US2670431A - Mechanical lamp shade - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 23, 1954 J. c. BULLOCK MECHANICAL LAMP SHADE Fil ed Aug. 1 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet l r c flvenfor Joe 62 :2! BzzZZock Feb. 23, 1954 v c, BULLOCK 2,670,431

MECHANICAL LAMP SHADE I Filed Aug: 1, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 062902202" Joe cz? Bullock Patented Feb. 23, 1954 UNITED STATES FATENT" OFFICE Y 2,670,431 MECHANICAL LAMP SHADE Joe Cecil Bullock, Des Moines, Iowa Application August 1, 1951, Serial No. 239,680.

4 Claims. 1.

My invention is a lamp shade having manu ally adjustable shutters'orslats for forming the sides and top thereof. By adjusting the shutters to various angles from the horizontal to the vertical the amount of light waves or rays that are permitted to pass the shade laterally or upwardly may'be controlled.

or the lamps known to me, the only control one has over the amount of light rays that are permitted to pass the shade is by altering the intensity of the light inside the shade. The so called three-way bridge lamp is the most well known example. Some direction control can be gain'ed'with certain forms of lamps previousiy known such as the goosenecl: desk lamp which permits turning the shade to various positions thus directing the light rays in the desired direction". Such lamps have not been commonly used as' floor lamps, however, and are rather unrefined in appearance for use in the living room.

Other lamps have features permitting mild adjustments such as tilting the shade or the like togive: a minor degree of control over the amount of light that is guided in a given direction.

In View of the foregoing brief review of the prior art, therefore. it is'theprincipal object of my invention to provide a mechanical lamp shade that permits controlling the amount of light directed upwardly and laterally.

It is a further object of my invention to provide alamp shade that permits various amounts of light topass the shade in different directions.

Itis astill further object of my invention to provide a mechanical lamp shade that permits the amount of light that'passes the shade to be controlled without altering the basic position of the shade with respect to the lamp.

' It is another object of my invention to provides. mechanical lamp shade that changes in appearance as the amount of light permitted to pass the shade is altered.

It isafurther object of my invention to provide: alamp shade that permits the giving of a variety of amounts of light without altering the intensity of the light in the lamp on which my shade is used.

' 'It is'a further object'- of my invention to provide a lampshade that equips a lampto produce a variety of different lighting eifects without changing the intensity or position of the light givingelement in the lamp.

These' 'and' other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

My inventionconsists in the construction, arrangement; andcombination of the various parts 2 of the device, whereby the objects contemplated are attained as hereinafter more fully set forth, pointed out in my claims, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which: v

Fig. 1 is a perspective View of my shade with a fragmentary portion of a lamp showing below 3 the shade;

Fig. 2 is a top view of my shade; V

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken on the line 3 3 of Fig. l;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary cross-sec tion'al view of my lamp" shade with broken lines showing adjusted positions of the louvers taken on the line fi4 of Fig. 2. A fragmentary portion of a lamp is shown in dotted lines; and

Fig. 5 is an enlarged exploded perspective view of a single shutter element or slat and a frag ment of a shutter slat adjusting bar. 7

Referring to the drawings I have used the numeral H) to designate the top of the shade. There is a raised portion which I call a turret designated by the reference numeral I l and which I have shown as preferably formed integrally with top I0. I have also shown the turret as preferably round, but its shape is no more mate-' rial to the invention than is the integral fo'rma tion of the turret and the rest of the top. since a turret of any suitable shape could be made either integrally or separately with the balance of the top without departing from the spirit of my invention.

The top of turret H isprovided with a rectangular opening. l2 that is easily formed by making an I-shaped cut in the top of the turret leaving two rectangular pieces of the top secured at only one of their four sides and bending these two rectangular pieces down into" the turret to" form the supporting brackets l3 for the top slats or shutters, M.

