Electric Newspapers in the Sky 



They flash information in flickering tidbits — 

 a fresh, dazzling morsel every ten seconds 



ANY evening now 

 in Chicago you 

 L can look sky- 

 ward and read, one 

 after another, flaming 

 messages to the gen- 

 eral public. Up on top 

 of some tall skyscraper 

 is the contrivance that 

 delivers these mes- 

 sages. It is a form of 

 electric sign, at a dis- 

 tance differing but lit- 

 tle from the ordinary 

 kind, except that the 

 messages it blazons 

 forth change with far 

 greater rapidity. In 

 the darkness the frame- 

 work of the sign is in- 

 visible ; the separate 

 letters seem to stand 

 out like so many stars 

 against the inky sky 

 behind. Inside a little 

 coop behind the sign 

 young men are punch- 

 ing small keys in an 

 immense keyboard — 

 setting up in electric 

 type messages that 

 come from various 

 parts of the city ; from 

 the war zones; in fact 

 from all over the world. 

 For this is the newest form 

 of newspaper — a newspaper 

 in the sky! It prints all 

 that the ordinary paper 

 does, excepting cartoons — 

 news, advertisements, catchy 

 sayings, sporting comment, 

 anything that is the life of 

 the ordinary penny sheet. 

 And its public is even as big! 

 Where old bulletin boards 

 could dole out limited bits 

 of information to a few 

 within range of thirty or 

 forty feet this new sign- 

 board flashes its intelligence 

 to thousands anywhere up 

 and down the long ranges of 



two intersecting 

 streets. 



To change the word- 

 ing of the sign men do 

 not shift the letters 

 bodily as in an ordi- 

 nary theater bulletin 

 board. The separate 

 letters forming a given 

 message simply go out, 

 and others, expressing 

 a new idea, light up in 

 their places. This is 

 possible because the 

 sign is divided off into 

 squares, called "letter- 

 blocks," each the size 

 of an ordinary letter, 

 and each having fifty- 

 three lamps scattered 

 over its surface in such 

 a way that by picking 

 out the right lamps in a 

 given instance any let- 

 ter in the alphabet may 

 be made to appear in 

 that space at will. When 

 the operators punch 

 keys in the keyboard 



One of the newspaper 

 electric signs overlook- 

 ing Longacre Square, 

 in New York city 



Keys^ 



Contact ba 



Remaining 

 lead 



Wiring diagram of 

 one of the letter- 

 blocks into which 

 the sign is divided 



104 



