Advertising By Motor-Truck 



Traveling curtains, like moving 

 pictures, attract the attention of 

 the passerby to the continuous story 



THE very latest mode of 

 advertising is a glass-sided 

 and ended motor truck 

 from which are flashed at ^ 

 fifteen-second intervals the 

 advertisements of ten well- 

 known products. The fleet 

 of trucks run over the most 

 crowded of New York streets 

 from noon to midnight, each 

 carrying its advertising mes- 

 sage to the thousands of 

 pedestrians instead of mak- 

 ing them travel to the signs. 

 Not only this, but the truck 

 advertisements are almost 

 at the level of the pedes- 

 trian's eyes. It is unneces- 

 sary to twist your neck 

 into a serpentine knot to gaze heaven- 

 ward at the latest forms of sky signs. 



The truck advertisements are painted 

 on transparent curtains which are hung 

 within the body and which show through 

 the glass sides by day as well as by night, 

 for after dark they are illuminated by 

 means of banks, or trays, of lights. Each 

 curtain appears first on one side, then 

 at the rear end and finally on the other 

 side, the change from one advertisement 

 to another being made when the interior 

 illumination is automatically shut off tem- 

 porarily. The appearance and disappear- 



Worm gear and cam 

 Diagram of the Mechanism 



The arrows indicate the direction of the curtains each of which ap- 

 pears first on one side and then on the opposite side in rapid suc- 

 cession. The curtains are actuated by an electric motor which drives 

 a vertical shaft by means of a system of gearing. The stopping 

 period of each curtain and the moving time when each is replaced 

 by the one following after is governed by a special cam device 



Plan of the Advertising Motor-Truck 

 Ten transparent curtains are arranged on guide rollers so that three are con- 

 tinually in view, one on each of the two sides and one on the end. The , 

 curtains are hung from a continuous steel cable which is made to travel over 

 the grooved guides by means of a motor driven by current taken from a 

 storage battery inside the truck body. The curtains are stopped auto- / 

 matically so that each is even with the glass during the fifteen-second stopping 

 period while the truck is in motion. The storage battery . furnishing the 

 current for operating the curtain motor is continually . being recharged 

 through a special charging generator driven off the refeular vehicle engine 



ance of the curtains are intended to arouse 

 the curiosity and incite the interest of the 

 pedestrian or vehicle passenger as to the 

 nature of the next one to appear. 



The arrangement of the curtains is 

 such that the advertisement which is 

 shown on one side of the truck body is 

 carried immediately to the back and later 

 on to the other side, so that although 

 the person on the street sees a constantly 

 changing surface, the same pictures serve 

 over and over again. The curtains are 

 hung on a continuous steel cable which 

 is made to travel over the grooved guides 

 by means of .a motor driven by 

 current taken from a storage bat- 

 tery carried inside the truck body. 

 This electric motor operates a 

 vertical shaft by means of a 

 system of gearing. The stop- 

 ping period of each curtain and 

 the moving time, when it is 

 replaced by the one immediately 

 following, depend upon the auto- 

 matic action of a special cam 

 device. 



The storage battery which 

 furnishes the current for the 

 motor operating the curtain is 

 continually recharged from a 

 special charging generator driven 

 off the regular vehicle engine. 



At night especially the illum- 

 inated truck attracts attention. 



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