[1]Patented Aug. 6, 1940 2@2091958 UNITED STATES @PATE@NT OFFICE. 2,ZO9p958 B]ILLBOAP.D DISPLAY POSTING Stephen Chase, ]IV, Repilworth, !H. AppHeation January 23, 1939, Serial No. 252,339 5 Claims. (Cl. 40-125) This invention comprises improveme,nts in display installations of the kinds somet.,mes referred to as billboards, which are particularly adapted for the displaying of large posters or ad@@6 vertisements, usually outdoors. A general object of the present invention is the provision of improved structure, or means, whereby large display postings, such as outdoor bieboards, which quite generally are of dimen10 sions of the order of twenty-five feet by eleven feet, may be installed and maintained Nvith facility and very economically, and which make it possible to improve the general appearance of such installations quite materially and afford - @nereased ,15 possibilities or scope for variety and adaptability of the displays at costs which represerit substantial reductions from the expense normally involved in the installation and maintenance of billboard displays. 20 Another object of the present invention is the .provision of.novel means which may be employed very econoniically to adapt posting installations of fixed sizes to posters of various sizes in suel-i fashion as to produce artistic and well balanced 25 displays. Other and further objects of the invention will be pointed out or indicated hereinafter or will be apparent to one skilled in the art from the following explanation of tho invention or u on p 30 employment of it in use. For the purpose of aiding in an explanation of the invention, I show in the accompanying drawings forming a part of thi , s specifica-tion, and hereafter describe, certain forms and fashions 35 which @the invention may be embodied and practiced. It is to be understood, however, that these are'presented merely for purpose ofillustration, @and hence are not to be construed in any fashion for the purpose of limiting the appended claims 40 short, of the true and most comprehensive scope of the invention in the art. In said drawings: Fig. I represents a perspective view of a unitary and isolated installation, in the nature of a bill45 board, representing an embodiment according to the present invention; Mg. @ 2 is a detail representing a front or face view of portions of the instaUation which will hereinafter be referred to as margin strips; 50 Mg. 3 represents a detail or f@agmentary view, in the nature of a front perspective view of a part of one form of installation which is representative of the 'mvention; and Mg.,4 is a front view of a display installation in 55 -the course of assembly and serving to !Uustrate c ertain particulars of the construction and m ethod of fabrication constituting the present in vention. From the standpoints of both the merchandiser w ho desires to advertise his products in an at- 5 tr actiive and appealing fashion, and the space p roprietor -who provides and maintains the inst allations on which such advertisements are p osted"-and displayed, as well as from the st,andp oint of the public at large and the coinmunity 1 0 in which the displays are presented, it is a matter of very great importance that the installations 'i ae maintained in as orderly, neat and artistic c ondition and appearance as is possible. To that e nd, and for various practical pui:poses in con1 5 n ection with the posting or pasting-up of display p psters on billboards, it has become a qlite gene ral practice to provide such installations with p ermanent inargin mouldings, of wood or metal, a, rranged and painted to form a frame for the i m,prove the appearance of the installa@tion, they poster. While these frames are counted upon to .2 0 a ccomplish that object only at considerable exp ense due to the deterioration of the wooden or metal parts from the weather and due to their 25 disfigurement by paste, birds, or from various' other causes, all of which make it necessary that the moldings be repeiinted rathei frequently, and at considerable cost, in order that their proper a ppearance be maintained. s o The present invention obviates the nee6ssity for s uch a frame, and eliminates the cost of mainta ining it, and gains other important advantages fr om the st poin of appearances, versatility a nd convenience. 3 5 The nature of, my improved display installation a nd the method of making or assembling it will b e explained by reference to the accompanying d rawings. @ The installation includes, in the first pl ace, a suitable foundation affording a proper 4 0 s mooth surface upon which posters, such as the c ommon paper billboard posters, may.be j@asted. I n Fig. 3 this foundatiori is illustrated as a sheet m etal wall or diaphragm I 0 supported in ap@proximately flat condition, and usually upstand4 r, in g position, by appropriate frame members I 1. It @is to be understood, however, that the foundati on may be of any other appropriate character o r construction, siieh as a wall made of wood, masonry, etc. This foundation member conqti- @50 tutes a relatively permanent portion of the installotion, and is @the part which supports the display elements in position for observation. 'nie display elements comprise the margin -st@ips, which are designate.d in the various figures .65
