Show Enough Power lo to o Run Denver DelIver Used U sed by Broad vay Flashers y P M r r rv S tits y yx yA r x A tf 9 1 r r t w tr NEW YORK Ii If If the Broadway of 15 years ago was a Great White WhiteWay WhiteWay WhiteWay Way it seems dim by comparison with the sea of twinkling dancing lights that th t greet a spectator today loday toda In the 27 blocks between Times square and Columbus circle are arc Incandescent t lamps lamp's and 22 miles mUes of neon tubing all used for adver adver- advertising advertising advertising displays When all these signs are flashing blinking and spinning at once they use energy at the rate rale of wats vats an hour enough power to light a city the size of Denver The first major electrical display was erected in 1892 on New Yorks York's Flatiron Fla Uron building and signs were much the same until 1912 when Frank C. C Reilly of Chicago con- con constructed constructed constructed a running sign which told a constantly changing story in letters which moved across the lamp field This device worked much like a player piano Later the tho system was wa improved by placing placing electrical electrical elements clements In the individual letters Neon tubing was one given ven s one of its first commercial December 1925 when it lettered the words f I I l I Ben Hur above Times a square theater Today an estimated 60 CO per percent percent percent cent of all New York electrical ad ad- advertisements advertisements advertisements arc are neon many of them combining neon with bulbs Meanwhile a new field has been developed for electric bulbs in ani ani- animated animated animated mated flashers The pioneer of this business is Douglas Leigh a 28 year-old year southern boy wonder who acquired rights on a European invention One of his signs is a cigarette advertisement which runs a full five minutes while another advertises chewing gum by depict depict- depicting depicting ing lag a colorful group of fish Frames for these huge animated ads are arc designed In checkerboard fashion For each change in move move- movement ment even ment-even even the slightest raising of an arm arm arm some the squares in the checkerboard must be knocked knock J out All these motions are arc photo photo- photographed graphed on a motion molion picture film when the sign Is Is planned After Arter the spectacular has been erected the film mm is projected on a battery of photoelectric cells in in the control loom These cells relay the impression im im- impression impression to the sign itself I I M |