The ends of the shutter strips are bent at right angles to the body portion [4 to form ends t5; Two bosses are fixed to one end of each shutter. One of these bosses designated IS on each slat serves as the pivot point for that end of the shutter. Supporting bracket it has ap=- propriately positioned holes, therein to receive bosses 16. The otherboss I! on each slat end engages with an appropriately positioned hole in top shutter control plate l'8. The plate is provided with a handle designated [9 to facilitate manual movement of the plate. The other ends of the shutters M' are pivoted in a sup"- porting. bracket identical to the one designated [3' and shown in Fig; 4. The. method of pivoting the other ends is identical to bosses ['6' and'holes in supporting bracket I3. It is not necessary to have dual control plates, however, and I have shown the device as having only one. Because the structure of the pivoting for both ends of the slats is the same, I have shown only the end that carries the control plate I8. In Fig. 4 the solid lines show the top shutters in a closed position when the control plate is moved to the position shown by the broken lines; the top slats are positioned as they are shown in the broken lines. The broken line position of the slats permits the maximum amount of light to pass through the shade in an upward direction while the solid line position substantially eliminates the possibility of light rays passing through the top of the shade. Between these two extreme positions there are an infinite number of other positions that permit various amounts of light to pass the shade upwardly. Circling the turret, I have shown a rib or depression formed in the top It which serves the dual purpose of adding rigidity to top It and also limiting lateral movement of the shade with respect to the lamp reflector bowl shown in dotted lines in Fig. 4 and designated by reference numeral 2!.

The outer edge of top It is bent down all the way around to form a top flange 22. To provide a frame work that will support the side shutters or slats 23, the tapered support brackets 24 are secured to top H! in any suitable manner such as spot welding ears 25 to the top. The ears 26 are similarly secured to the frame ring 21. The frame ring may be out from a single piece of material or from a series of straight sections held together by the tapered support brackets on the top and corner moulding 28 being similarly secured to the bottom side by ear 29. The corner moulding is secured to the top in any suitable manner here shown by having ear 30 spot welded as is most clearly shown in Fig. 1. This method of securing the frame ring and top H3 together at each corner makes a very light sturdy structure. The tapered support brackets are easily formed from sheet material by bending the wing portions 3i and 32 respectively outward from the center portion as can best be seen from viewing Figs. 3 and 4 together. The wings are bent to an angle that brings the wing 3| of one support bracket parallel to the wing 32 of the other support bracket as is clearly shown in Fig. 3. Thus the end portions 33 and 34 of side slats or shutters 23 fit between the wings and are rotatably supported thereon by the bosses 35 engaging appropriately arranged holes in the tapered support brackets. At one end of each group of side shutters is a shutter control bar designated 36. This bar has appropriately positioned holes therein such as the one 31 shown in Fig. 5, that are spaced vertically the same as those in the tapered shutter support 24. The bosses 33 engage the holes in bar 36.

The side shutters are opened and closed in the same manner as the top shutters with one slight difference. The top shutter is very light weight and moves in directions that do not tend to unsettle the shade on the lamp. The inverted ridge 20 engaging the lamp reflector bowl prevents lateral movement of the shade. Only a single handle is necessary for the top shutter. Since the side shutters are considerably larger and, therefore, heavier than the top shutter plus the fact that the side shutters use an up and down action to operate them; the control structure on the side shutters is different in the following respect. A ring 39'is provided on the 4 shutter control bar 36 and a second ring 40 is secured to the lower frame ring 21 in any appropriate manner as by welding or the like. To operate the side shutters it is only necessary to insert a finger in each of the rings 40 and 39 which permits the pushing or pulling of control bar 36 to be accomplished without upsetting the shade. As shown by the solid and broken line showings of shutters in Fig. 4, difierent positions of the shutters may be attained which range all the way from a closed position through a series of louvered positions to a maximum open position. Since each side panel or shutter is independently controlled, a wide range of possible lighting eifects may be achieved as for example by opening alternate shutters to different amounts the various sides of the shade may be made to appear to be alternately light and dark. All the shutters may be opened to give general illumination or closed on one side and open on the other to permit reading on one side of the lamp and shade a sleeping person in the same room on the other side of the lamp.

While I have shown and described a floor lamp or desk lamp shade, I could obviously use the same system for a ceiling light. As a matter of fact, the lamp shade here described could be adapted to use on a ceiling light very easily by merely inverting it. The controls would have to be adapted for such inverted use. With the lamp shade in an inverted position, a very interesting series of indirect lighting effects may be created. In the inverted position of the shade, the top shutter would then become a bottom spot shutter for throwing a direct light on a table or the like.

