US2177978A - Ornamental indicator - Google Patents

Description

Patented Oct. 31, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2 Claims.

This invention relates` to pins, brooches or other ornaments having provided on the face thereof an arrangement of letters to indicate the initials of a persons name, and particularly to devices of this class'provided with means for changing the initials at the will of the wearer.

The disadvantage of having more or less expensive ornaments provided with xed initials has long been recognized, particularly inasmuch as with a xed arrangement the ornament can only be worn by a person whose name contains the very initials on the ornament. Hence various methods have been conceived and employed for providing such ornaments with interchangeable 1etters,-some of these expedients often involving a certain degree of mechanical skill in disengaging old letters and replacing new ones, and also generally requiring the wearer to purchase, as the occasion warrents it, additional letters, or to keepa complete stock of letters available. Such devices also commonly require considerable caution in attaching the letters, in order to avoid an accidental detachment and loss of a poorly or loosely fitted letter. It is hence one of the objects of my invention to overcome these shortcomings by enabling an ornament of the class described to be readily and easily manipulated so as to visibly indicate any selected arrangement of initials, without any detaching or fastening operations.

It is also within the contemplation of my invention to provide an ornament of this class with a variable letter indicator of such construction as to render it simple to fabricate, easy to manipulate, and of such presentable appearance and utility as to make it readily salable.

Other objects, features and advantages will appear from the drawing and the description hereinafter given.

In the drawing,

Figure 1 is a front view of one form of this invention in the shape of a watch dial, containing a peripheral band of letters in accordance with a predetermined selection.

Figure 2 is `an enlarged fragmentary transverse section of Figure l taken along line 2--2.

Figure 3 is a front view of the face of a modied form of this invention, showing two complete sets of alphabets for the left and right hand sections of the device, and including three rotatably supported indicators.

Figure 4 isa front View of another form of invention wherein the movable elements are two rotary dials containing thereon the letters of the alphabet` adapted to be exposed through a window indicator,-a portion of the device being removed to show the construction thereof, and

Figure 5 is a section of Figure 4 taken along line 5-5.

In the drawing, and particularly referring y to Figures 1 and 2 thereof, the ornament I0,- which `may be a brooch or pin and which in the form shown has a pin attachment II thereon, contains a stationary ldial disc I2 the outer periphery of which contains a band I3 of letters of the alphabet chosenin accordance with a selected frequency cycle of initials of rst and last names. Although the drawing indicates a particular arrangement and selection o-f letters, it is to be understood that other letters and other arrangements thereof may be employed within the scope and intent of this invention.

' Rotatably mounted upon said dial I2 are two hands or indicators I4 and I5, one being preferably short and the other long so as to give the entire ornament the appearance of a watch. The short arm I4 contains a sleeve I6 rotatably mounted within the central aperture ofthe dial; and extending through said sleeve and in rotatable engagement therewith is the hollow shaft II `supporting the long hand I5. The inner terminaly of said shaft I l contains a flange I8 upon which are mounted the spring elements I9 for frictional and rotatable engagement with the boss 2B at the rear side of dial I2. Due to the resiliency of said spring elements, the said arm I5, which is in overlying and frictional engagement with the flange portion I8a of sleeve I 6, is urged towards the face of the dial, similarly forcing arm I4 in the same direction, whereby the detents 2| and 22 of the arms I4 and I5, respectively, are engageable with underlying recesses 23 in the outer or exposed face of the dial. Hence it is apparent that upon manual manipulation of said arms I4 and I5, they can be operatively set in any selected position with respect to any of the letters on peripheral band I3, and yieldably held against movement in such position until deliberately manipulated again. And it should further be observed that said detents 2l and 22 are equidistant from the center of the dial, and that the said recesses 23 are positioned about the circumference of a circle the radius of which is equal to the distance of each of said detents from the center of the dial. It will further be observed that the said recesses are each positioned on one of the radial lines 24 extending from the `center of the dial towards a corresponding letter on the said peripheral band I3. Although certain speciiic means are hereinabove described and shown in the drawing for bringing the arms I4 and I5 into frictional engagement with the face of the dial, it is understood that other conventional means may be fernployed therefor with equal effectiveness and Within the scope and intent of this invention.

