97 F. 795 | 6th Cir. | 1899
This is an appeal from a decree iu a patent case in which the circuit court found the po tent of the complainant to be valid, and to be infringed by the defendant’s machine. 89 Fed. 713. The patent was No. 500,084 and was granted on June 20, 1893, to C. W. Hubbard, as assignee of James Taylor, for an improvement in the manufacture of axes. The answer set up ihe defenses of invalidity for want of novelty, public use for more than two years before the application, and abandonment and noninfringement.
The patentee, in his specifications, says:
“My invention relates to the manufacture of axes and other similar eye tools, and is designed to produce a much truer, neater, and better finished article than has hitherto been possible; and, to that end, it consists in a pair of dies having a hole therethrough, and a plunger or hammer head which enters this hole and is yieldingly pressed against the ax as it lies in die mold. It also consists in the construction and arrangement of the parts as hereinafter more fully described and set forth in the claims. In the drawings. 2. 2, represent the vertical guides of a die press, tne cross head, 8, of which reciprocates between «hese guides and bears the upper die, 4. The lower die, 6, is carried upon the bed of the machine, and at one end of the dies their meeting faces are correspondingly recessed to form a hole within which fits the plunger or hammer head, 7, which is carried ' at the inner end of a sliding bar, 8, passing through one of the guides, 2, and pivoted at its outer end to a weight, 9, which hears against the same and presses it inwardly. A shoulder, 10, is formed upon the plunger, which prevents it entering too far into the mold cavity; and, as'seen in Fig. 2, the hole through which it passes is of about the same size as the end of the matrix or cavity. The weight is suspended and held in place by a link, 11, and serves to press the squared inner end of tho
plunger against the rear end of the ax lying in the dies. The dies have the usual side recesses to receive the mandrel 12, around which the ax poll is formed, and, with the exception of the end recesses for the plunger, are similar to those commonly employed. The operation is as follows: The ax with the mandrel still passing therethrough is placed in the cavity in the lower die, with the plunger hutting against the rear end of the poll, and the upper die is reciprocated. As the ax lies in a box die, it is compressed in all directions by the blow of the upper die, and is forced into the exact form desired, with a finely finished surface and a squared end to the poll, while the formation of fins between the dies is prevented by the plunger, which will give sufficiently to allow the flow of the metal endwise. The plunger or hammer head will not, however, allow sufficient endwise flow' of the metal to distort the ax on account of the quickness of the blow, it acting in the manner of an anvil. The plunger will adjust itself automatically to an ax having too little or too much metal therein, and finish the same as perfectly as one having exactly the right amount; and a spring may be employed to hold the same in place, though I prefer the weight shown. The advantages of my invention will be appreciated by those skilled in the art. The flowing of the metal sidewise, and the lengthening of the eye portion, which always takes place when open dies are used in finishing, are entirely obviated, as well as the fin formation which always occurs when ordinary box dies are employed. The surface of*797 the ax Is compressed and given a high polish, and its edges are made sharp and exact. Many variations will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art without departure from my invention, since what I claim is: (1) A pair of dies having a hole, a plunger»movable within the hole, and means for continuously forcing in said plunger with a yielding pressure, substantially as described. (2) A stationary die and a reeiprocatory die having mating recesses at one end forming a hole opening into the die cavity, a plunger within the hole, and means for exerting a continuous yielding pressure upon said plunger, substantially as and for the purposes described. (3) A stationary die and a reeiprocatory die having mating matrix cavities, a hole leading through the die to the matrix, a plunger in the hole, and a weight arranged to exert a constant pressure upon said plunger, substantially as described.”
The following sketch aids in understanding the machines;
One of the defendant’s experts attempted to show that the Taylor patent is invalid for want of novelty. Dayton, the other expert for the defendant, does not say so, but only seeks to limit the scope of the patent by prior devices in the art. Box dies in the manufacture of axes were old. The drop hammer in the forging of axes was old. In the Hammond patent and in the Cole patent, closed dies had been formed by bringing together more than two pieces. In the Cole patent, and possibly in the Hammond patent, springs or cushions were used to permit one of the bases making up the die to yield where there was an excess of metal in the ax poll. This was, as stated in the patents, for the purpose of preventing a breaking of the machine. In neither the Cole nor the Hammond patent was the compression of the metal in the dies effected by a blow, but only by grad
In the light of these facts and admissions, we think the case presents very little room for discussion of the meritoriousness or novelty of the invention, and that the only issue of serious moment is that of infringement. The question is whether the defendant’s machine comes within the three claims' of the patent or any one of them. For the sake of clearness we repeat the claims:
“What I claim is: (1) A pair of dies having a hole, a plunger movable within the hole, and means for continuously forcing in said plunger with a yielding pressure, substantially as described. (21 A stationary die and a reciprocatory die having mating recesses at one end forming a hole opening into the die cavity, a plunger within the hole, and means for exerting a continuous yielding pressure upon said plunger, substantially as and for the purposes described. (3) A stationary die and a reciprocatory die having mating matrix cavities, a hole leading through the die to the matrix, a plunger in the hole, and a weight arranged to exert a constant pressure upon said plunger; substantially as described.”
It is conceded by the defendant’s witnesses that, when the defendant first began to use a machine of this character, it used the Taylor machine, constructed exactly as the patent directs; that the defendant’s officers were warned by Hubbard that they were infringing his patent; that they took the infringing machine, and for the purpose of avoiding the claims of the patent they made some changes, and produced the defendant’s present machine. A comparison of the sketch of the defendant’s machine and the patent will show how slight these changes were. The comparison may be made by refer ence to the following illustrations:
The only change made by the defendants was to shorten the hole at the back of the die. They planed away the rear of the ends of the dies transversely to a point substantially flush with the head end. of the matrix cavity, but left this end open as before. They then made a bumper die of larger cross section than the hole, which was yieldingly pressed against the end of the dies to close the hole. When asked why this rear recess -was planed out in the dies, Oliver King, one of the officers of the defendant company, answered, “We planed
The defenses of prior use and abandonment can very easily be disposed of. This patent was applied for in 1892. There is evidence that an experiment was made by complainants to test the practicability of such a device in 1887, but that only half a dozen ax polls were made in the course of the experiment, and it was not taken up again by the complainant and put into practical operation until 1892; that the lire in the complainant’s works prevented an earlier development of that which the experiment of 1887 indicated might become a useful improvement. Under the doctrine of the case of Manufacturing Co. v. Sprague, 123 U. S. 249, 8 Sup. Ct. 122, it is clear that the evidence here does not make a case of publ ie use, within the meaning of the statute. Nor is there any more weight in the defense of abandonment. Tavior thinks he conceived of the patent some lime between 1883 and 1887. Nothing was done by him or any one else with respect to it until the attempt was made by Hubbard to follow Taylor’s directions in the experiment in 1887, and subsequently 'by the successful manufacture and operation of the machine in 1892. Taylor then applied for the patent. There is here no evidence of abandonment, but simply delay in the development of the conception by practical application. If, as between Taylor and some other inventor, the question were of prior invention, and the other inventor had conceived of the invention some time after 1883, and had perfected it before Taylor, it might be contended that Taylor s conduct constituted laches, giving the other priority, but here there is no prior inventor claiming a rigid: to the patent. At least, upon the question o! abandonment, no such issue arises.
Evidence has been introduced of a man named Estep, who claims that he first conceived of this device, and that the invention was his, and not Taylor’s. This is denied by Taylor and Hubbard, both of whom had full knowledge of all the fads. In view' of the failure of Estep for many years after his alleged conception, and after Taylor