Shaver v. Newdick
Shaver v. Newdick
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court:
This is an appeal from a decision of the Commissioner of Patents in an interference proceeding, awarding priority of invention to Norton A. Newdick, the senior party. The counts of the issue are four in number, and read as follows:
“1. In combination, a vehicle adapted to move in forward and reverse directions, a winding device carried by said vehicle, and an electric motor having a driving connection and arranged to exert a winding torque upon said winding device during the movement of the vehicle in either direction.
“2. In combination, a movable vehicle, a winding device for a flexible conductor carried by said vehicle, an electric motor having a driving connection with said winding device, a motor for driving said vehicle, and switch mechanism arranged to connect the motor for propelling the vehicle to the said conductor for rotation in either direction, and to connect the other motor to the said conductor for rotation only in a direction to exert a winding torque upon said winding device.
“3. In combination, a movable vehicle, a winding device carried thereby, a flexible conductor on said winding devise, means for securing the free end of said conductor to a fixed conductor, an electric motor having a driving connection with said winding device, and means for connecting said motor to said flexible conductor for operation in a direction to exert a winding torque upon said winding device during the movement of the vehicle in either direction.
*275 “4. In combination, a movable vehicle, a winding device carried thereby, a flexible conductor on said winding device, means for securing the free end of said conductor to a fixed conductor, an electric motor having a driving connection with said winding device, and means for connecting said motor to said flexible conductor for operation in a direction to exert a winding torque upon said winding device during the movement of the vehicle in either direction, the arrangement being such that the motor tends to wind up the flexible conductor at a greater rate than the rate of movement of the vehicle.”
The invention relates to means for controlling the flexible conductor through which current is supplied to the motor of an electric mining locomotive when such locomotive is operated over tracks not provided with a trolley wire. In the prior art the same sort of flexible conductor was used. This was adapted, as in the present invention, to be connected at one end to a fixed conductor, which was connected at the other end so as to be unwound from and wound upon a reel carried by the locomotive, but electric connections were provided between the reel end of the cable and the locomotive motor. In other words, in the old type of locomotive a single motor was used. To overcome certain objections said to result from the use of a single motor, the present invention was made. In this invention there is no connection between the driving motor and the reel, an entirely separate and independent motor being provided for controlling the rotation of the reel. This departure from the prior art is the dominant feature of the invention.
The Newdiek application was filed Nov. 29, 1905; that of Harry W. Shaver June 7, 1906. A patent was inadvertently issued to Shaver May 14, 1907, but that need not concern us here, since the applications were co-pending. Neither party has taken testimony. The claims of the issue were copied by Newdiek from the Shaver patent, and it is conceded, of course, that if Newdiek may rightfully make these claims the decision of the Commissioner must be affirmed.
A motion to dissolve the interference on the ground that Newdiek has no right to make the claims was first considered by
The decision is affirmed. Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- SHAVER v. NEWDICK
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Patents; Interference; Alternative Operation. In an interference proceeding the issues of which recite.in combination a motor having a driving connection with a device for winding and paying out a flexible conductor of current to the propelling motor of a moving vehicle, and exerting upon such device a winding torque during the movement of the vehicle “in either direction,” the claim of the senior applicant will not be denied, merely because his device contemplates alternative operation, in that no winding torque is exerted while the vehicle is so moving so as to unwind the conductor, his motor, when energized, being capable of exercising a winding torque irrespective of the direction in which the vehicle moves.