Benbow-Brammer Mfg. Co. v. Straus

158 F. 627, 1908 U.S. App. LEXIS 4965
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York
DecidedMarch 23, 1908
DocketNo. 9,630
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 158 F. 627 (Benbow-Brammer Mfg. Co. v. Straus) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Benbow-Brammer Mfg. Co. v. Straus, 158 F. 627, 1908 U.S. App. LEXIS 4965 (circtsdny 1908).

Opinion

RAY, District Judge.

Claim 1 of the patent in suit has been under consideration by the courts many times, and its validity sustained. Schroeder v. Brammer (C. C.) 98 Fed. 880; Brammer v. Schroeder, 106 Fed. 918, 46 C. C. A. 41; Benbow-Brammer Co. v. Simpson (C. C.) 132 Fed. 614; Benbow-Brammer Co. v. Heffron Tanner Co. (C. C.) 144 Fed. 429; Benbow-Brammer Co. v. Richmond Cedar Works (C. C.) 149 Fed. 430; Benbow-Brammer Co. v. Wayne Mfg. Co. (C. C.) 157 Fed. 559. However, its scope, its standing as a pioneer or as a mere improvement, is important in determining whether or not the defendant infringes. In Benbow-Brammer Co. v. Richmond Cedar Works (reported in 149 Fed. 430 on application for preliminary injunction), Judge Kohlsaat, on final hearing, has decided that defendant does not infringe. He arrives at the conclusion that Schroeder’s invention resided in the “cylinder mounted upon an operating post and having a vertical sliding movement thereon and also having a double row of teeth or cogs meshing with the teeth of the cog at the end of the driving shaft in such a manner as to secure a reciprocating rotary movement of the cylinder,” and which, as he understands claim 1, is the third element of that claim; that the means employed by defendant does not include this cylinder, or an allowable equivalent, giving the Schroeder patent its proper construction in view of the prior art; and that therefore defendant does not infringe. If correct in this interpretation of the claim in suit and [628]*628of defendant’s device and its operation, his conclusion is, of course, correct.

Claim 1 of the patent in suit reads as follows:

“1. An operating shaft having a rotary reciprocating motion, a cylinder placed upon the shaft, and having a sliding movement thereon, and through which cylinder motion is alone communicated to the shaft, and a double row of teeth or cogs upon the cylinder extending at an angle to the shaft, combined with a driving shaft having means for revolving it attached to one end, and a wheel for engaging the teeth on the cylinder at the other, the driving shaft being driven continuously in one direction, substantially as shown.”

The first element is the operating shaft, which is moved for a time in one direction and then for the same length of time in another. In a washing machine, or any other for that matter, whatever is attached to the lower end of this shaft will be carried first in the one direction and then in the other. Hence clothing in a washtub will not be wound about it. This operating shaft properly pivoted could be given this motion by an arm or lever attached to its upper end, and alternately pushed and pulled by the operator. Schroeder, however, sought to impart this- reciprocatory motion continuously and uniformly by means of a horizontal driving shaft continuously turned or driven in one direction by means of a crank or handle at one end. It is self-evident that the necessary reciprocating motion of the operating shaft will be produced by cogs on the operating shaft meshing with cogs on the driving shaft, continuously driven or turned in one direction, provided the cogs on the driving shaft so mesh with those on the operating shaft as to move them first in one direction and then in the other. Moving the cogs on the operating shaft, assuming them to be integral therewith, from left to right, carries the shaft and the stirrer in the tub attached thereto in the same direction. So from right to left the same result. Now, if by some arrangement of parts the continuous movement of the cogs on the driving shaft in one direction can be made to so mesh with those on or attached to the operating shaft as to move them first from left to right and then from right to left, the problem is solved. This is what Schroeder set himself to do. It was self-evident that the result sought would be accomplished if the cogs on the driving shaft, it being stationary, but revolving from left to right, should for a time mesh with those on the operating shaft from above and then for the same length of time from below. Where meshing from above, the cogs of the driving shaft moving from left to right would pull those of the operating shaft from' right to left and turn that shaft in the same direction,, right to left. Where meshing from below, the cogs of the driving shaft moving in the same direction, that is from left to right, would push those of the operating shaft from left to right and move that shaft in the same direction, left to right. It was now necessary to provide some means or construction which would either transfer the cogs of the driving shaft from the upper to the lower side of the cogs of the operating shaft at short intervals, or transfer the cogs of the operating shaft from the upper to the lower side of the cogs of the driving shaft at short intervals.

Hence Schroeder provides means for doing this in the following manner: Upon his operating shaft he places a cylinder or sleeve, the [629]*629shaft being so constructed that the cylinder will not turn thereon, which sleeve will slide up and down, this movement being limited. This sleeve has a double row of cogs, upper and lower cogs, extending at an angle to the shaft. If now motion is communicated to those cogs, the cylinder is turned, and the operating shaft with it, and thus through this cylinder motion is communicated to the shaft as it cannot turn thereon. The sole and only purpose of the sliding movement is to give to the cogs on the operating shaft the necessary up and down movement at the proper time; that is, allow them to pass from the upper to the lower side^pf the cogs on tire driving shaft. The shaft itself has no up and down movement, but the part of it (considering the cylinder as a part of it) carrying the cogs does. The driving" shaft and cogs thereof have no movement in any direction except to revolve. It is perfectly obvious that, if the cogs of the operating shaft are made integral with it, and it does not move up and down, the same result will be accomplished; that is, the imparting of the reciprocal or reciprocating motion to the operating shaft, by making the driving shaft, or the part of it carrying the cogs which are to mesh with the cogs of the operating shaft, movable up and down so as to allow its cogs to pass from the upper to the lower side of the cogs of the operating shaft. This is exactly what defendants have done in their construction now before the court and alleged to constitute an infringement of the complainant’s patent. To do this they have enlarged the operating shaft and grooved it above and below its cogs so as to furnish a road for the inner end of the driving shaft to traverse, and thus effect complete and perfect meshing and the proper transfer of the cogs of the driving shaft from the one side of the cogs of the operating shaft to the other. They have jointed the driving shaft so its inner end carrying the cogs will move up and down in a slit or mortise in the frame, and thus, instead of the cogs on the operating shaft moving up and down at the proper moments of time, each two revolutions of the driving shaft, the cogs on the driving shaft move up and down, or are carried up and down with the pivoted or hinged end thereof. If there is anything patentable in Schroeder’s claim 1, in suit, any conception that entitled him to consideration, it has been appropriated in the construction of these defendants. There is, however, quite a difference, several differences, in the means employed for carrying the idea into effect.

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Related

Walker v. Giles
207 F. 825 (N.D. New York, 1913)
Benbow-Brammer Mfg. Co. v. Richmond Cedar Works
170 F. 965 (Seventh Circuit, 1909)
Wayne Mfg. Co. v. Benbow-Brammer Mfg. Co.
168 F. 271 (Eighth Circuit, 1909)
Sharp v. Bellinger
168 F. 295 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Northern New York, 1909)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
158 F. 627, 1908 U.S. App. LEXIS 4965, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/benbow-brammer-mfg-co-v-straus-circtsdny-1908.