Lighted address sign

Claim 1

An address sign adapted to display a house address number or the like and to provide low intensity illumination in a localized area such as a house entrance, said sign comprising an elongated rectangular back plate being adapted to be mounted on a support member, a boxlike cover of rigid self-supporting translucent material having a rectangular front panel with a configuration the same as the back plate and being disposed in spaced parallel relationship with said back plate, said cover having a length greater than its width and comprising four side panels unitary with said front panel and extending perpendicular thereto with the edges of the side panels seated upon said back plate, a set of miniature incandescent lamps mounted on the back plate and disposed on the longitudinal center line thereof, the length of the cover being greater than the width by a factor approximately equal to the number of lamps in said set, a plurality of alphanumeric characters of opaque material disposed on one of said panels in spaced relation along the longitudinal center line, said lamps being spaced along the center line with the distance between adjacent lamps being about twice the distance from each lamp to the nearest side panel, the front panel being spaced further from the lamps than the side panels but less than the distance between adjacent lamps, said translucent material of said cover having a light transmission factor in the range of 0.28 to 0.32 whereby the front panel is illuminated with uniform intensity over the entire surface thereof to provide enhanced readability of the characters from a distance and whereby the side panels have a minimized front-to-back dimension and are illuminated with uniform intensity over the entire surface areas to provide low level ambient lighting; said back plate being provided with a first mounting flange at one end thereof and a second mounting flange at the other end thereof, the side panels of the cover at opposite ends thereof having first and second cover flanges unitary therewith in overlying relationship with the respective mounting flanges on said back plate and first fastener means extending through both of said first flanges, and second fastener means extending through both of said second flanges for securing said cover to said back plate and for securing said sign to said support member.