Information display apparatus

Claim 1

A miniature information display apparatus for selectively displaying and indicating quantitative information, comprising in combination: an elongated rectangular housing having opposed parallel major surfaces and opposite side and end portions, an elongated rectangular aperture centered within each of said major surfaces; a plurality of parallel guide members within said housing, each of said members being parallel with and adjacent to each of the longitudinal edges of said apertures, indicia impressed on the outside surface of said housing adjacent said apertures; a pair of rollers, means for rotatably mounting said rollers within said housing parallel to each other and the longitudinal axis of said housing; a pair of knurled control knobs, one of said knobs being affixed to one end of each of said rollers, and disposed adjacent each other along one end portion of said housing; an elongated sheet of flexible material having the ends thereof attached to said rollers, respectively, said sheet being disposed around each of said guide rollers so as to display an opposite portion of said sheet in a parallel arrangement through each of said apertures, said sheet having quantitative information impressed on both sides thereof which cooperates with the indicia on the housing, so that by rotating either of said knobs, the sheet is directed past both said apertures; a pair of transparent, convex, magnifying windows, disposed in said apertures, respectively, for magnifying the information impressed on said sheet; and a plurality of cylinders having a concentric central aperture, said cylinders being mounted on a shaft which is affixed to said housing adjacent the other of said end portions, the longitudinal axes of said shaft being disposed perpendicular to the longitudinal axes of said rollers, said cylinders including a knurled, outwardly extending concentric edge projecting out of said housing for rotating said cylinders, and a plurality of numerical characters imprinted seriatim along the periphery of said cylinders, said housing including a plurality of further apertures, each of which is disposed adjacent one of said cylinders so that the knurled edges of said cylinders extend through said further apertures and said numerical characters on said cylinders are viewable through said apertures, said cylinders providing an adjustable numerical record of the sum of selected numerical quantities printed on said sheet; whereby a running total of the quantative information selected by the control knobs can be maintained by adjuSting the visible numerical characters imprinted on the cylinders.