, ·.; t··;
DAiv.m: BRADLEY , 1.
MAi.n!rF-'G CO. ,;
J.. TnOMPSON&
SONS.
Limited:,
(O:ln'CUit OQ'U,Tt, N. D.·JUinoiB. . -,. P ATUN'llS .,OR INVENTIONS-I:N'PRINGElIIENT-TJmBB-WUFEL
3O.,1889.)
PLows. '. ClailIls 6al).<112 in letters patent No. ,858,497, November 80, 1886, t() the vid .Bradley Company, in a three-wheel plow, a brace extendfng from the a;xlenear the land SIde to end of the'plow-beam,and two' other:bllBOOsextentl'ing from the arch in theaxle'tQ,the same point, where the three 81'epiV:l>ted to the beam AY a single boa, are infringed by braces fl;OIn the aXle, so.:as, tQ, pivot the, framellnd, plow-beam togetl1er, and secure the same "movement,'l>hough none of the braces extend from the arch. , . , So .....PATENTABILITY-LBVWl& .. ' .'.,' " " ... ' ... " TheleYerdescrlbed in clatiris \land 10 in such letters patent, which is not attached: to but' elrt.ellds nnderthe forward end of tbe ploW-beam, serving to 'regulate the the plow can run and 1'1110 to,raise It out ot .the ground, and hold it in posit-i01!- tortl).rning at;J,d.tl'avellng" is patentable, till! levers in prior use having beeII. appliel,1to the rear end of the \)(jam, and attached to it. . i. 'WHEELS AND F'B#{E. '' , " ..' Claim for the 'combination; with a plow-beam and plow, of the Qa1'l'yingwheelil, frattle, having a eel:1ttal pivotal 01' turning point, is not fringed·by .a plow whose point does occupy. such centml 01' pivotal position.
In Equity. On bill for infri'ngement of letters patent. We8t Bond, for complainant. Hill, 4c for defendant.,
BLODGETT,J. This isabill in equity seeking an injunction sndaecounting by reason of the 'alleged infringement of patent No. granted ,November 30" to complainant. as assignee of John F. Packer, for: a ,"wheel plow." The patent contains 14 claims, but only sixtn"ninth, tenth, twellth, and fourteenth claims are in controversy in this cause; the other claims relating to features in the machine Dot called in·question by the bill. The. plow covered by the patent belongs to what have been .termed "three-wheel plows," in which carrying wheels are employed, with a caster wheel in the rear, which aids in supporting the plow at the proper depth. while plowing, and facilitates the turning of corners or sharp curves, or when it is lifted, for the purpose of traveling from field to field. The: two carrying wheels are mounted upon an axle, the central part of which is formed into a vertical arch, within which the beam is held and guided; and from a point on this axle near the hub of the land-side wheel a brace or rod, E, is extended .backward. to ·the rear of the plow-beam, nearly over what. in the ordinary plow structure, would be the standard of the plow, and two other braces or rods, F, F, are also extended backward from the arch to the same point, where :the three braces are pivoted to ,the beam by a single bolt; thereby allowing theplow-beam,orthe frame, to be rocked upon the pivot made by this bolt. A lever for. lifting the plow out" of the ground, and holding it in that position, is attached to the frame near the arch, forward oftheaxle, by' a hook or arm;, whi('h passes ,beneath the plow-beam, andope1'llJ;es as a limi:tto, prevenUhe plow from. funning too into the ground.,
888 and also to raise the plow out of the ground, by lifting the forward end of the 'beam whenever the lever is actua.ted for tha.t purpose. '. The. in controversy are: "(6) The com·binatlon, with the support, A, A', and plow-beam, I, of the brace-rods, E, F, substantially as and fot the purposes specified." "(9) The combination, with a plow-beam and a frame therefor, of a piv0talsupport for' thll b!lam, a a'shaft connected with the lever, and Iilj.Villgits acting end beneath and unattacblld to tl1eploW-beam" and acting,ontbe latter forward of the frame for iitting. the latter, and, leaving it free", substantially as and for the purposes described. (10) The combination, with a bar or support, A,A', and a plow-beam, I, the support, of ap,ivotal for the beam at the rear of the frame, and a lIfting rod or aJ;m, K, havIDg Its ll.cting and unattacheQto and on the beam forward of the frame in an upw;ard direction, substantially as and for the purl>0se specified." "(12) Theroeking or swinging fl'ame,in combination with a ploW-beam, aItd rods, F,llxteAdingreal'ward from the, frame. andpivoted to the beam, whereby the triune is by raising or lowering the plow, 8ubs,tantill.lIy .