US1072152A - Means for the systematic control of electric circuits by light-rays. - Google Patents

Description

S. OGAMPO.

MEANS FOR THE SYSTEMATIC CONTROL OF ELECTRIC CIRCUITS BY LIGHT RAYS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 14, 1913.

1 ,072, 1 52, Patented Sept. 2, 1913.

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UNITED STATES IATENT OFFICE.

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spmmaon of mam Patent.

Patented Sept. 2, 1913.

Application filed flal'ch ll, 1813. Serial No. 754,178.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SIXTO OoAMrc a subipct of the Kingdom of Spain, residing at ew York city, in the county and vState of New York, 'have invented certain new and useful Im rovements in Means for the Systematic (lbntrol of Electric Circuits by Light-Rays, of which the following is a clear, full, and exact description.

The object of this invention is to control electric circuits, particularly circuits leading to electric lamps to cause various configurations or designs to ap ear upon a bank of lamps, such as are use for advertising purposes, for theater cab calls and the i like, so that any combination of lights desired may be caused bank in luminous contrast to the rest of the lamps by means of stencils orlight obscuring films, which may be assed between a light emitting source and a conto appear upon thef by an operator trol board of selenium units. This source pf light may be an ordinary lamp and lens, in I front of which various cut stencils or films i may be inserted to cut oil the light to certain units of selenium. The control board COD- sists of a great multitude of separate selenium piles, each pile controlling a lclrcuitf making switch, .each switch controlling at;

least one lamp on the lamp board.

The selenium piles have the property 1 colors and separate ofi becoming good conductors of electricity when under the influence of light thrown upon them, and poor conductors when the light is obscured. Consequentl if light is thrownupon the entire area 0 the control board, so as to render all the units of selenium fairly good conductors, all the switch ma has will be operated, and all the lamp circuits closed, causing the entire board to be illuminated, but if the ray of 1i t is obscured from any given unit or so! es of units, the resistance of those units will be increased to such an extent that the pull on the armature will not be great enough to overcome a tension spring, and hence the circuit to those lamps Whichare in connection with the particular magnet switch of the obscured unit or series of units will not be lighted so that an operator at the source of light by placing any type of stencil which will obscure rays of light which are thrown on the selenium piles can control by the shape of light obscuring stencil the resistance of the units, and hence the number of lights and the position of lights will be will be possible to pro'ect on the solemum .pile transmitter rays o .light from an ordinary rojecting machine, and moving picture film, so that the l' ht as it is obscured by the dark portions 0 the film will create its impression upon certain selenium iles to cause them to operate or not acco ing to the degree oft obscuration of the light. While I have shown a lamp board having only one color of lamp, and a selenium ile having one unit section for each indivi ual lamp, and a single film so that block or outline in black and white contrast can be produced on the board, nevertheless I do notv wish to lim t m invention to such sim 1e form of device, or it will be obvious t at the color of the lights may be chan ed, and different piles caused to control ifi'erent lms or stencils used for selecting color, or a combination of colors desired to be reproduced. p In the accompanying drawings, I have in a general diagrammatic way illustrated e. accom anymg invention suiliciently so that one s illed in the art and possessed of the knowledge of the phenomena attending the use of the selenium will be able to pram tise the invention.

The scope of my invention will be pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 i is an illustrative view of a selenium transmitter switch, and lamp board. It will be understood that I have shown but a few of these units when in reality there would be many thousands of them. Fig. 2 shows an enlarged face view of a single selenium pile drawn to a greatly enlarged scale. Fig. 3 is a section in line 3-3 Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a dia am showing five selenium cells or piles 1n circuit with the electric switches and the lamps. Fig. 5 is a diagrammatic view of a projecting machine and film, and a side elevation of the selenium transmitter.

In the accompanying drawings, 1 represents a projecting machine; 2 the projecting film or stencil; 3 the seleniumtransmitter which is divided up into many hundreds or thousands of square selenium 'cells or piles. There are shown only fifty-six in the drawing, but it is understood that this is merely diagrammatic.

4, is the lamp board having a multitude of lamps, such as incandescent electric lamps 5 thereon, at least one for each selenium cell. Each cell 6 is formed of the overlapping plates 7 and 8, alternate plates being connected to conductor boards 9 and 10, and between the boards and the plates 'the selenium 11 is interposed in the ordinary manner known to the art. The conductor rods9 and 10 are connected by wires 11 and 12, with a source of current 13, and a magnet 14 adjacent to an armature 15, which is normally held away from the magnet by a spring 16, and tension screw 17, so that a predetermined amount of current must pass through the magnet 14 before the armature is attracted to permit its contact locks 18 contacting with contact points 19 and 20, each connected with a wire 21 and 22. The wire22 leads to a lamp 5 from which a wire 23 leads to a source of lighting supply, while the wire 21 leads to the other source of electric light current supply.

As explained in the fore part of this specificatlon, the adjusting screw 17 will be so regulated that the spring 16 will normally prevent the operation of the armature, which will be prevented until li ht is thrown upon the selenium unit, which i ht will reduce its resistance, and cause su cient current to flow through the magnet 14 to overcome the spring and make the contact to supply current to that lamp which is controlled by the particular selenium unit.

In carrying out this invention, details of construction may be varied from those shown, and yet the essence of the invention be retained; some parts might be employed without others, and new features thereof might be combined with elements old in the art in diverse ways, although the herein described type is ,regarded as embodying substantial im rovements over such modifications.

s many changs could be made in the above construction, and many apparently widely different embodiments of the invention could be made without departing from the,scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted in an illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is furthermore desired to be understood that the language used in the following claims is intended to cover all the generic and specific features of the invention herein described, and all statements of the scope of the invention which as a matter of language might be said to fall therebetween.

I claim as my invention:

1. The herein described apparatus for reproducing figures'from a stencil equivalent, consisting o a source of light, the stencil eguivalent, the board containing a multitude 0 units, the resistance of which is effected by the throwing of light thereon, electrical. connections from said units, and a board having a multitude of lights thereon, at least one light for each unit.

2. The herein described apparatus for reproducing figures from a stencil equivalent, consisting o a source of light, the stencil equivalent, the board containing a multitude of units, the resistance of which is effected by the throwing of light thereon, electrical connections from said units, and a board dred and thirteen.

SIXTO OOAMPO. Witnesses:

ROBERT RICHTER, F. WARREN WRIGHT.

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