Sept. 17, 1963 W. J.

MCDONALD 3,103,751
CHALKLESS WRITING BOARD
Filed May 5, 196l

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 United States Patent Office Patented Sept. 17, 1963
& 2.
3,103,751 ing board 10 consisting of a backing plate 11, a back pe
CHALKLESS WERTNG BOARD ripheral spacer 12, a central plate 14, a front peripheral
Wilfred J. McDonald, Trans Canada Hotel, spacer 12a and a front plate 15 held in an assembled po
Mattawa, Ontario, Canada sition as illustrated in FIGURE 2 as by a U-shaped mold
Filed May 5, 1961, Ser. No. 107,947 ing 16 or other suitable means.
6 Claims. (C. 35-61) The plates 11 and 14 are made from a nonmagnetic
material, preferably Lucite. The front plate 15 is a
This invention relates to writing boards and more par transparent, nonmagnetic plate, preferably ordinary plate
ticularly to a magnetic type writing board. glass, however any other transparent or translucent non
Slate or paper boards in black, green or other various magnetic material may also be used.
suitable colours, commonly referred to as black boards, The spacer 12 is secured to one face of the backing
are the most common of the writing boards presently plate 11 and also to one face of the central plate i4, by
utilized. Markings are made thereon by sliding a stylus any suitable adhesive, adjacent their peripheral edges to
of chalk upon the surface whereupon a portion of the hold the plates 11 and 14 in spaced relationship to define
chalk lightly adheres to the surface of the board. This 5 therebetween a fluid-confining chamber 17. It is to be
type of board is extremely dusty and dirty as will be ap understood that the plates may also be held in spaced
parent to those who have used the same. relationship by other means, for example, walls integrally
A chalkless type of writing board is also known formed with the plate 11 adjacent to the peripheral edges
s consisting of a backing sheet covered with a thin film of thereof and projecting outwardly therefrom. The edges
f pressure-sensitive adhesive material, normally common of these walls may be secured to the plate 14 by any suit
sealing wax and a thin sheet of opaque material placed 20 able means, for example pressure sensitive adhesive.
thereover. The opaque material is a colour contrasting The front plate 15 is similarly spaced from and se
to the backing material, and normally is attached at one cured to the opposite face of the plate i4 to define there
marginal edge to the backing material. Marking on the between a fluid-confining chamber 18.
board is made by pressing a rigid stylus against the 25 A plurality of spaced apertures 19 extend through the
opaque sheet and thereby adhering the opposite surface central wall 14 to provide communication between the
to the pressure-sensitive adhesive. This type of writing chambers 17 and 18, and preferably consist of a bore 19a
board normally wears out very rapidly, thus requiring extending partially through the centre plate 14, and a
frequent replacement. bore 19b (of smaller diameter than that of a bore 19a)
Magnetic type writing boards have previously been 30 extending through the remaining portion of the plate.
proposed, for example, the type disclosed in U.S.P. The junction of the bores 19a and b present a shoulder
2,589,601, March 18, 1952; the present invention being 19c, the purpose of which will become apparent later.
directed to an improvement thereover. As illustrated in FIGURE 2, the centre plate 14 pref.
It is the principal object of the present invention to pro erably consists of two sheets, 14a and b, laminated to
vide a relatively permanent type of writing board. form a single plate. The bore 19a extends through the
It is a further object of the present invention to pro 35 sheet 14a, while the bore 19b (preferably concentric with
vide a writing board whereby the writing may be neatly bore 9a) extends through the sheet 14b.
and easily erased therefrom. Pins 20 of permanent magnetic material, having a
A still further object of the present invention is to north and South magnetic pole, are slidably mounted in
provide a reusable relatively permanent type of writing 40 the bores 19a. The pins 20 are of greater length than
board which is easily and cheaply manufactured. the distance between the plates 4 and 15 and shorter
A still further object is to provide a writing board of than the distance from the shoulder 19c to the nearest
the magnetic type wherein the markings are substantially surface of the plate 15. This allows sliding movement
uniform and of even intensity throughout. of the pins on an axis transverse to the plane surfaces of
The above objects and advantages are attained in a the plates.
Writing board consisting of a substantially rigid opaque The inside surface (that is the surface forming one
sheet of material spaced from a backing sheet to define wall of the chamber 18) of the plate 15 is covered with
therebetween a chamber confining a plurality of metallic a thin coating of transparent gelatinous material thereby
pins slidably mounted in apertures in the backing sheet assisting in adhering to the tiny magnetic pins to the
and which pins are of a colour contrasting to the opaque inside surface of the plates.
sheet. Markings appear on the opaque sheet by drawing 50 The chambers 17 and 18 and the bores 19b and the
a magnetic stylus over the outer surface of the opaque portion 19a not occupied by the pins 20, are filled with
plate and thereby attracting the pins to the inside sur a very opaque white, black or other suitably coloured
face of the plate. Adhesive forces between the pins and liquid of low specific gravity.
the plate will maintain the pins on the surface of the 55 Markings appear upon the surface of the board as a
plate. In the preferred embodiment of the invention a magnetic stylus 28 is drawn over the outer surface of
gelatinous type of material is applied to the inside sur the plate 15, when the end of the stylus and the nearest
face of the opaque plate thereby increasing the adhesive end of the pins 20 are of opposite magnetic polarity. To
forces between the pins and the plate. erase the markings, the opposite polarity of the stylus is
A further understanding of the invention may be had 60 brought in near proximity to the glass and thus the mag
from reading the following detailed description in con netic repulsion force drives the pin away from the sur
junction with the accompanying drawing, illustrative of face and into the bore 19 until it abuts against the shoul
the preferred embodiment of the invention and in which: der 19c.
