212 F. 434 | W.D. Pa. | 1914
The bill is filed in this case for the infringement of two. patents issued to Alfred Ernst, and by him assigned to the Coal & Coke By-Products Company. Of these patents No. 896,365 is dated August 18, 1908, and No. 900,062 is dated September 29, 1908. Of the defendants, Alfred Ernst is the above-named pat-entee, and he is a stockholder of and prominently connected with the operations of the Roessing-Ernst Company, a corporation,, also a defendant, and the other defendant is the Best Manufacturing Company, a corporation.
The pleadings and the evidence show that the Roessing-Ernst Company contracted to furnish a certain gas-washing apparatus to the Mapbeth-Evans Company, and that it let the contract for. the building of it to the Best Manufacturing Company, furnishing that company with drawings and specifications. It is alleged that these drawings and specifications show an apparatus which is an infringement of plaintiff's patents, and that the apparatus as constructed by the Best Manufacturing Company is an infringement likewise.
Let us have first clearly before us what the apparatus described by these patents is; for while one is for a process and the other is for an apparatus, they may easily and fully be considered together. The apparatus consists of' an inverted cup placed within an upright casing, leaving a space between the outer wall of the inverted cup and the inner wall of the casing. The inverted cup is fixed to a shaft passing vertically through its center, so that it may be made to revolve inside of the outer casing. The apparatus is sealed at the top to prevent the escape of gas. The outer casing is built upon a foundation, and within this foundation is a space filled with water for the purpose of sealing the apparatus and preventing the escape of gas downwardly, and also for the purpose of catching and retaining the tar, ammonia, and other
We have carefully examined all of the patents introduced by the defendants for the purpose of showing the prior state of the art, and have also read and considered the evidence concerning the patents submitted by both plaintiff and defendants. Without discussing them in detail, we are satisfied that the evidence shows that every element set forth in the specifications and claims of the two patents in suit was old at the time of the granting of the patents. It clearly appears that the spraying of gas with water, or the bringing of gas into contact with water on its admission into the cleaning device, had been discovered and used before these patents were granted. Causing the gas to pass in one direction, either horizontally or vertically, and to meet the water passing in the opposite direction, was old. The treatment of gas by revolving fans and the beating of the gas saturated with water, so as. to separate by centrifugal action the impurities or substances held in suspension, was old. The-arrangement within gas-cleaning machines by which the gas on its passage toward the exit would be constantly, meeting purer and cleaner water was old.
It appears conclusively to us that the whole apparatus and the process, as shown by the evidence, to be used by the defendants is an infringement of plaintiff’s patents, and the defendants should be restrained perpetually from such infringement. .