[2]2 2,209,958 of the drawings by the reference numerals 12 and 12', and the poster, which is designated by the reference numeral 14, and which, in itself, may be made up of several sections, or various parts, movable or otherwise, according to the nature of the display. :Ihe margin strips 12 and 12' are sheets or strips of suitable poster paper or other similar material which are adapted to be attached or fastened to the foundatioii wall 10 I 0, as by adhesive paste or o@ther appropriate means. These margin strips are lithographed, or otherwise printed or decorated, along at least one margin so as to represent a border or frame, as in the nature of a moulding of embossed or 15 raised or cove form, said decorative border portions being designated in the various figures by the reference numeral 12a. The balance of the sheet or strip, between the border portion 12a and the opposite margin, is left blank, and con20 stitutes what I will refer to as a blanking portion. This blanking portion is designated by the reference numeral 12b. In a copending application, Serial No. 252,338, filed on even date herewith I -describe this blanking strip in more detail and 2r) explain the manner in which it may be made. Preferably, though not necessarily, these blanking strips are supplied in rolled-up condition in the nature of a roll of paper, with the printed or decorated K,,rface ,it the inner side. 30 Various steps in the assembly of the margin strips with the foundation wall are illustrated in Fig. 4. In accordance with the procedure here illmtrated, paste is applied to marginal surface portions of the foundation member of a width 35 corresponding approximately to the width of the margin strips, said areas here being illustrated generally by the stippling. of course, the foundation member may include one or more layers of paper or the hke' adhesively secured to @40 the wall portion I 0 and to one another, as the case may be, as parts of,previous postings, and it is to be understood tliat when such lays are present, they are to be regarded as parts of the foundation member witliin the meaning of 45 that term in the present specif! cation. After the marginal surface portions of the foundation member have thus been prepared with paste, .the margin strips are applied ther6to so as to becor@,ie adhesively secured in pbsition. The workman illustrated as applying a margin strip to the upper margin of the foundation member in Fig. 4 is accomplishing the operation in a manner which may be referred to as the "long handled method." In such procedure, the roll i2n 55 of margin strip is placed on a, spindle carried at the end of a pole P, and is manipulated by the workman in such fashi6a as to press the margin strip against the pasted area and unroll it along the ho'rizontal marginal portion of the founda60 tion member. The workman in the middle is represented as applying a margin strip along the lower margin of the foundation member by holding the r'oll in his hands and unrolling the strip against the pasted area. It is to be un65 derstood that thi@ sort of procedure also niight be used along the top margin of the installation, if a suitable scaffolding were provided for the workman to stand upon. The third workman shown in Fig. 4 is illus70 trated as applying an end margin strip to the foundation member. In tWs case, the strip is cut to the proper length, and then niitered or cut off at a 450 diagonal at its ends, and paste is applied to the end portions of the upper and 75 lower margin -strips -12 as weII--as to the intervening marginal portion of the foundation member. The workman is illustrated as raising the mitered margin strip on his brush so as to apply the mitered portion upon the pasted area, on the upper margin strip f2. This being done, and the end margin strip 12' pasted in place with its n3itered ends overlapping the ends of both the upper and lower margin strips 12, and another margin strip being similarly applied at the opposite end of the installation, by virtue of the 10 presence of the border portion 12a, the installation will have the appearance of a large quadrilateral frame bordering a new or fresh blank or mat area 12b running parallel with the frame, as illustrated in fragmentary fashion in Fig. 2. As 15 illustrated in that figure as well as in Figs. I aiid 3, the appearance or simulation of a frame will be heightened by the mitered appearance at the corners as indicated at 16. After the margin strips have thus been applied 20 to the foundation member, the poster 14 is pasted up, usually in sections. While in large outdoor billboards a size of approximately twenty-five feet by eleven feet is quite generally regaxded as standard, it is recognized that those dimensions 2, r) are merely approximations, inasmuch