¥spllcified.","(14) The, combination, with a plow-beam, and plow carried tperehy, of the carrying wheels, the caster wheEll, and the frame having' a central pivotal or turning point, said wneels being equidistant from said pivotal 'Or turning point, thel'eby preventing strain ,on the frame, substantially as described. " The defenses set up to the infringement charged in this'bill are: (1) That defendant does not infringe; (2) that the claims'in controversy are void for want of novelty. ,The distincti:videature of the sL . mture, so far as the claims in question areeoncerned, is the attachment of the plow to the,'frame by these learward e:xtendingbraces', which; with the pivotbolti' :form a joint be-tweenthe:beatn and controlling or limiting the at which ·the pl'l>w may be run, and raising it out ,of the ground I whil:e the hookoi" rest,· extending from the short arm of the lever under the beam, is not attached to the beam, but ,the beam simply; rides upon!it. is no tongue' attached to the' frame: .for the purpose of guiding,it;.......atleast,theepe.CJi:fi,cations say that it may baused without a tongu6;,and the dtaught upOn the plow is secured by hitching the team directly to ,the end dfthe: plow.beam, the rods or-braces, E and F; acting as pl1lili..l'ods to propek wheels and frame; and the covered by the· fourteenth claim,' is the arrangement of the parts s(!)ithat tlie point, of the' plow shall be located centrally in re-o gardto the carr.ying wheels and the spindle of the caster wheel, thereby preventing straitllbpon the machine'ln' turning. i.' The defendaIlt's plow is a thretHfheel plow is, it contains two carrying Wheels and a caster the. plow-beam is held within all arch in the axlejand is attached; to the fran'le by braces or rods extendhlg backward' from the axle; so Q$i t(), pivot the framaand the plow-beam ,and S6C!\1re the samerookingmo'vement between the beam and n-arile':which' is obtained by' complil.inltnt's mode of attaching its plow to the'frame.",;, '. 1:-" 'J' ' . His ,cont$nded j on the part of the defendant, that it does not ill" friDgc6j! . have the rods)F, whioh are used :by the
DAVID BRADLltYIU:NtlF'G CO. fl.
889
complainant, and specifically described in the patent; that is to say, the braces nsed by the defendant do not extend from· the arch backward to the plow-beam, but they extend from other portions of the axle. I do not deem this a substantial change in the complainant's formo! construction. It is the rear-jointed connection between the plow-beam and the frame, secured by these 'braces, which gives the distinguishing characteristic to complainant's plow, as it does to the defendant's plow; and it seems to me immaterial, for the purposes of the question of infringement in this case, whether those braces are attached to the frame directly at the same point on the axle to which the patentee saw fit to attach his braces, inasmuch as the braces, wherever attached, perform the same funotion and secure the same result in the defendant's plow that they perform and secure in the complainant's plow. This particular fol'm of construction is covered by the sixth and twelfth claims, and it seems quite clear to me that the defendant's device for attaching its plow to the frame is substantially the same as that covel'ed by these two claims; The ninth and tenth claims have reference to the action of the lever, the especial feature of which is that it so arranged llS to lift 'the forward end of the plow-beam, and thereby run the plow readily out of the ground, and hold it in a safe and convenient position for traveling irom field to field, or turning comers; and also· that the lever is not attached to the plow, but merely acts upon the under side of the plow, for the purpose of lifting and holding the plow out of the ground, and also acts as a stop limit to the depth at which the plow can run,--'-the plow being 'thereby left Jree:to rise or fall with the inequalities of the ground, or as it may meet obstructions, without interference from the lever mechanism; This arrangement of the lever the defendant clearly has in its plow,and, indeed, it was admitted upon the argument that defendant's plow