Cincinnati Milling Mach. Co. v. Oakley Mach. Tool Co.
Cincinnati Milling Mach. Co. v. Oakley Mach. Tool Co.
Opinion of the Court
The patents in suit have to do with devices used in the sharpening, by grinding, of those cylindrical metal-cutting tools known as milling cutters.
It is insisted by defendants that in placing graduations upon the spindle there was no invention. It seems clear that the graduations introduced a new element into the combination; that is to say, an instrument of measurement. The spindle performed a new function; it not only held one end of the cutter as theretofore, but it measured the arc of the cutter’s rotation. This new measuring function of the spindle enabled the operator to use the machine in a manner theretofore impossible, and produced a new and highly useful result. The adding of the graduations was not the mere expected skill of the calling. The best proof of this is that, although the machine had been upon the market for some 30 years, during which a simple and accurate means of setting to given angles had been highly to be desired, and in which time there had been some groping toward it (particularly in the device of Chase, hereafter to be mentioned), and although the machine had been operated by many presumably highly skilled in their calling, the result had never theretofore been attained.
“The fact that no one had before combined all these features, which fact, while not controlling, is often persuasive to show invention, cannot prevail against a clear ease of the mere adoption of common expedients in adapting an existing machine to a new use, and in a case where the thought of adaptation is not new.”
The last clause of the sentence quoted seems to exclude the present case. Here the adaptation contemplated was the measurement of the arc of the cutter’s rotation. The thought of the utility of such measurement, and of the result obtainable thereby, was new. The graduations were introduced to serve this new adaptation. Therein lay the invention. The mere placing of the graduations upon the spindle would have been well within the expected skill of the ordinary operator of this machine, had the idea of their adaptation entered'his mind. Bullock Eectric Mfg. Co. v. General Electric Co. (C. C. A. 6) 149 Fed. 409, at page 420, 79 C. C. A. 229, recognizes the same rule. .
It is argued, also by defendants, that De Leeuw’s invention was anticipated by various publications and devices. Chase’s instrument, a description of which was published in the American Machinist of April, 1903, was an attempt toward the simplification of the task of setting a milling cutter in the grinder at the correct angle. With reference to grinding with the cup wheel he did measure the arc of rotation of the cutter, but he did not do it by graduations on the spindle. He used the cumbersome method of temporarily mounting a beam on the axis of the spindle and measuring the arc of rotation of the beam at a distance from the axis equal to the radius of the cutter to be ground, and setting the tooth rest at the point so found. This measurement he made by setting up a scale at the end of the beam. His method was clumsy compared to De Leeuw’s, and resulted in a certain slight error, because the tooth rest would not, in practice, occupy the actual position determined for it, but had to be moved to get it out of the way of the grindstone. With reference to disc-wheel grinding, Ch.ase’s method did not measure the arc of rotation of the cutter at all. At this' point Chase departed from that essential of De Leeuw’s method, viz. grinding always in a vertical plane. He resorted to the expedient of measuring off the necessary arc of rotation upon the circumference of the grindstone and grinding at a point below the plane of its horizontal axis. Chase’s work only serves to illustrate the complete darkness of the prior art as to the simple method introduced by De Leeuw.
The closest to an anticipation shown by the evidence is the work of one Irvin Newsome, then a machinist, upon one of plaintiff’s old grinders in a factory at Madison, Wis. He operated entirely with the cup wheel, and observed that, having once obtained the correct clearance angle for a certain tool, he could again give to it, or to another like tool, the same setting in the machine by rotating it through the same distance. To enable himself to do this he made half a dozen marks upon the spindle and a starting mark upon the housing. His marks did not represent degrees, or any other standard system of measurement, but simply the amounts of rotation he had theretofore given other tools to produce the result. He worked at the machine during part of the year 1910, and during this period made and used his marks. He showed his employer what he had done, and asked to have the spindle taken off and graduations regularly milled upon it. His employer did not do so. When Newsome ceased to work upon the machine during
The Conradson patent cited by defendant shows no graduations adapted to finding the degree of clearance in grinding a cylindrical cutting tool, although it does show graduations adapted for finding such angle with reference to a straight or end edged tool. It is therefore no nearer to the patent in question than was the very machine which the patentee improved.
No evidence is found in the record of a true anticipation. It is therefore held that the De Leeuw patent aforesaid is valid.
The defendant’s device has a graduated ring upon the spindle-head housing adjacent to the spindle, not fixed, but movable, but which necessarily must remain stationary during the measurement of the arc. The indicating mark is upon the spindle. Thus the position of graduations and indicating mark upon spindle and spindle housing, respectively, as found in the plaintiff’s device, are reversed in the device of the defendant. Neither this reversing nor the placing of the graduations upon the movable ring is sufficient to avoid infringement. No one before De Leeuw provided graduations upon the parts constituting the spindle-head combination for measuring the, rotation of the spindle, and the patent awarded him is entitled to a construction sufficiently broad to protect his invention as described in the claims. Accordingly the patent is held to be infringed by the defendant’s device.
As to the tooth rest proper, the patentee abandoned the flexible
“The tooth rest proposed by this invention is a considerable departure from the principles heretofore utilized in such devices; that is to say, instead of employing a flexible blade having its shank rigidly fastened to the supporting arm or member, this invention utilizes a rigid blade having a pivotal mount on the arm and resiliently spring-pressed into a normal relation therewith whereby it may yield to permit of the passage of a tooth.”
The defendant’s tooth rest is very accurately described by so much of the above language as refers to the prior art, from which the inventor claimed to depart, and consequently the defendant’s tooth rest cannot be an infringement of the aforesaid patent within any construction that could fairly be placed upon it. The patent itself shows little or nothing not theretofore known; but, as it is now-held to be.not infringed, it is not necessary to pass upon its validity.
3. It is claimed that the defendants have been guilty of acts amounting to unfair competition, for which increased damages should be awarded to the complainant. Ludwigs v. Payson Mfg. Co., 206 Fed. 60, 124 C. C. A. 194. It is, however, not found that they have been shown to be guilty of conduct warranting such assessment.
The usual decree may be taken in accordance herewith for injunction and an accounting.
Reference
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- CINCINNATI MILLING MACH. CO. v. OAKLEY MACH. TOOL CO.
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- 1 case
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