Bituminous Products Co. v. Headley Good Roads Co.

2 F.2d 83, 1924 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1089
CourtDistrict Court, D. Delaware
DecidedOctober 16, 1924
DocketNo. 526
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 2 F.2d 83 (Bituminous Products Co. v. Headley Good Roads Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bituminous Products Co. v. Headley Good Roads Co., 2 F.2d 83, 1924 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1089 (D. Del. 1924).

Opinion

MORRIS, District Judge.

The bill of complaint of Bituminous Products Company, owner, and the Barber Asphalt Company, exclusive licensee, of reissued letters patent No. 15,401, granted July 4, 1922, to L. S. Van Westrum, for improvements in methods of making roads, charges tbe defendant, Headley Good Roads Company, with infringing the first three claims of that patent.

The defenses are invalidity and non-infringement. Tbe specification states:

“My invention relates to improvements in methods of making roads, streets, public squares, roadbeds of railways, and other like surfaces by means of an asphaltic cement laid cold. Bituminous roads, streets, etc., like sheet asphalt, tar macadam, bitulithic asphalt macadam, have hitherto usually been built in tbe following manner: The sand, stone, etc., have to be heated, and also tbe bitumen, like asphalt, tar, etc., and these materials have to be mixed hot and spread hot over a given foundation. * * •

“My invention does away with beating in any form when tbe pavement is to be laid. Tbe broken stone, sand, gravel, or earth is used in its natural condition. * * * For this purpose I liquefy bard bitumen, like natural asphalt, artificial asphalt, or tbe like, by beating tbe same and mixing it with any suitable flux, like residuum of mineral oils, or residuum of cotton seed or similar oils. In case I use a softer bitumen, liko Texas, California, or Kansas asphalt, which contains enough natural flux, I use these asphaltums pure, or with a smaller percentage of flux. I make these mixtures emulsifiable in water, and the products thus obtained are mixed with cold stone, sand, or earth, by band or machinery, and spread upon tbe roadway on a given foundation and then compacted. * * * After a few hours tbe action of tbe air oxidizes the emulsified asphaltic cement, and the whole mixture of stone, etc., and emulsified asphaltic cement malees a compact mass, which is waterproof and bard enough to withstand any kind of traffic, and yet elastic.

“By 'bard bitumen’ I mean asphaltums, tar, etc., which are not fluid when cold. * * * I do not limit my invention to any special process of emulsifying tbe bitumen, but I claim that it is novel to use as the base of my asphaltic cement hard bitumen, which is not fluid when cold, in excess over fluxes and chemicals.”

Claims 1 and 2 are substantially alike. Claims 1 and 3 read thus:

“1. The method of building roads which consists in mixing with tbe materials constituting tbe mineral aggregate in their natural condition an asphaltic cement whose base is hard bitumen in excess over fluxes and chemicals, and emulsified with an agent whose basis is water, and in spreading and compacting tbe mixture on a suitable foundation.”

“3. The method of building roads, which consists in employing an oxidizable bituminous emulsion, comprising a bituminous cement emulsified with an agent whose basis is water, mixing this emulsion with a cold mineral aggregate, and spreading and com[84]*84paeting the mixture upon a suitable foundation, whereby the emulsion through action of the air, soon oxidizes and becomes insoluble in water, with production of a waterproof wearing surface.”

In support of its defense of invalidity the defendant -asserts that the patent is lacking in both novelty and invention; that it is not in such full, clear, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it appertains to practice or use it; that the reissue revives claims abandoned during the pendency of the application for the original patent No. 956,009, granted April 26, 1910; that the reissue introduces new matter; and that claim 3 thereof is broader than the original patent.

Bituminous roads antedated the application for the original of the patent in suit. As said by the patentee in his specification, such roads had usually been built by heating and mixing the sand or stone and the bitumen hot, and spreading such mixed materials hot over a prepared foundation. In such hot construction the bituminous content was not pure bitumen, but was a bitumen containing a flux. It was a common practice in such construction to use a bitumen in which the hard asphalt was in excess of the flux, though if a particularly hard asphalt or a heavy flux was used the flux could be in excess of the asphalt. The asphalt so used' was both “natural asphalt” and “artificial asphalt.” The so-called “natural asphalt” was the lake asphalt, such as Trinidad and Bermudas. The practice of fluxing (not emulsifying) such asphalts for paving purposes had existed since their introduction in this country, some time prior to the year 1880. The so-called “artificial asphalt” was the residuum obtained by driving off by distillation oils from petroleums having an asphaltie base, such as the Texas, California, or Kansas petroleums. The distillation could be continued until the oils were almost entirely driven off, and the residuum too hard to be used for paving purposes without fluxing, or it could be discontinued when, the residuum arrived at a consistency or degree of hardness suitable for the purpose desired.

In the reissued patent in suit Van West-rum describes and claims a method of making roads by means of asphaltic cement laid cold. More particularly his method consists in mixing with the materials, such as stone, sand, gravel, or earth, constituting the mineral aggregate, in their natural condition—that is, unheated—an asphaltic cement whose base is hard bitumen in excess over fluxes and chemicals, emulsified with an agent, whose basis is water, and in spreading and compacting the mixture on a suitable foundation. Assuming that the reissued patent has the same effect and operation as if it had been originally filed in its present form, is it valid?

The application for the original patent No. 956,009, was filed April 13, 1909. At that time, as has been pointed out, it was not novel in the hot construction of roads to mix with the materials constituting the mineral aggregate an asphaltie cement having a base of hard bitumen in excess over fluxes and chemicals and in spreading and compacting the mixture on a suitable foundation. Nor was the cold construction of roads then novel. Such construction probably had its origin soon after the advent of the automobile, in the use of emulsions for the laying of dust, but the use of cold emulsions as a permanent binding agent for the stones, sand, gravel, and dust-forming roadbeds followed fast upon their dust-laying use. Likewise the tendency to use oils and emulsions having a greater and greater asphaltic content soon developed. The state and development of the art is illustrated by many patents.

United States patent No. 752,487, of Van Westrum, applied for December 10, 1903, and granted February 16, 1904, is for a method of sprinkling streets. The specification states (page 1, lines 65 to 69):

“For the purpose of my invention in using a soluble sprinkling liquid I employ oily substances, such as petroleum, petroleum residue, or other suitable mineral or tar oils rendered soluble in water by any known process. * * * ”

Lines 16 to 21, page 2, read thus:

“Finally, my improved sprinkling medium diffuses much easier than petroleum in the road surfaces covered with dust particles and binds permanently the stones, sand, dust, and earthy material or the like forming the roadbed.”

It is to be observed that the oily substances employed are not restricted to. crude oils or oils of any particular character.

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Bluebook (online)
2 F.2d 83, 1924 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1089, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bituminous-products-co-v-headley-good-roads-co-ded-1924.