Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/565

 Advertising By Motor-Truck

��Traveling curtains, like moving pictures, attract the attention of the passerby to the continuous story

THE very latest mode of advertising is a glass-sided and ended motor truck from which are flashed at ^ fifteen-second intervals the advertisements of ten well- known products. The fleet of trucks run over the most crowded of New York streets from noon to midnight, each carrying its advertising mes- sage to the thousands of pedestrians instead of mak- ing them travel to the signs. Not only this, but the truck advertisements are almost at the level of the pedes- trian's eyes. It is unneces- sary to twist your neck into a serpentine knot to gaze heaven- ward at the latest forms of sky signs.

The truck advertisements are painted on transparent curtains which are hung within the body and which show through the glass sides by day as well as by night, for after dark they are illuminated by means of banks, or trays, of lights. Each curtain appears first on one side, then at the rear end and finally on the other side, the change from one advertisement to another being made when the interior illumination is automatically shut off tem- porarily. The appearance and disappear-

����Worm gear and cam Diagram of the Mechanism

��The arrows indicate the direction of the curtains each of which ap- pears first on one side and then on the opposite side in rapid suc- cession. The curtains are actuated by an electric motor which drives a vertical shaft by means of a system of gearing. The stopping period of each curtain and the moving time when each is replaced by the one following after is governed by a special cam device

��Plan of the Advertising Motor-Truck Ten transparent curtains are arranged on guide rollers so that three are con- tinually in view, one on each of the two sides and one on the end. The , curtains are hung from a continuous steel cable which is made to travel over the grooved guides by means of a motor driven by current taken from a storage battery inside the truck body. The curtains are stopped auto- / matically so that each is even with the glass during the fifteen-second stopping period while the truck is in motion. The storage battery. furnishing the current for operating the curtain motor is continually. being recharged through a special charging generator driven off the refeular vehicle engine

ance of the curtains are intended to arouse the curiosity and incite the interest of the pedestrian or vehicle passenger as to the nature of the next one to appear.

The arrangement of the curtains is such that the advertisement which is shown on one side of the truck body is carried immediately to the back and later on to the other side, so that although the person on the street sees a constantly changing surface, the same pictures serve over and over again. The curtains are hung on a continuous steel cable which is made to travel over the grooved guides by means of .a motor driven by current taken from a storage bat- tery carried inside the truck body. This electric motor operates a vertical shaft by means of a system of gearing. The stop- ping period of each curtain and the moving time, when it is replaced by the one immediately following, depend upon the auto- matic action of a special cam device.

The storage battery which furnishes the current for the motor operating the curtain is continually recharged from a special charging generator driven off the regular vehicle engine.

At night especially the illum- inated truck attracts attention.

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