223 F. 359 | 2d Cir. | 1915
At the close of the trial the court directed a verdict for the defendant. After it had been announced that this disposition would be made of the case, the court at the request of the complainant charged the jury and told them to bring in a verdict, apparently on the theory that if it were for defendant it would end the case, but if it were for the complainant it would be set aside and verdict directed as had been indicated. The jury disagreed; thereupon verdict was directed. These superfluous proceedings are of no importance. If the condition of the cause was such when the testimony closed that verdict should have been directed for defendant without passing on any disputed question of fact, the judgment should be affirmed; otherwise it should be reversed.
On the question of infringement there seems to be no question as to what the structure was which defendant erected on the line of Panama Canal; as to the operation of that structure there is a conflict of
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The object of the invention, as stated in the specifications, is to facilitate the erection and operation of a suspension cable, and consists in—
“combining a tension weight upon the end of the cable with an inclined sheers or post adapted to transform the vertical tension of the weight into a horizontal tension upon the cable. * * * By inclining the sheer poles and weighting their upper ends the tension of the cable is converted into a thrust at the lower ends of the sheers; but I have termed the device a ‘gravity anchor,’ as it depends for its efficiency entirely upon the operation of gravity.”
In the drawings A is the cable, D the inclined sheer poles or post, H the load in the carrier which travels on the cable, and P the weight upon the end of the cable. The sheers are set at an angle of preferably 45 degrees to the cable.
“With the sheer posts set at this angle, the weight of the poles, if permitted to yield, exerts a very material tension upon the cable independently of the tension weight, and the latter may be proportioned to produce the additional tension required to strain the cable in the required degree. * * * It is well known that the tension at the ends of a suspending cable is much greater with a given load at the middle of the cable than when the load is close to either abutment,‘and my improved anchorage varies the angle of the cable in proportion to the load, if the sheer poles be so made as to support the load and also yield under variations of the tension.”
Referring to Fig. 7 the patentee says:
“Fig. 7 illustrates in diagrammatic form the changes of angle in the cable, the parts being indicated in solid lines with the load in the middle of the cable, and in dotted lines with the load close to the sheer poles. In the lat*362 ter position, the slack of the cable is partially taken up by the tension-weight and the sheer poles are bent outwardly from the fixed abutment, thus holding the cáble at a smaller angle with its abutment than would be the ease if the, sheer poles were rigidly fixed and the slack of the cable were unchanged during the shifting of the load. I have found that with the use of the flexible sheer poles and the tension weight (?, the angle of the cable to the horizontal line at the cap E is substantially the same for all positions of the load, as is indicated by the parallelism of the full lines and dotted lines adjacent to the cap E.”
The specification further states:
“The operation of the tension device in automatically taking up the slack of a suspended cable, when the load approaches the supports, enables me to move the load much closer to the supports, with the same degree of power, than has heretofore been possible. Where the cable supports are rigidly fixed, the inclination of the cable adjacent to the support is materially increased when the load approaches such support, and the power required to propel the carrier up such inclined portion toward the support is four or five times greater than is necessary .to move the load over other portions pf the cable.
“By the use of my automatic tension device the angle of the cable, is kept nearly the same throughout the movement of the load toward the supports, and the angle adjacent to the support, when the load is at such point, is no greater than when the load is in the middle of the cable. * * * By transporting the load close to the supports at both ends of the cable I am enabled to utilize the entire length of the cable with a moderate exertion of power, which has not heretofore been possible.”
The claims relied on are these:
“1. The combination, with a suspended cable, a carrier to support a load movably upon the cable and means for propelling the carrier thereon, of a stationary support or anchor at one end of the cable and a gravity anchor at the opposite end of the cable, consisting of an inclined sheers with the cable attached thereto, and a weight hung permanently from the sheers upon the opposite side to the cable, as and for the purpose set forth.”
