Mechanical equivalent

A device which may be substituted or adopted, instead of another, by any person skilled in the particular art from his knowledge of the art, and which is competent to perform the same functions or produce the same result, without introducing an original idea or changing the general idea of means.

Johnson v. Root, 13 Fed. Cas. 823; Smith v. Marshall, 22 Fed. Cas. 595; Alaska Packers' Ass'n v. Letson (C. C.) 119 Fed. 611; Jensen Can-Filling Mach. Co. v. Norton, 67 Fed. 239, 14 C. C. A. 383; Adams Electric R. Co., v. Lindell R. Co., 77 Fed. 440, 23 a C. A. 223.