FIGURE 1 is a vertical elevation view in partial sec As the pins 20 slide in the bores 19a, the fluid flows
tion of a writing board constructed in accordance with 65 through the bore 19b and it will thus be readily apparent
the present invention and illustrating handwriting on the that the diameter of the bores 19b will affect the rate of
surface thereof, movement of the pin. Effectively the bore 19b is an
FIGURE 2 is a vertical cross-sectional elevation taken orifice and the laws governing fluid flow in orifices are
along section 2-2 of FIGURE 1 and applicable.
FIGURE 3 is a cross-sectional view of a modified writ 70 Erasure of the markings from the board may be ac
ing board. complished by passing a mechanical vibrator over the
Referring now to the drawings, shown therein is a writ outer Surface of the transparent plate. The vibration
 3,103,751.
3 4.
would mechanically dislodge the pins from the inside
surface of the plate and slide, by gravity, into the aper
tures. Such vibrator may consist of a standard dimen
sion eraser brush operated electrically or by any other
convenient means.
While the preferred embodiment has been disclosed,
many modifications will occur to those skilled in the art.
While shown herein the device contains two fluid cham
bers 17 and 18, it will be apparent to those skilled in the
art that the writing board may also consist of spaced
plates 21 and 22 (see FIGURE 3) defining therebetween
a chamber 23 filled with a suitable gas, for example air,
or a low specific gravity fluid. In such construction,
bores 24 (adapted to receive the magnetic pins 20) would
not extend through the entire thickness of the plate when
using a fluid, however, they may do so when using air as
the dampening medium. In the latter instance, the di
ameter of the aperture opening to atmosphere would af
fect the dampening motion of the pin. It would be
obvious that the amount of tolerance between the pin 20
and the bores 24 will also affect the dampening motion
of the pins as they are slid inwardly into the bores 24
or outwardly therefrom. As previously explained, the
bores 24 may project through the plate 22 when utilizing
air as the dampening medium and in this instance, the
diameter of the bore adjacent to the outer surface of the
plate will be less than the portion of the bore in which
the pins slide. Again the pins will be of some length
greater than the distance between the plates and the tol
erance of such amount that the pins when in their outer
most position will be guided by the bores 24.
A writing board of the latter type may only be effec
tively used in a horizontal position while the type re
ferred to with reference to FIGURES 1 and 2 will oper
ate in either a horizontal or vertical position but pref
erably in a substantially vertical position. It must, how
ever, be realized that to operate in a horizontal position,
the adhesive force between the pin and the plate must be
greater than the force of gravity acting upon the pin.
Many further modifications will occur to those skilled
in the art but that to which protection is desired as se
cured by Letters Patent is as defined in the appended
claims.
I claim:
1. A writing board for use with a magnetic stylus com
prising in combination a front rigid transparent non
magnetic plate, a back non-magnetic plate having a plu
5 rality of apertures therein, spaced from said front plate
and secured thereto to provide a chamber therebetween
and a plurality of metallic pins slidably mounted in the
apertures and confined within said chamber.
2. A writing board for use with a magnetic stylus com
prising a central non-magnetic rigid plate, a pair of rigid
plates Secured one on each side of a central plate and
spaced therefrom to define a pair of spaced fluid confin
ing chambers, at least one of said outer plates consisting
of a transparent material and a layer of slightly adhe
sive material adjacent the transparent plate, said centre
plate having a plurality of spaced transverse bores and
metallic pins slidably retained within said bores.
3. A device as defined in claim 2 wherein said bores
extend entirely through said centre plate thereby provid
20 ing communication between said pair of chambers.
4. A device as claimed in claim 3 wherein a portion
of said bores are of lesser diameter than the said mag
netic pins. -
i.
5. A substantially rigid writing board for use with a
25 magnetic stylus comprising a plurality of spaced substan
tially parallel, rigid non-magnetic plates secured together
adjacent their peripheral edges to define a pair of spaced
relatively shallow chambers, means providing communi
cation between said chambers, a plurality of transverse
30 bores in the plate separating said pair of chambers and
metallic pins slidably retained in said bores and wherein
the length of said pins are substantially greater than the
distance between adjacent plates defining oposite walls
of a chamber.
6. A device as claimed in claim 5 wherein said cham
bers are substantially filled with a fluid.
References Cited in the file of this patent
UNITED STATES PATENTS
40
2,589,601 Burnett --------------- Mar. 18, 1952