Straub v. Campbell’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 2 district ·

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““While the use of cinders in groutings, in foundations, in walks, roads, and other structures, was old, and while even screened ashes had been used in building blocks, no one before Straub conceived the novel idea of taking the whole ash product — clinkers and ash alike, half burned and wholly burned, lumps and dust — in fact, the entire run of the grate, and using the whole waste product in its raw state, rolling or grinding the whole mass. So novel was this joint use of the whole ash mass, in connection with cement and water, that the Patent Office granted to Straub the broad claim of: ‘A building block composed of a mixture of coarse and fine coal cinders and ashes, retaining all the original mass, cement, and water.’ * * * The product Straub gave in his building block is new in .make-up and new in function, in that while, like the old block, it is proof against sound, water, fire, and electric current, Straub’s has the wholly new feature of allowing a nail to be driven in it without breaking, and firmly holding the nail in place. It is light of weight, and cheaper than former blocks. It can be broken on nearly straight lines, and he offered to prove, and could presumably have done so, had the testimony been admitted, that' the relative tensile strength of his cinder block to concrete block was as 846 to 691.” '”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Crozier-Straub, Inc. v. Graham

2. ““The gjist of his invention, for such we think it is, was in taking ordinary furnace ashes and using the whole of that product, without sifting or selection.” Straub “found that, by taking the whole of the ashes— clinkers, fine dust, and all — and grinding the entire product and mixing it with cement and water, he was able to produce a new and useful article in the building art.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Crozier-Straub, Inc. v. Graham

3. ““We know of no manufacturer of cinder concrete blocks, and see very little reason for their use. They might stand fire a little better than ordinary concrete blocks, if the cinders wore well selected and screened, and all unhurried coal removed, but in any case the crushing strength would bo lower than with a well-made concrete block.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Crozier-Straub, Inc. v. Graham