All of the bosses may be extra pieces that are added on to the vanes or shutter elements, but" the preferable means of making these bosses is to stamp them out of the side pieces of the vanes or shutter elements as is clearly shown in Fig. 5. Although the shutter element side pieces appear to be bent along a line that is at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the slats or shutter elements, as shown in Fig. 4, however, the top of the lower of two shutter elements fits into the bottom of the preceding shutter vane to provide a substantially light impervious fit when the shutters are closed. So that the vanes may operate as set out immediately above, the ends are bent so that the angle formed by the outer end of the vane portion exclusive of the end flaps and the top of each vane is a very mild obtuse angle. The tops of all the'vanes are just slightly smaller than the bottoms, therefore, which permits the vanes to iit together as described. This same form of vanes is used in the top so that they fit together as shown in Fig. 4 in solid lines.

The distance between facing wings of the tapered shutter supports is such that they exert slight frictional resistance on the vanes. For this reason, the vanes will stay in any position intermediate of their extreme positions. Any

position to which the vanes are adjusted, there-- fore, will be held until effort is exerted to change the adjustment. The same is true of the slat supports and the slats in the top. To insure free movement of the slats, the wings of the tapered supports and support brackets l3 are resilient. Their resiliency also permits the insertion and removal of the vanes by a combination of flexing the vanes and spreading the support elements. Since the supports will spring more in the center than near the secured ends, the vanes supported near the top and bottom of the side shutters and at the ends of the top shutter should be inserted before the center ones are positioned 1n the frame.

Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of my mechanical lamp shade, without departing'from the real spirit and purpose of my invention, and it is my intention to cover by my claims, any modified forms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents which may be reasonably included within their scope.

I claim:

1. In a lamp shade, a top having an opening therein, a plurality of shutter vanes pivotally secured in the opening of said top, a plurality of elements depending from said top, a lever pivotally secured to said shutter vanes, a ring member secured to the lower end of said depending elements, a plurality of shutter vanes movably mounted between each two adjacent ones of said depending elements, a plurality of bars each one movably secured to all of the shutter vanes between each two of said depending elements for controlling the shutter vanes mounted between any two depending elements independently from the shutter vanes between any of the other depending elements, said depending elements frictionally engaging the ends of said shutter vanes to yieldingly resist relative movement therebetween; a ring adapted to engage a finger secured to the lower end of each of said bars, and a second ring fixed to said ring member adjacent each of said bars, said second ring also adapted to engage a finger.

2. In a lamp shade, a top, a plurality of depending members secured to said top, a ring secured to the lower ends of all of said depending members; said depending members being wider at their bases than at their tops; said ring being larger in diameter than said top, a plurality of shutter vanes pivotally secured between each two depending members; said shutter vanes between any two depending members being of the same length, and means for pivotally moving said shutter vanes comprising a bar pivotally secured to each of said shutter vanes between any two depending members, a ring secured to the lower end of said bar, and a second ring secured to said ring member adjacent to said bar.

3. The lamp shade of claim 2 further characterized by having an opening in said top, a plurality of shutter vanes pivotally secured in said opening, and a lever pivotally secured to each of said top shutter vanes.

4. A lamp shade, a top having an opening, a plurality of shutter vanes pivotally secured in said opening, a lever pivotally secured to said shutter vanes, a plurality of depending members secured to said top, a ring secured to the lower ends of all of said depending members; said de pending members being wider at their bases than at their tops; said ring being larger in diameter than said top, a plurality of shutter vanes pivotally secured between each two depending members; said shutter vanes between any two depending members being of the same length, and means for pivotally moving said vanes.

JOE CECIL BULLOCK.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name I Date 938,031 White et a1 Oct. 26, 1909 1,427,042 Wetmore Aug. 22, 1922 1,536,623 Norvell May 5, 1925 1,801,010 Koenig Apr. 14, 1931 2,152,385 Mayer et a1 Mar. 28, 1939 2,192,791 Kendall Mar. 5, 1940 2,227,861 Petrone Jan. 7, 1941 2,437,825 Kohn Mar. 16, 1948 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 305,298 Germany Apr. 25, 1918

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