111 F. 409 | U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Pennsylvania | 1901
Benjamin Masseth files this bill against William H. Larkin et al., cnarging infringement of claims i and 2 of patent No. 439,166, granted to him on October 28, 1890, for a packer for deep wells. A statement of the general art involved will be found in Masseth v. Palm (C. C.) 51 Fed. 824, and of the particular device disclosed by this patent in Masseth v. Palm (No. 18, May term, 1891). The validity of Masseth’s patent is not questioned, but infringement is denied. After careful consideration, we are of opinion this defense must be sustained. In the combination of each claim we find the element of “arms adapted to engage with the sides of the hole, and to hold the casing to afford resistance to the packer.” Engagement of the arms with the well sides was by bowed springs on the outer arm side. The functional purpose of these springs was twofold. One is specified in the patent, viz.:
“When it is desired to expand the packer, the casing is lifted somewhat, and the friction of the springs, 8, against the sides of the hole causes the casing to rise within the collar, 6, and the ends of the arms, 7, to draw out from the grooves.”
The other is set forth in the opinion of this court in the case noted above in discussing the device infringing this patent, viz.:
“The wedge arms are normally in loose- engagement with the well walls by the outward spring of their upper ends, instead of by leaf springs on the wedge arms, as in the Masseth and Black devices. It is this normal engagement in all three with the well walls which affords the purchase or base by which the ring and wedge arms are kept in one position while the casing is moved within them and the apparatus locked or unlocked.”
Now, in respondent’s device we not only find no arms such as are specified, but we further find an entire absence from the device anywhere of one of the functions effected by the springs. Moreover, while the other function is used, it is in a different manner, and in combination with different means. The arms of the respondent have no springs, and they do no.t normally engage the wall sides. Respondent’s device does not involve the mere absence of springs on the arms, but its construction is such that if springs were placed on the arms they would make the packer inoperative. Owing to this functional wall engagement, the slips in Masseth’s device had to be positively restrained or locked, and this necessitated another element in the combination, viz. “a lock for holding said arms.” In the respondent’s device the arms are on a loose ring, and not only is no “lock for holding said arms” provided, but independently and of themselves they normally remain out of operative relation. Then, too, as to the other function of the Masseth bowed springs on the arms, viz. as a “purchase or-base by which the ring and wedge arms are kept in one position while the casing is moved within them and the apparatus locked or unlocked,” while it is made use of in principle in the respondent’s device, it is used in a way substantially different. In the latter, bowed springs in loose engagement with the well walls are mounted on a sleeve which internally engages with the casing by screw threads. When the casing is turned, the