113 F. 588 | U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York | 1901
The bilfis filed to enjoirthe infringement of claim 8 of letters patent No. 383,258, issued May 22, 1888, to John W. Sutton. The complainants have succeeded to the rights under the patent, and the present motion is for an injunction pending final hearing. Claim 8 is as follows:
“8. The combination of a fixed stretcher bar, means for intermittently feeding the shin over the same, a stationary card above the stretcher bar. a rotary separating brush below the same, and mechanism, substantially as described, whereby the rotary brush is moved upward and forward into a position in front of the stretcher liar, substantially as set forth.”
The patent has been considered and sustained by Judge Townsend,, in Cimiotti Unhairing Co. v. Bowsky (C. C.) 95 Fed. 474; Same v. American Unhairing Mach. Co. (C. C.) 108 Fed. 82; and by Judge Wheeler, in Same v. Mischke (C. C.) 98 Fed. 297. The defendant denies infringement, and seeks to differentiate its device in several particulars, only two of which require discussion — First, that a stationary card above the stretcher bar is not used, but that on the upper side of the stretcher bar, and very close to the edge thereof, are arranged two rollers, hereinafter described; and, second, that a rotary separating brush is not used below the stretcher bar, but rather a segmental rotary brush, which is not a separating brush, and which is in a fixed location, and has no movement with relation to the fixed stretcher bar other than its rotary movement. The defendant’s evidence furnishes the following description of its device and the manner of its operation:
“Tlie pelt, market! T’ on said drawings, is fastened to an apron, and is intermittently fed by mechanism, not shown, over the edge of a lint stretcher bar, marked ‘B," which has a rounded edge. On the upper side of the stretcher bar, and very close to the edge thereof, are arranged two rollers, marked ‘E’ and ‘KV the roller being covered with emery cloth, a iid being fastened so as to bear firmly against the pelt, and thereby produce a tension upon the pelt, and also causes both the hair and the fur to lie down closely thereon, and holds them in that position, so that they cannot escape until the pelt is fed forward. Arranged 9% inches from the edge of the stretcher bar is a rotating shaft, marked ‘DV having arms, d, thereon, to which is fastened a carding brush marked '1)2.’ This carding brush is segmental, and is provided with seven narrow brushes, each comprising four rows of stiff bristles very close together at their outer edges. A pair of plucking jaws, K and K', reciprocating in fixed guides, X, passes the edge of the stretcher bar. The lower jaw is hinged at H to the rear of the upper jaw, and is automatically opened by a cam device, not shown in the drawings, and is closed by the action of a strong spring, S, which causes the lower jaw to swing on its pivot in the arc of a circle of throe and a half inch radius, and close against the upper jaw, with great force. The biting edge of the upper jaw is flat, and the biting edge of the lower jaw is beveled, and is narrower than the upper jaw, so that the outer edge of the lower jaw is about one thirty-second of an inch within the outer*590 edge of the upper jaw. When the jaws are closed, the jaws are reciprocated by a red, R, actuated by an eccentric, not shown in the drawings, which causes the biting edge of the upper jaw to pass about one-eighth of' an inch below the stretcher bar. .The guides, X, X, in which the jaws reciprocate, are arranged at an off angle, w, to the stretcher bar, as illustrated by the dotted lines, a, b, so that the jaws not only descend below the stretcher bar but approach a vertical plane, passing through the edge-of the stretcher bar as they reach their lowermost and operative position. The operation of this machine is as follows: The pelt having been fixed to the apron which passes over a stretcher bar, the rollers E and E' are put in place, and the pelt is fed forward by the automatic feeding mechanism. The rotation of the carding brush causes the same to engage with the hair and fur, which has been released from the roller, E, by the feeding forward of the pelt, and card or straighten out the hair and fur simultaneously, as clearly shown in defendant’s machine Exhibit No. 1. The brush then passes out of contact with both the hair and fur, which have been carded, and thereupon permits the hairs to spring out from the fur by reason of the great resiliency of the hair, and by the further reason that the skin is held under tension by the roller, E, it being a well-known fact that the water hairs are much stiffer and more resilient than the fur, and are deeper rooted in the pelt than the fur, so that the hairs tend to spring out more rapidly, more quickly, than the fur. Meanwhile, as the hairs are springing out from the fur by reason of their greater resiliency, the jaws are descending, and, by reason of the angle at which the guides are placed, are approaching closer to the pelt. When the jaws have reached the position shown in defendant’s machine Exhibit 3, the lower jaw is automatically released, and because of the curvilinear motion of the lower jaw in closing it gathers up the projecting water hairs and carries them against the upper jaw, which is below the plane of the stretcher bar, and thereby snaps them in two. The jaws are then carried away from and above the-stretcher bar, and the pelt is thereupon automatically fed forward one sixty-fourth of an inch by the feeding mechanism, and releases more hair and-fur from the rollers, E. and E'. This released hair and fur is thereupon-engaged and carded out by the carding brush, D2, as heretofore described, and the cutting operation is repeated, and so on until the pelt is unhaired. * * * Exhibit No. 1, defendant’s machine, shows the position, of the hair and fur at the time the brush is operating thereon with absolute accuracy. No hair or fur whatever at any time stands out until after the last of the small brushes comprising the carding ,brush has passed out of operative contact with the pelt, and has passed a considerable distance beyond the-same. The distance between the rows of bristles in defendant’s brush is so slight that its action is, so far as the hair and fur are concerned, precisely as it would be were the brush solid, — that is to say, the bristles continuous. The only object in making this carding brush of independent small brushes with intervals is to enable same to be kept free from the-hair and fur more readily than would be possible if the brush were made solid.”
It is urged by the defendant that the rollers above the stretcher bar and the brush below the stretcher bar press down the fur and-long hairs alike, and that under the complainants’ patent the card, E, and the brush, F, compress the fur alone, allowing the longhair to spring up or remain standing, while the card or brush is ■ in contact with the skin, and also that the under brush, F, remains longer in contact with the fur, holding it down during the operation, of cutting. The roller otherwise performs the same office as does the card, E, acting not only to maintain the tension of the skin,, but also for the purpose of pressing down the fur. Upon the argument the court, in answer to its inquiries, did not discover that-any different result was obtained from the failure of the complainants’ device to press the long hairs down with the fur, or that the-
The defendant’s machine appears clearly to fall within claim 8, as construed by Judge Townsend, and the motion for the injunction must prevail.