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583,580 · Pennycuick · "Device for Illuminating Basements and Dark Rooms" · Page 1 Home  > Prism Glass  > Patent Index  > Page 1

583,580: 1 of 4

Patents: 306 of 530	UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. JAMES G. PENNYCUICK, OF TORONTO, CANADA, ASSIGNOR TO LUXFER PRISM PATENTS COMPANY, OF WEST VIRGINIA.	James G. Pennycuick 6 of 12
DEVICE FOR ILLUMINATING BASEMENTS AND DARK ROOMS. SPECIFICATION forming part of Letter Patent No. 583,580, dated June 1, 1897. Application filed March 26, 1897. Serial No. 629,290. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:     Be it known that I, JAMES G. PENNYCUICK, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, residing at Toronto, in the county of York, Province of Ontario, and Dominion of Canada, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Devices for Illuminating Basements and Dark Rooms, of which the following is a specification.     My invention relates to improvements in devices for lighting basements and dark rooms.     Figure 1 is a view of a basement with a hinged or movable prism-plate and prism-tiles. Fig. 2 is a view of a basement with a fixed prism-plate and prism-tiles. Fig. 3 is a view of a basement and subbasement with prism-tiles and prism-plates, the basement prism-plate being pivoted to swing with the door. Fig. 4 is a view of a basement with prism-tiles varying in angular arrangement systematically.     The drawings are intended to give an illustration of the use of the invention with some of its modifications.     Like parts are indicated by the same letters in all the figures.     A is the basement; B, the subbasement; C, the vault; D, the prism-plate in the subbasement; E, the prism-plate of the basement; F, the prism-tiles associated with the prism-plate F; G, the prism-tiles associated with the prism-plate D. The prism-plates are composed of prism-lights (this being the trade-name) of the general nature of the prism-lights shown in my Patent No. 312,290, and by this means whatever light falls upon them is directed, as indicated in dotted lines, so as to be carried toward the rear and diffused throughout the basement or subbasement. The prism-lights and prism-plates obviously may be faced so as to act as either refractors or reflectors-- in other words, may be turned with either side inward. The prism-tiles must be located to receive the light and of such character as to throw the light onto to these prism-plates, and I therefore, in the case of basement and subbasement structures, prefer to divide the prism-tiles into two sections. One section I arrange with angles suitable to direct the light, preferably by reflection, upon the prism-plate E, and the other section I arrange

with angles less sharply inclined and adapted to throw the light onto the prism-plate P. The prism-tiles F and G are intended, preferably, to be substantially the prism-tiles or vault-lights of my Patent No. 568,789. The angular arrangement of the faces of the prisms on the prism-tiles and of the faces of the prisms on the prism-plates or prism-lights and the inclination of the prism-tiles and the inclination of the prism-plates may, of course, obviously be varied to suit the circumstances and the necessities of each case. The prism-plate E is shown in one case as hinged at H to swing outwardly at the bottom, and in Fig. 3 the prism-plate is shown as supported so as to swing like a door, and elsewhere in the figures the prism-plates are shown as fixed. In other words, such prism-plates may be movable or fixed, so as to accommodate the various conditions as they arise.     The results sought to be accomplished by this invention can be attained by the use of my said prism-tiles in a pavement and my said prism-lights in the prism-plates or "lucidux," as I have called the prism-plate which separates the vault from the basement, or separates the room, into which the light is first received, from that into which it is intended to be led, or which intervenes between the prism-tiles and the room to be lighted so as to be traversed by the light, and which leads the light from the device on to which it is first received or from the room into which it is first received to the apartment where it is intended to be utilized.     The ideal form of the device is obviously that which distributes tile light transmitted by the prism-tiles uniformly over the receiving-surface of the prism-plate, whence it is discharged or led in substantially parallel lines back through the prism-plate and into the basement or room to be lighted; but for all ordinary purposes such results can be substantially accomplished, as previously stated, by the use of my patented prism-tiles and prism-plates, and hence they sufficiently illustrate the general idea.     However, in Fig. 4 I have shown a different form of prism-tile for the pavement. In this case the prism tile or tiles have their angles