Illuminating device of the electric gaseous discharge type

Claim 1

An illuminating display device of the electric gaseous discharge type for permitting selective representation of a plurality of characters including letters from A to Z and arabic numerals from 0 to 9, comprising five elongated fluid-tight translucent gas filled tubes located in the same plane without one of the tubes crossing another tube, the first of said tubes being configured into the shape of a rectangle, with two of the sides of the rectangle being longer than the remaining two sides thereof, with a portion of said first tube being straight and extending from the center of one side of the rectangle to the center of the side opposite of said one side in a direction parallel to the two longest sides thereof, said portion of said first tube dividing the rectangle into a pair of sections, each section consisting of two quadrants, said first tube having two free ends, one end of said first tube being located near the center of said one side of the rectangle and the other end of said first tube being located near the center of the side opposite of said one side, an electrode being provided in each of said ends of said first tube and thus located near the center of said one and said opposite sides, additional electrodes being provided at each corner of said first tube, an electrode being provided centrally between each corner electrode, an electrode being provided centrally of said portion extending from the center of one side wall of the rectangle, and an electrode being provided at one juncture of said portion with a side wall, second and third elongated fluid-tight translucent gas filled tubes formed into a generally V-shape each having two ends, an electrode being provided at each end and at the apex of the Vshape of each of said second and third tubes, said second and third tubes each being positioned within a quadrant of one of the sections of the rectangle defined by the first tube, with one of the legs thereof extending from a point adjacent the center of one of the sides of said rectangle, the other leg of the V-shape extending to a point adjacent a corner of the rectangle defined by the first tube, and fourth and fifth generally straight elongated fluid-tight gas filled translucent tubes, an electrode being provided at each end of each of said fourth and fifth tubes, said fourth and fifth tubes being positioned within the remaining quadrants of the other of the sections of the rectangle defined by the first tube and extending diagonally from the center of the rectangle to the quadrant corner, said second and fourth tubes being located in one of the sections and said third and fifth tubes being located in the remaining section, all of said electrodes being located in projections extending in the same direction from said tubes, electrical means including a single step-up transformer provided for external electrical conNection to each of the electrodes, application of a sufficient voltage to a pair of adjacent electrodes being operable to cause illumination of the gases between said electrodes, a low resistance shunt circuit connected across each pair of electrodes, and normally opened switch means in each of said shunt circuits, closure of any of said switch means preventing illumination of the gases between said electrodes when a voltage is applied thereto normally sufficient to cause illumination, said first, second, third, fourth and fifth tubes being connected to form a series circuit capable of illumination to display either letters or numerals, said switch means comprising magnetic relay means and means for remotely actuating said magnetic relay means, and said transformer having a secondary winding which is connected to the electrodes at each end of the series circuit.