UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE K. MALTBY, OF NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 767,474, dated August 16, 1904.

Be it known that I, GEORGE K. MALTBY, of Newton, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Means for Illuminating Show-Windows, of which the following is a specification.

In large dry-goods houses, as well as in other stores, it is customary to inclose a portion of the store at the window within which to make such display of goods for street inspection as seems desirable. This inclosure is virtually a small room with walls and ceiling to keep the goods displayed free from dust as far as possible, and it ordinarily receives all its natural light from the store-window on the street which forms its front.

Prismatic glass, so called, is now used to a considerable extent in the place of ordinary window-glass for the purpose of deflecting the rays of light, so that they shall pass horizontally or nearly horizontally toward the rear of large stores; but they cannot very well be used to illuminate the display-room of a store-window without interfering with the opportunity for examining the display from the street.

My invention is intended especially to cause the deflection of natural light through the ceiling of such display-room as is above described, preferably without allowing the entrance of dust thereto; and my invention consists, primarily, in a display-room provided with a transparent roof capable of deflecting the light downward onto the goods in the room, and preferably provided with means whereby the direction of the rays of light may be controlled according to the necessities of any given case.

I have shown my invention embodied in two forms, the preferred form showing means for causing the deflection of the rays so that the light may be thrown upon any given portion of the room, and the other form showing a chamber sealed with non-adjustable deflecting means.

In embodying my invention I prefer that the light which is to be deflected by the roof of the display-room shall have first been deflected from an approximately vertical direction to an approximately horizontal direction, this

primary deflection being caused by the use of prismatic glass in a portion of the window above the ceiling of the display-room, so by this means the rear of the store may also be illuminated, and I have shown a construction for this purpose in the drawings; but this is not absolutely necessary to bring about the desired result, although best results are obtained where such primary deflection exists.

My invention will be understood by reference to the drawings, in which—

Figure 1 is a vertical section of a display-room of ordinary construction. Fig. 2 is a horizontal sectional detail. Figs. 3, 4, and 5 show details to be referred to below, and Fig. 6 a modification in vertical section.

A is a base or flooring suitably supported, upon which is built the rear and side walls B of the display-room.

C is the front of the display-room, which consists of a pane of plate-glass set into a suitable frame of which the cross-bar c forms also the support for the upper sash of the window.

D is the upper sash of the window and consists, as shown, of a sheet of prismatic glass of any such construction as will receive rays of light coming to it from above and deflect them in a direction more nearly horizontal than that in which they are received. Such glass is now so well understood in the art that it need not be further described.

The roof of the display-room comprises, as shown, an opaque section B', upon the front edge of which are supported two vertical rods e, and upon the cross-bar c are also supported two vertical rods e', the rods e e' being suitably attached to the ceiling e² of the wareroom or to some other suitable support above.

F is a sheet of plate-glass supported at its rear upon a suitable frame-piece b, attached to the rear wall of the show-chamber, the front of said sheet of glass being supported by a hanger c' from the rear of the cross-bar c, this sheet of glass F forming the real ceiling to the show-room and being so supported as to make a substantially dust-proof ceiling thereto. Between each pair of rods e e' are mounted two rods G, carrying a series of mirrors H H', &c., adjustably connected thereto, the rods G being preferably supported at an