US2071239A - Sign plate and other ornamental panel - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 16, 1937. w. H. SPENCER ET AL 2,071,239

SIGN PLATE AND OTHER ORNAMENTAL PANEL '7 Filed March 15, 1955 INVENTORS WILLIAM 'H. SPENCER LESLIE R. BIRDS/ILL WILLIAM BAHLER Patented Feb. 16, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SIGN PLATE AND OTHER ORNAMENTAL PANEL Delaware Application March 15, 1935, Serial No. 11,222

7 Claims.

This invention relates more especially to signs constructed of plate glass or other suitable transparent or translucent material whereby novel light effects as well as contrasts in the characteristic appearance of a legend or design with respect to its background, may be produced in ornamental panels or signs.

The primary purpose of our invention is to provide plate glass signs of'improved construction and for this purpose, our invention contemplates more especially a refinement and extension of the method shown and described in U. S. Patent No. 1,525,107 which was granted in the name of W. H. Spencer under date of February 3, 1925, the purposeof the present invention being to form protruding lens-like bodies of translucent or transparent material which stand out in strong relief with respect to a background of contrasting character. According to the embodiment of our invention shown on the drawing, an excavating operation (preferably performed by sand blast) is utilized to form a design, letter or legend out of solid bodies of glass which protrude in bold relief from a roughened temporary surface left by the sand-blasting operation. For this purpose, a resist sheet is first applied to one surface of the panel and after portions of said resist sheet have been cut away around and exterior to portions of the smooth polished surface of the plate glass which are to form the top or forwardly-presented surfaces of the design, letter or legend, the sand blast is appliedto the outlying areas of the plate glass to form portions of relatively lesser thickness which correspond to background areas for the solid glass characters formed by other portions of relatively greater thickness or degree of relief. According to the above identified Spencer Patent No. 1,525,107, this step in theprocess was followed by an electroplating operation which covered the beveled side wall surfaces of the relief characters as well as the roughened background from which the characters protruded. In consequence, the luminous and illuminating effects in the beveled edges of the solid glass characters due to their inherent properties of reflection, refraction and diffusion of light, could not be utilized under the Spencer method which provided no means for establishing a clearly defined border between the flat plated areas and the beveled non-plated areas. 'By painstaking experiments and investigation, we have found that ornamental panels of the character referred to, canbe made highly distinctive in appearance by forming letters or other designs of lens-like bodies of glass which stand out in bold relief from a background of contrasting nonluminous character and in which the basal outlines of the luminous side walls of the lens-like bodies are sharply defined from said background.

In the drawing which illustrates an adaptation of our invention to a plate or block of colored flashed glass, successive stages of the process are represented by effects produced on a fragmentary portion of the plate glass as shown on a fragmentary transverse section on the line A-B of Figure 6.

Figure 1 is a fragmentary vertical section of the plate glass panel prior to the excavating operation, said panel being provided with a flashed layer of colored glass at the top.

Figure 2 is a view similar to Figure 1 after portions of the glass plate have been excavated by sand blast over predetermined areas of one face to form lens-like characters in relief with concave bevelled side walls of roughened glass.

Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2 showing a step in the process preliminary to the electroplating operation,

Figure 4 is a view similar to Figure 3 showing the partly finished sign in readiness for the electroplating operation.

Figure 5 is a view similar to Figure 4 of the completed sign plate.

Figure 6 is a face view of a portion of the completed sign plate.

According to the preferred embodiment of our invention shown on the drawing, a slab l of plate glass is covered by an applied sheet 2 of resist having an adhesive incorporated therein so that when the initial blast of sand strikes thereon, a protective layer of sand is formed for deflecting the sand blast from the resist during the continued action of the sand blast. Assuming that a plate glass sign having the appearance shown in Figure 6 of the drawing, is to be produced, portions of the resist sheet 2 are cut away around and exterior to portions of the plate glass surface which are to form the top smooth surfaces of the letters shown in Figure 6. The prepared slab is now ready for the sand-blast operation which is directed upon the slab in such a manner as to excavate portions 4, 4, of the plate glass slab extending around and exterior to the finished relief characters. As a. result of this sand-blasting operation, the plate glass slab is reduced to the form shown in Figure 2 of the drawing, in which protuberant bodies 5 of solid glass form-letters or other characters provided with bevelled concave side walls of roughened glass due to the etching operation. For the purpose of safeguarding the light-transmitting, light-reflecting and light-diffusing properties of the translucent side walls of the relief characters during subsequent operations on the plate glass slab, the bevelled side walls are temporarily covered by layers of suitable composition such, for example, as a gelatine and glue preparation which provides a protective covering for the ground glass surfaces and prevents access thereto of the conductive coating solution employed for depositing a layer 8 of graphite, metallic paint or silver etc. on the background areas in preparation for an electroplating operation. As shown in Figures 3 and 4 of the drawing, the protective layers 6 terminate outwardly at the bottom in alinement with a rectangular recess which sharply defines the basal outline of the letter from the depressed roughened background area upon which the conductive coating 8 is deposited. During the electroplating operation a layer 9 of metal becomes deposited on the conductive layer 8, as indicated in Figure 5 of the drawing. The finished plate glass sign comprises an electroplated panel provided with protuberant uncoated bodies of solid glass which form letters or other characters in bold relief. Moreover, these characters in relief are provided with smooth flat top surfaces consisting of residual portions of the original polished surface of the plate glass, and roughened beveled side walls, and by virtue of their inherent properties of reilection, refraction and diffusion, produce striking ornamental effects in contrast to the metallic or opaque background from which they stand out. Especially beautiful effects may be obtained by means of a slab of plate glass embodying a layer la of flashed glass of any desired color at the top. Not only is the finished sign plate produced by this method a thing of striking beauty but its construction is rendered permanent due to the durable qualities of the substantially fiat background consisting of an electroplated area on a roughened surface and the solid glass lenslike bodies protruding therefrom. By an inspection of Figure 5 of the drawing, it will be seen that the concave perimetral walls of the relief characters are curved continuously from the flat surfaces of said characters and outwardly and rearwardly therefrom into approximate parallelism with the common plane of said fiat surfaces, the forwardly extending marginal portions of the concavely bevelled roughened side walls being approximately normal to said common plane at the flat surfaces of the plate glass portions of relatively greater thickness. Furthermore, the basal outlines of the relief characters are sharply defined from the electroplated background by the shoulder I against which the metal plate of the background abuts. In consequence, with one or more sources of light arranged in the rear of a sign plate constructed as described above, and in relation to a given superficial area of the polished fiat surface of each letter, a relatively much enlarged light aperture is provided between the spaced edges of the plates 9, 9, throughwhich the light rays strike the roughened concavely bevelled walls from within at progressively different angles from the basal margins of the lens-like bodies of glass to the fiat surfaces at the top. Due to the provision of co-ncavely bevelled roughened side walls on a letter having a flat polished surface, a two-tone lighting effect is produced. Furthermore, the substantially continuous curvature of the bevelled side walls from a direction normal to the polished front surfaces of the characters at said front surfaces into parallelism with said surfaces at the base of said bevelled side walls, produces variations in the reflection, refraction and diffusion of light rays corresponding to the curvature of the side walls which are rendered progressively brighter from relatively small cross-sectional areas at the flat faces to much broadened cross-sectional areas framed within the opaque background.