In manipulating this device, it is apparent that all that is required is to move both of the arms I4 and I5 to such positions on the radial lines 24 as will bring them into indicating relation to any selected letters, thereby giving a visible indication of the initials of the wearer. Due to the yieldable engagement of said arms with the face of the dial, or more particularly due to the engagement of the detents 20 and 2| with the underlying recesses 23, said hands will be kept in their selected positions despite any movement that may be imparted to the ornament during walking or bodily movements of the wearer'.

It is important to note that the hands I4 and I5 of the device are substantially in one plane, and that, as shown in the drawing, they are abuttable, without in any way adversely affecting its operation. This arrangement is obviously less costly to fabricate than the conventional watch dial arrangement, wherein the hands or indicators must be in overlapping relation to render the device operably effective.

In selecting the letters shown in Figure 1, a certain frequency cycle has been employed, as aforesaid, wherein all the letters of the alphabet have been used, the letters G and E being repeated, said letters being so arranged as to eiect a substantial angular separation between the hands I4 and I5 when directed to the most frequent combinations of initials. For example, in the form illustrated, the said hands are approximately 45 apart between the following letters:

`AtoB,BtoM,MtoS,StoG,GtoC,CtoE,

EtoR,Dto T,TtoP,PtoH,HtoW,WtoF, FtoJ,JtoL,UtoX,ZtoI,XtoQ,ItoN, V to G, Y to E, G to K and E to O. Another way in which the angles between the said arms I4 and I5 have been determined has been to provide no less than two successive radial lines 24 between said hands, whereby, for the sets of letters hereinabove set forth, the terminals of the arms are separated a suicient distance to enable them to be separately visible.

In Figure 3 is shown a slight modification of the structure of Figure 1 wherein three indicators 25, 26 and 21 are rotatably mounted upon the dial 28 which also contains a peripheral band 29 containing two sets of letters of the alphabet, the left hand side of the dial containing one complete alphabet and the right hand side another complete alphabet. By the use of the three dials, it is obvious that three initials can be operatively indicated.

In the form shown in Figure 3 the arrangement is such that one indicator, such as 25, will always remain in the left hand section 30 of the dial, inasmuch as such arm can be employed exclusively to indicate the initial of the first name, and another indicator, such as 21, can always be positioned in the right hand section 3l of the dial, so that it can be exclusively employed to indicate the initial of the surname. By such an arrangement at least two of the arms 25 and 21 will always be angularly separated a substantial distance to enable them to be easily read. The other arm 26 can obviously point to any of the letters in either of the sections which will indicate a middle initial, the choice of either section 30 or section 3| depending upon which position would be most readable with respect to the other two indicators.

The sequence of letters in Figure 3 has also been chosen in accordance with a predetermined frequency cycle, so that the most frequently occurring initials of the first name when employed with the most frequently occurring initials of the surname will produce an angle of about between any of the two arms selec-ted to indicate such initials. The upper left horizontal portion 32 of that portion of the peripheral band within section 30 of the dial contains the letters A, C, M, E, B, G and L, and the vertical complementary portion 33 of the peripheral band on the right hand side (section 3l) of the dial contains the letters S, X, B, M, C, P and H; the upper vertical left hand portion 34 of the peripheral band contains the letters A, R, H, J, S, D and P, and the upper horizontal portion 35, on the right hand side of the dial, is complementary to portion 34 and contains the letters R, L, A, F, K, D and S; the lower vertical portion 36 on section 30 of the dial contains the letters T, F. N, V, O, I, W and K, and the lower horizontal portion 31 is complementary thereto and contains the letters N, T, E, J, O, V and I; and the lower horizontal left hand portion 38 contains the letters K, U, Z, X, Y and Q, and the lower vertical right hand portion 39 is complementary thereto and contains the letters G, Q, Y, Z, U, W and I. The arrangement of letters hereinabove referred to has been selected to enable the indicating arms such as 25 and 21 to form therebetween a relatively wide angle for most frequent combinations.

