103 F. 314 | 1st Cir. | 1900
This appeal relates to letters patent Ho. 462,278, granted Hovember 3, 1891, to Edward L. Perry, for improvements in steam-joint pacldng. The packing consists of a piece of hollow tubing, composed of an outer rubber covering and an inner core of fibrous material, and a hollow or solid coupling-pin, made preferably of metal, which enters and unites the two ends of the tubing, thus forming a ring. This packing can readily be made into a ring of any required size, and possesses this advantage over packings which are molded into rings of various fixed sizes. The claim of the patent is as follows:
“A steam-joint packing consisting of a hollow core of cotton duck or other woven fabric, a covering of elastic material, and a coupling, the ends of which enter the ends of the packing, substantially as and for the purpose specified.”
There is nothing new or novel in a tubing made of rubber and fabric as described in the patent. This is abundantly shown by the record. The coupling which forms the other element of the combination is simply a dowel-pin. Webster’s Dictionary defines a dowel-pin as “a pin of wood or metal used for joining two pieces, as of wood, stones, etc., by -inserting part of its length in one piece, the rest of it entering a corresponding hole in the other.” In Knight, Mech. Dict. (1876) p. 735, we find this definition:
“Dowel. A pin used to connect adjacent pieces, penetrating a part of its length into each piece at right angles to the plane of junction. * * * The slabs of calcareous gypsum or Mosul marble which line the adobe palaces of Nimrod were united by wooden and bronze dowel-pins.”
Turning to the rubber art, we find it was common to unite the abutting ends of two pieces of rubber tubing, such as hose, by a coupling inserted in the ends. As was said by complainants’ expert:
“It has, been a common practice almost ever since rubber tubing began to be used, and so far back as I can remember, to couple together the ends of two rubber-tube sections by means of a coupling inserted in the ends.”
Such being the common practice respecting two pieces of tubing, there was manifestly no invention in so uniting the ends of a single piece of tubing to form a gasket or packing.
But it is said the old forms of coupling were rigid, and that in the Perry device the coupling must be compressible, and that this