This old Interflora sign has been sitting in a corner of the garage for over 10 years and today I took it out to see if it might have any use or value.
Sadly rusted and dirty it didn’t look too promising. However, opening the back panel reveled two 15W bulbs (blown) so as I expected it was an illuminated sign. But I was surprised to see that there was a motor and a plastic dish shaped panel. It was then that I remembered seeing a working sign in the past which had a pleasant shimmer effect, and so I got more interested in restoring the sign.
Things To Do
- Disassemble – to clean inside parts and replace any items.
- Clean and check motor.
- Remove rust and repaint
- Replace bulbs (with LED if I can find some with a similar light dispersion)
- Replace wiring (include an earth point) and Test as in Portable Appliance Test (PAT).
Disassemble the sign.
The front of the sign is plastic (Plexiglas like) which is screen printed on the inside. This is held in place by three screws which each having a chromed dome cover which in turn screw into the fixing screw. The screws were rusted which meant they had to be drilled out but the chrome dome caps are brass and so these were saved.
Once the three screws were removed the interior of the sign was revealed. The revolving dish shaped disc has a similar sparkle form design as the sign face and the sides have panel colours of Red, Blue, Yellow and Green repeating three times around the edge.
The interior of the sign has crumpled tin foil (heavy grade) glued in place at the edges and centre of the sign. This is a random crumple effect in that it is not machine manufactured but hand done by an assembly operator.
Sign Information
The sign is manufactured by The Acme Showcard & Sign Co. Ltd. and is called a Facet Stereo Sign. The Patent No. is 849680 and a check of the European Patent Office revealed a patent no. GB849680A by Wilfred Harold Messer. Apparatus for use in producing polychromatic light effects. Date: 1960-09-28.
The Acme Showcard & Sign Co. Ltd. Paragon Works, Green Street, Enfield, England, is now apartments (between Ripmax and Celadon Close).
The sign depicts Mercury Man running in flight with a handful of flowers in front of a yellow sun with Sparkles and the words Interflora and Flowers World Wide
Interflora and the Mercury Man logo is owned by FTD Companies, Inc. (FTD).
The twin 15 Watt lamps and the makers label. The motor is the dark brown item. The motor is Swiss made by Soncebox – Type 295 10 B 210-250 V 50 Hz 1 turn in 10 Seconds.
The rotating disk before cleaning.
More to follow as I progress …
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