“2. The combination, with a suspended cable, a carrier to support a load movably upon the cable and means for propelling the carrier thereon, of a fixed anchor at one end of the cable, and a gravity anchor at the opposite end of the cable, consisting of inclined sheer poles braced toward one another and united at the top, and a weight hung permanently from the sheers upon the opposite side to the cable, as and for the purpose set forth.”
“3. The combination, with a suspended cable a carrier to support a load movably upon the cable and means for propelling the carrier thereon, of a fixed anchor at one end of the cable, and inclined sheer poles held movably at the base so as to yield with variations of load upon the cable, with the cable attached to the top of said sheers, and a weight hung permanently from the sheers upon the opposite side to the cable, as and for the purpose set forth.”
No claim, other than the first, which is the broadest one, need be considered. The description above quoted is so full and clear that Brothers’ improvement is readily understood. He provided an anchorage tower — whether sheers, post, or other structure is immaterial— which would tilt when the cable crane was in? operation. When the load (carrier) was in the center of the cable, the latter would pull strongest at the top of the tower; to that strain the tower would yield, towards the load. As the load drew nearer the tower, the pull of the cable .would relax, and the counterweight would gradually take up the slack tilting the tower away from the load. Load and counterweight are so proportioned that, during operation, there is this constant tilting
Turning now to the patents of the prior art — and they are many— it is evident that this arrangement is broadly new; no cable crane shown in them works that way. The patentee testified that his method was revolutionary; that other engineers laughed at him when he suggested it. Before his suggestions both tower anchorages were constructed so that they would remain rigid. This rigidity was secured sometimes by one means, sometimes by another, sometimes by a combination of means. Bases were made broad, or were firmly imbedded in the ground, or the towers were anchored by chains or rods to dead-eyes set off at an angle, or the bases were clamped down, or counterpoise weights were so affixed to the towers that no load weight under which the crane was operated could lift them. The top of the tower to which the cable ran could tilt neither inwards nor outwards. Defendant’s expert, referring to some of the patents (Pluchet, Sassiat) speaks of the tower yielding to the strain of the cable, but a reading of these patents shows that this is merely the usual easy assumption of the expert; each patent indicates as plainly as language can that the tower is to be so secured that, in operation, it will remain rigid, except, of course, for the minute elasticity of the wood, or steel, or other materials with which it is constructed. It may be that the art sought to avoid' tilting because it feared it, dreading lest a tilt might prove hut the initial step to a collapse. But whatever may have been the purpose of their builders, the structures of the prior art as disclosed in its patents were so built that they would not tilt in operation. Of course, with all of them it is quite conceivable that an overload might be applied to the middle of the cable, so great that (if the cable would stand the strain) it might tear out dead-eyes, or break connecting chains or rods, or straighten out holding clamps, or lift the counterpoise weights. But this would involve an abuse, not a use, of the structure; Brothers was the first to devise a structure whose use involved constant tilting back and forth.
Manifestly his patent is valid.
The infringement alleged is found in certain cableways, complete with, towers, cables, rope for hoisting, conveying, dumping, etc., buckets, motors for hoisting, conveying, and accessories, which were installed by defendant for the United States government on the line of the Panama Canal. The work was done under a contract which is in evidence and which minutely specifies the details of the entire structure and its appurtenances. It was completed in July, 1909, and after official tests was accepted by the government in August, 1909. There^ after it was operated by the government for about two years; defendant’s operation consisted merely of what was needed as a demonstration to satisfy the government that the contract had been properly carried out. The following sketch sufficiently indicates the structure installed.
Each tower rests on a trackway along which it can be moved; the portion indicated by the heavy line inclined at an angle of about 45 degrees is contended to be equivalent of the sheers, the “weight” indicated at H is a mass of concrete rigidly connected with the top of the tower. It is the contention of plaintiff that in operation the load (in the carrier) when in the' center of the cable produced such a tension on the cable that the top of the tower was pulled over inwards and the weight lifted, and that as the load moved towards the abutment the
The judgment is affirmed.