Wheaton v. Norton’s Empirical Analysis
70 F. 833 · 1895
Citation profile
5 federal appellate ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently April 1913
5 federal appellate ·
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on White v. Dunbar · Mahn v. Harwood · Shepard v. Carrigan · Goodyear Dental Vulcanite Company v. Davis · Sargent v. Hall Safe & Lock Co.
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 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““In sheet-metal can manufacture, where the heads are applied to the outside of the body, the heads are struck from circular sheets of metal by means of dies, one of which is a plunger of the shape and size of the inner diameter of the can-head llange, and the other of which is a matrix or raised die of the depth of the flange and of the diameter of the exterior of the flange. The circular disk of sheet metal being laid on this matrix, and the plunger depressed to force the sheet into it, the result is that the flange is upturned around the margin of the shoot-metal disk, and is of definite dimensions, both as to its thickness and as to its exterior and interior diameter. Can-heads made by the same dies are therefore always of the same- size. Can-bodies are, however, not always of the same size, whether they be made by hand or by machinery. They are formed over a horn or mandrel, which at best can only give them uniform interior diameter, even if it were possible to press the' blank sheets around the mandrel with uniform force, or to make the joint forming the side seam with uniform accuracy. Besides this, the can-bodies thus made are liable to vary in both internal and external diameter. They are also subject to variation in external diameter, even if of uniform size inside, because of the varying thickness of the sheet metal of which they are made; such variation sometimes occurring in the same sheet, and in different parts of the form of the can-body. As it is necessary tha”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Norton v. Jensen““Undoubtedly this mechanism of Wheaton, like that of complainant, puts tight-fitting can heads on the outside of can bodies automatically, to do which there must of necessity be mechanism for centering and bringing into exact line with each other the can body and can head, and also mechanism for shaping and sizing the can body, and also for forcing the head and body together. But the question is whether the device of Wheaton in centering and aligning the can body and can head, and in shaping and sizing the ends of the can body, and in forcing the heads and body together, uses the elements of the claim patented to Norton, or their mechanical equivalents.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Norton v. Wheaton
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.