11 F. Cas. 711 | U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York | 1870
The bill in this case is founded on reissued letters patent of the United States granted to the plaintiff. August 27th, 1867. for an “improved shade fixture,” on the surrender of letters .patent granted to him, as inventor, October 11th, 1864. The specification of the reissue, which is signed by the inventor, says: “This invention relates to an improvement in that class of shade fixtures in which the shade roller is provided with a spiral spring for the purpose of automatically winding up the shade. The invention consists in the application of a pawl and ratchet or notched hub, arranged in such a manner that the shade may be stopped and retained at any desired height or point, within the scope of its movement, by a simple manipulation of the shade, as hereinafter fully shown and described, the usual cord for operating or turning the shade roller being dispensed with entirely, as well as counterpoises, which have in some instances been employed, in connection with spring rollers, for holding the shade at any desired point.” The roller on which the window shade is wound has fitted within a spiral spring, which is arranged in such a manner that it will have a tendency to turn the roller and wind up the shade. This feature of a spring within a shade roller, for the purpose of winding or rolling up the shade, is stated, in the specification, not to be new. To one of the brackets in which the shade roller is hung, there is attached, by a pivot, a pawl. The pivot passes through one end of the pawl. The opposite end of the pawl has a tendency to drop, by its own gravity, on a hub, attached concentrically to a plate, which is secured to one end of the roller. The pawl is provided with a projection, which, when the pawl drops, engages with either one or two notches in the hub, and holds the roller, preventing the shade from being wound upon it Such projection is ‘made rather oblique or inclined at one side, so as to admit of being forced out of the notch, when the shade is pulled down. The other side of the projection is made at right angles with the bottom of the pawl, so as to catch firmly against the front edge of the notch, and prevent the spring from forcing the projection out therefrom, and winding up the shade. But, by pulling down the shade, so that the projection on the pawl will be forced out of the notch in which it is fitted, and then allowing the spring to turn the roller briskly back, the projection will slip over the notches, or the notches will pass under the projection, without catching, and the shade may be wound up to the desired height by the spring, the projection on the pawl catching into a notch as soon as the motion of the roller is checked. The patentee says, in his specification, that, if desired, the pawl may be placed underneath or at one side of the hub, instead of over it, as represented, and a spring be made to bear against it, in order that the projection on the pawl may engage with the notches, but that he prefers the former method. The claim is as follows; “The application to a shade roller, provided with a spiral spring for automatically raising or rolling up the shade, of a pawl and a ratchet, or notched hub, so arranged that the former will engage with the latter, at any point or height of the shade, by simply checking the rotation of the roller and the upward movement of the shade under the influence of the spring, substantially as set forth.”
In the shade fixture of the defendants, there is a roller, provided with a coiled or spiral spring, secured within it Instead of the plaintiff's hub, with two notches on the roller, the defendants have a scroll hub. with one notch, or rebate, fixed to the bracket; and, in place of the pivoted pawl of the plaintiff, the defendants have a pin or bolt, sliding in a socket, on the end of the roller. When the defendant's roller is revolving rapidly, carrying the socket and pin, the pin, which is wholly within the socket at that time, will not drop out of it by gravity, because the force of the centrifugal action,
It is shown,' by the evidence, that a witness, named Franklin N. Willard, saw in Boston, more than thirty-five years ago, a shade fixture on the window of a carriage, which fixture had been originally constructed with a pawl and a ratchet wheel, the pawl being kept in the teeth of the wheel by a spring, so that, in order to allow the coiled spring in the roller of the fixture to act to roll up the shade, it was necessary to pull and keep the pawl out of the ratchet by means of a cord attached to the pawl. The teeth in the wheel had become so worn, from long use, that, when the shade was allowed to run up with a certain rapidity, the pawl would slip over the teeth and not be caught in any one of them, the force of the spring that bore on the pawl being too great. When the shade was allowed to run up slowly, the pawl would engage properly with the teeth. The witness never saw, prior to the plaintiff’s invention, any other fixture operating like this carriage fixture, and never made one like it Such fixture was on a carriage that was brought for general repairs to a carriage shop in which the witness was employed as a workman at the time. In view of the facts, that the fixture referred to was not con
There must be a decree for the plaintiff, for a perpetual injunction and an account Qf profits, with costs.
[For other cases involving this patent, see note to Hartshorn v. Almy, Case No. 6,166.]