Lamp assembly for emitting a beam of light at an angle to its optical axis

Claim 1

A high mounted stop lamp assembly adapted to be mounted along the inside surface of an inclined rear window of a motor vehicle, said lamp assembly comprising: (a) a lamp body having an open front end; (b) a light source mounted within the lamp body for producing light; (c) a reflector provided inside of the lamp body with the configuration thereof being such that the light produced by the light source is reflected by the reflector as rays of light parallel to the optical axis of the lamp assembly; (d) a lens assembly covering the open end of the lamp body and extending generally along a plane perpendicular to the optical axis of the lamp assembly, said lens assembly including generally parallel inner and outer lenses; (e) said inner lens having a plurality of diverging lens elements for diverging the rays of light reflected by the reflector into sidewise directions with respect to the motor vehicle; (f) said outer lens directing said rays of light to the direction rearwards of the motor vehicle; (g) a plurality of spaced parallel, linearly and horizontally extending prism elements being integrally formed on the outer surface of said outer lens, each of said prism elements having a generally triangular cross-section with one side thereof acting as a light reflecting surface; and (g) a plurality of light converging elements integrally formed on the inner surface of said outer lens for converging said rays of light onto the reflecting surfaces of said prism elements.