Gravity flow display device
US4332096A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 1, 1981 |
| Grant date | Jun 1, 1982 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 1, 2001 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG09F19/02
- WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A gravity flow display device which is usable for selectively and alternatingly exhibiting two different but conceptually related displays. The device has two thin transparent walled half-hourglass compartments through which displays at their rears are visible. The device further contains non-transparent particulate matter which is capable of flowing from compartment to compartment in response to gravitational force and which is of a sufficient quantity to almost completely fill only whichever of said compartments contains it. When said non-transparent particulate matter is contained within one of the two transparent compartments, the display attached to said compartment is blocked from view. By alternatingly reversing the comparative position of the two compartments a user can cause the particulate matter to flow from the upper compartment to the lower compartment and thus block from view the display at the rear of said lower compartment while causing the display at the rear of said upper compartment to become visible through said latter compartment.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.