opposite wall, and the strip for the openings in said front wall hav ing red, yellow and green portions corresponding respectively to said green, yellow and red portions of said strip for the side walls.

4. The toy electrical traffic signal as defined in claim 3, wherein said rear wall is removable and has fixedly mounted thereon a lamp socket r h of sa d electric lamps.

5. The toy electrical traflic signal as defined in claim 3, wherein said transparent strips are clamped and held in position between the edges of said partitions and the inner surfaces of the corresponding walls of the housing.

6. A toy electrical signal comprising a compartment having front, rear and oppositely disposed side walls, said side walls having colored transparencies of the same color and said front the front walls of the upper and lower compartments being of colors difierent from each other and from the colors of the side wall transparencies of the corresponding compartments, and all of the transparencies of the intermediate compartment being the same color but different from the colors of the transparencies of the other compartments, and an electric lamp in each compartment.

LESLIE L. EYERKUSS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,552,816 Bledsoe Sept. 8, 1925 1,711,480 Halvorson Apr. 1929 2,190,035 Loungway Feb. 13, 1940

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