We claim:

1. An ornamental panel constructed of lighttra-nsmitting material and having portions of relatively lesser uniform thickness and other portions of relatively greater uniform thickness provided with concave perimetral walls having their forwardly extending marginal portions approximately normal to the front surfaces of said portions of greater thickness, said walls being curved continuously and rearwardly into approximate parallelism with said front surfaces in a common plane spaced rearwardly from said front surfaces, and an opaque background covering said portions of lesser thickness and having its forwardlypresented surface disposed substantially in said I common plane.

2. A sign plate constructed of light-transmitting material and comprising portions of relatively greater and lesser uniform thickness, said portions of relatively greater uniform thickness forming characters in relief provided with concave side walls approximately normal to the front surfaces of said characters in relief at the forwardly-presented edges of said side walls, and having their rearwardly-presented edges extending outwardly into a common plane spaced rearwardly from said front surfaces and approximately parallel thereto, the forwardly-presented surface of said portions of lesser thickness being spaced rearwardly from said common plane and defined with respect to the outwardly-presented edges of said concave side walls by rectangular shoulders, and a layer of opaque material on the outer surface of said portions of lesser thickness and in abutment with said shoulders, said opaque material forming a background area extending outwardly from and on the same general level as the outwardly-presented edges of said concave side walls.

3. A light-transmitting sign plate having portions of relatively greater thickness presented forwardly from and surrounded by portions ofrelatively lesser thickness to form characters in relief, said characters in relief being enlarged in cross-sectional area from top to bottom and provided with light-diffusing side walls, and an opaque layer covering the general surface of the portions of relatively lesser thickness and terminating at the basal edges of said side walls to define enlarged light-apertures in the front surface of said portions of lesser thickness for light rays entering said relief characters from the rear surface of the sign plate.

4. A glass sign plate having portions presented forwardly from a roughened background area to form characters in relief, said characters in relief being provided with transparent top surfaces and side walls of exposed roughened glass beveled outwardly from and around said transparent top surfaces to provide said relief characters with enlarged cross-sectional areas at their bases, said roughened background area being electroplated around and between the bases of said characters in relief to define apertures for light entering said characters from the rear of said sign plate.

5. A glass sign plate comprising portions presented forwardly from a roughened opaque background portion of relatively lesser thickness to form characters in relief, said characters in relief being provided with color-flashed top layers and side walls of exposed roughened glass beveled outwardly and downwardly from around said color-flashed top layers toward said opaque background.

6. A glass sign plate comprising portions of relatively greater and lesser thickness, said portions of greater thickness being shaped and arranged to form characters in relief which are enlarged in cross-sectional area from top to bottom and defined from said portions of lesser thickness by abrupt shoulders, said characters in relief being provided with concavely beveled side walls of roughened glass, and an opaque layer covering the forwardly-presented surface of said portions of lesser thickness and defined from the basal edges of characters in relief by said abrupt shoul-- ders.

7. A sign plate constructed of light-transmit ting material and comprising portions of rela tively greater and lesser uniform thickness, the portions of relatively greater uniform thickness being provided with polished transparent top surfaces and roughened concavely beveled side walls approximately normal to said top surfaces at the top and approximately in parallelism therewith at the bottom to form characters in relief, the basal edges of said side walls being raised with respect to the general surface of said portions of lesser thickness and defined therefrom by abrupt shoulders, and a layer of metal applied to the general surface of said portions of lesser thickness, said layer of metal being provided with apertures conforming to said abrupt shoulders.

WILLIAM H. SPENCER. LESLIE R. BIRDSALL. WILLIAM BAHLER.

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