as various conditions of location, etc. require variations from that specii-ic size. Moreover, thc- posters, wwch as a rule are furnisi-ied by the advertiser, not by the @display space proprietors, vary con- 30 siderably in size. The margir. strips ar6 provided with the blanking areas 12b for the purpose of accommodating these variations in size and proportions of billboards and posters. Consequently, the blanking areas 12b are of substantial width 35 so tha'u they extend into the area which is intended to be covered by the poster. As a consequence, wheii a poster is pasted: up after the margin strips are in place, it will overlap portions of the blailking areas, as illustrated for example iii Flg. 3. By virtue of this provision, therefore, the posters ma-y be located in their properly balanced or symmetric position in the marginal frame or border in each of various installations which have foundation members of;.,_-, different areas or -dimensions. The completed instaeation, therefore, as illustrated in Fig. 1, exwbits the poster 14 encompassed by a blank mat area 12b and framed by a marginal frame 12a, giving the installation a neat, faiished and -.ou substantial appearance. Certain variations may be made in the procedure and thestructure, to meet different condi,@,tions, without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. For example, the invention is not limited to an instauation of strictly quadrilateral form, as it wfll be appreciated that it can be embodied likewise in structures wherein the display area is of triangular, hexagonal, or other geometric form. Moreover, in instances (;o where the poster is radically oversize in proportion to the display area of the fgundation member, the margin strips may be utilized in the fashion of a superimposed mat to blank off or reduce the size of the exhibited area of the posr @ 6;) ter. In such instances the poster may be posted up first, and then the margin strips, after the blanking areas have been trimmed down to the proper width, may be posted up alon.- the margins of the foundation member in such fashion i 70 that they overlap the outer surfaces of marginal portions of the poster. Also, the permanent portion of the installation may be supplemented in various fashions, as by provision of edging strips 17 along'...one -or @@76
[3]more of the margins of the foundation member or display area. I prefer to forin these edging strips of thin plates or sheets of, a metal which is noli-oxidizable or which oxidizes very slowly and without dark coloration. These strips are applied so as to overlap the margins of the foun-dation raember and project fornvardly a short distance beyor-d the front or posting surface of said member in position where they will overhang 10 or project slightly beyond the outer surface of the poster. Thus these edging strips function to prevent the wind getting in between the foundation mernber and the edges of the margin strips, and they also function as a water table, and as 15 marginal guides for facilitating the proper positioning of the marginal strips on the foundation member in the operation of posting thein up. These forwardly projecting edging strips may also emphasize or heighten the raised or cove 20 appearance of the frame, when the border area 12a is shaded to contribute an appearance of that character. In the illustrations, the thickness and also the projecting width of these edging strips are somewhat exaggerated. O@rdinarily, they 2j need be only thin sheet metal of a thickness of the order of one-sixteenth inch. From the foregoing it wiU be appreciated that my irnproved strueture and posting method attain important new and advantageous results, in So that in the first place they obviate all necessity for painting any display part of the instahation in order to keep it in proper sightly condition, and hence eliminate a very substantial item of maintenance expense. The expense involved in 35 pasting up the margin strips for a considerable number of postings on a given installation will be materially less than the cost of periodic painting of a frame for it. In the second place, with each posting of the installation, it is given a -4W completely new and fresh appearance, which in itself is a factor in attracting the attention of, persons who may be ac=tomed to. pass the location frequently. In the third place, the invention greatly increases the versatility or flexibility 4r, of the display, inasmuch as it enables the use, without additional expianse, of frames or borders of color or design harmonious with the design or subject matter of. the poster itself, and, as pointed out above, accommodates quite substantial variago tions in the size of both the billboards and the posters which may be furnished by the advertisers for posting upon them. MGreover, it makes pc)ssible the use of border or frame designs of distinctly artistic and ornamental character, 55 which, on account of excessive cost, it is not feasible to provide in the form of a permanent frame or mowding. I