infringed these two claims, and defendant only contested their novelty. Devices for wheel plows and sulky plows are so numerous that there is very little left that is new in the field for the inventor. Levers to raise the plow out of the ground were old long before this inventor entered the field, but, in most cases, those lifting levers were applied to the rear end of the beam, or past the center of gravity of the plow; so that, whenever the lever was actuated for that purpose, the heel of the. plow was raised first, instead otthe nose or forward pOInt; and in all the devices which have been cited. bere in anticipation of the complainant's device,safal' as covered by these ninth and tenth claims, the level' has to the plow,. so that the movements of the plow were to a certain extent limitedandinterfered with by the lever and its attachments... The new feature Which, it seems to me, this patentee introduced, is <:,Alusing the hook of the lever to act as a stop upon the beam, to prevent the plow fr'omrunning d'6eper tllan was desirable into the ground, and also to lift the forward end of the plow-beam so as to raise the plow by its point out ofthe,grollna., ratber.tban to take it up bodily, or raise it lfftirig'; and 'while' the patent, so far as, these two claims areconcemed, may be said to be a narrow one, yet it is clear to me that it was a manifest improvement upon anythingwhic4 has beenicited' in theprior ta.1't,
of inventive 'genius.. "A largenutnber of caster wheels, or wheel in evidence, but I failto.find anything in '.and: in the Meagher & Tower patent of March 10, 1885"pr:.the! E. D. Meagher patent of February, 1882, which are by th.e defendant, which anticipated either of the features in complainant's plow now in controver8y. The ir:>' upon the assumption that the ar-, rangementof:tpe. partsoHhe complainant's device is such as "to give the which the point moves in the arc of a circle through plow a the wheela, and ill tpe Ill'C of. a circle in ,line with the center of the axle, the tUrning point 1?einga,littl¢ back of the extreme point of the plow, ao that in turnio,g the plow in: the ground it will swing without affecting ride on. the point, leaving .the wheels' free to travel the around iQ a true circle, without straining the frame, and to improve genthe·QOnatruction apd operation of the machine as a whole.» out c;liscllSSing the queE\tion as to what liniits must be put upon this claim by thai,papers inthe file-wrapper in evi;. deuce, it is sufficient, I think, to say that the defendant's plow is not prgllnized so as to secure this pivotal position for the point of the plow, the point of the plow being several inches to the right of the A:;enterof tne axle, and not in. the .center .of a circle drawn from the axle' to the pivot of the caster wheel, and hence does not, in my estimation, tb.;is ·The bill,is thereforesust;lined, so far as the alleged infringement of the sixth, ninth, tenth,and 'hvelfth claims is concerned, so far as the alleged infringement of the fourteenth claim is: charged. r$JU»,EllJ or. J, "
BOSTON ELECTRI
Co.
t7.
HOLTZER el al.
SAME
HoIit'ZER-CAno'r' .ELECTRIC Co. el al.
(CireuU Court, D.Ma8saclllIMettS. February 14, 1890.)
1.
l'A.TB'NTII 1I'OB INVENTIONS-Ao!rION lI'OB IN1I'JUNGEMIlINT-!NJ;JNOTION-ELBOTltIO Llc,lHTING APPA.lU.TUS. '. ' ., .
Letters patent No. 280,590'issued July 27,1880, to Jacob P. Tirrell, for improvements hi electri6 gas-lighting apparatus, COll8lsting of mechanism whereby the gas-cock is turnEld by one iplpulse, iBnot sOlUanifestly infringed 1;Iy a. d&' vice by which the cock is turned by a series of impUlses as to warrant. the issue 'of apre1iminary injunction. '.' ' , LS;A.ME.
, . Letters patent No. 281,84;5, issued JUly 17, 1888, to Charles H.. Crockett, for 1m. ':.1.: 'Po rovements. in electti.c gas-lighting apparatus, consisting, in combination with the ""l'9Cking valve of·a gas-bul'nar, of two: independently acting armatures, pivoted to r, .!5trill:e projections on' the of .the valve, is. not so manifestly infringed by a de'vice by wllich thegas-eock'iS turned by means of a ratchet and. pawl as to warrant . the 1aiIue ofa .. .
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In Equity. ,On motion for injunction.
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