Although in the forms of dials or ornaments hereinabove referred to, the peripheral lettercontaining bands are shown to be of square configuration, it is to be understood that they may, within the scope and purport of this invention, be rectangular, oval or circular if desired.

In another form of this invention, the ornament 40 (see Figures 4 and 5) has rotatably mounted thereon the dials or discs 4I and 42, these being positioned behind the front wall 43 of the ornament. Said discs are provided with preferably substantially flat knobs 44 and 45, respectively, positioned over the said front wall 43 of the ornament so that they may be readily manually manipulated for rotatably actuating said discs. The discs also contain peripheral bands 4B and 41 of the letters of the alphabet, said discs being positioned substantially in the same plane and either in tangential relation or in close proximity. The wall 43 of the ornament contains in the central portion thereof the window indicator 48 having two apertures 49 and 50 therein adapted to expose to view any of the letters of said discs that are therebehind. Obviously the said apertures 49 and 50 are so dimensionally proportioned as to operatively expose only a single letter of each of the discs. It is apparent that the said front wall 43 can be covered with presentable ornamentation, designed in such manner as to either render said knobs 44 and 45 comparatively inconspicuous or to combine therewith to form a presentable design of selected configuration.

In the operation of this form of my invention, all that need be done is to rotatably manipulate the knobs 44 and 45 until the desired letters are exposed to view through the apertures 49 and 50, thereby indicating the initials of the wearer. It is alsor obvious that these initials can be changed at will depending upon the selection of the wearer. And it is also apparent that inasmuch as the entire surface of the face of wall 43 of the ornament can be attractively embellished, this device can serve as an attractive ornament with the initials of the wearer centrally positioned.

It is of course understood that the various embodiments above described and shown in the drawing are illustrative of my invention and not employed by way of limitation, inasmuch as numerous changes and modications may be made within the scope of the appended claims without departing from the spirit of this invention.

What I claim is:

1. An indicating device comprising a body having a rearwardly extending boss, a bore being formed through the body and the boss, the iront faces of said body being provided with lines eX- tending radially from the bore and characters at outer ends of the lines arranged in a predetermined sequence as a border surrounding the portion of the outer face bearing the lines with each line leading to a character, depressions being formed in a circular path concentric to the bore and each located intermediate the length of a line, pointers formed of sheet metal, a sleeve at the inner end of each pointer, one pointer having its inner end portion inwardly offset for parallel engagement with the outer face of the body and having its sleeve snugly received in the bore and rotatable therein, the other pointer having an outwardly offset concavo-convexed inner portion overlying the offset inner portion of the first pointer and having its sleeve rotatably mounted through the sleeve of the rst pointer and projecting rearwardly from the boss, a concave-convexed spring washer fitting about the protruding rear end of the inner sleeve with its marginal portions engaging said boss, and means at the end of the inner sleeve to hold the washer in place under tension, portions of the pointers being punched inwardly and forming detents for engaging in the depressions and holding the pointers in set position in cooperating relation to predetermined ones of said characters.

2. An indicating device comprising a body having a rearwardly extending boss, the iront face of said body being provided with characters arranged in a path about the bore, pointers formed of sheet material, a sleeve at the inner end of each pointer, one pointer having its inner end portion oiset inwardly for parallel engagement with the outer face of the body and having its sleeve snugly received in the bore and rotatable therein, the other pointer having an outwardly offset concavo-convexed inner portion overlying the inwardly oiiset inner portion of the rst pointer and having its sleeve rotatably mounted through the sleeve of the rst pointer and projecting rearwardly from the boss, a spring washer fitting about the protruding rear end of the inner sleeve with its marginal portions engaging said boss, and means at the rear end of the inner sleeve to hold the washer in place under tension and applying frictional binding between the pointers and the iront face of the body to hold the pointers in set position in pointing relation to predetermined ones of the said characters.

BERNARD DARVIEI.

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