Patents Selling & Exporting Co. v. Dunn
Patents Selling & Exporting Co. v. Dunn
Opinion of the Court
The only issue in the case is the validity of the patent and that depends upon a very limited art. Kenney’s two patents, 807,283 and 847,948, are- much the nearest references, because they are in the art of dust extracting. • Mr. Prindle very correctly states the exact novelty of Schiodt when he says that it—
“consisted in the idea of running the water and dust through the pump with the air, instead of separating them from the air before allowing the air to go through the pump.”
I do not understand that he asserts that this is not enough alone to support a patent, and if he did I should disagree with him about it. Whatever the changes necessary to make over Kenney, 847,948, into Schiodt," they would altogether change the theory on which the machine operated. No one before Schiodt had kept the dust-laden water .continually churned up by the pump, and had sent it through the pump valves and out of the air escape along with the air. Kenney had to effect a substantially complete removal of dust from the air if his machine was to work, while in Schiodt’s machine the water washed the pump of itself, even if the air had not lost to the water all its dust. Again, in Schiodt, the washing of the machine was effected as the work proceeded, and it need not be stopped to be cleansed. In Kenney, to open the valve, £1, would break the vacuum and make the machine inoperable. It could be run only till the water in 32 became too foul for further use. In Schiodt, one has only to set the cock, X, in Fig. 4 so that .the flow will be enough for the dustiest places to be cleaned and the machine is operable continuously.
After all, the required standard of originality is only that of the ordinary skilled artisan. I should be much more willing to say that a good deal of mechanical ingenuity which followed along established lines was within the power of such a one, than to say that he would stop and look to other such arts to see what they suggested. Chimneys do operate by partial vacuum, in a scientific sense; but whoever thinks of them in that way? Thwaite’s machine was no doubt more than that; it did pull the air out of the chimney, but the purpose was not to get the dust out of the lire; the dust was an unavoidable incident to the fire, and if any one could have devised a way of keeping it where it was, Thwaite’s patent and Zellweger’s would have been unnecessary. Therefore it seems to me that it is imputing a good deal more of originality than he has to the everyday artisan, when he is confronted with a dust extractor as Kenney left it, to suppose that a knowledge of the gas chimney art would have been enough for him. I think he would have naturally thought that too far afield from what lie had to do with.
As for the question of a “relatively large quantity of liquid,” it falls out of the case, since infringement has how been conceded. It has no effect upon validity. I should myself not have regarded Dean, 796,415, as an anticipation, and it is not now urged as one.
The usual decree may pass in claims 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10. No costs.
Supplemental Opinion.
It now appears that the defendant does not concede infringement in this case, so that the matter must be reheard. The defendant’s position is that the words, “a relatively large quantity of liquid sufficient to slime the dust, hut insufficient to break the vacuum,” must be interpreted in view of Dean’s patent, 796,415. Those words, he says, mean the proportion of water to the capacity of the pump cylinder, and that proportion in the case of pumps like Dean is about 36 per cent, of the capacity of the cylinder. So, he says, since the patentee made Dean his standard, no pump can infringe in which the quantity of water in the cylinder is less than say 40 per cent, of the volume of the cylinder. In his case the quantity is about one-tenth of 1 per cent.
Besides, I do not think that the examiner had any idea that the size of the chamber had anything to do with the matter, though, as I have said, the words are clear, whether he did, or whether he did not. I think the defendant has been misled by too great subtlety. The examiner cited Dean, because he thought it could be.used as a dust extractor as it stood. The applicant answered that, although the amount of water injected into the chamber is not shown, it would not be enough to slime the dust which came in with it. He said that his own water inlet was enough to do this, and he got through his patent, apparently on that distinction. So the parties were talking about the liqueousness of the mixture which depends upon the proportion of liquid to dust, and not in the least upon the proportion of the cylinder filled by the mixture. That depends upon the length and rapidity of the pump stroke to the inflow of the mixture, unless there be a separate entrance chamber as in Dean’s figures, in which case the size of that also enters.
But the proportion of the cylinder occupied has absolutely nothing to do with what they were talking about, and merely beclouds the issue here. The applicant satisfied the examiner that in the usual condensers of Dean’s type the spray was not enough to make a liqueous mixture which would pass through the pump. That was’ very important to the operation of the pump; but it was not of the least consequence that the mixture should occupy at least’a given proportion. It is true that it was of consequence that the mixture should occupy not more than a given proportion, else it would break the vacuum; and the only plausible reason I can see for interpreting this clause as referring to the capacity of the pump is its association with the second clause, “insufficient to break the vacuum,” which certainly does refer to capacity. However, while this association might help where the matter was not clear, the form of words used and the obvious reason for their use leaves no doubt of their meaning. It seems to me to be unreasonable to construe them so as to effect a result which could have no possible relation to the operation of the machine and would render infringement so easy.
I. am of opinion that infringement was proved.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- PATENTS SELLING & EXPORTING CO., AKTIESELSKAB v. DUNN
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- 1 case
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- Published