Blount Manuf'g Co. v. Bardsley

66 F. 761, 1895 U.S. App. LEXIS 3351

This text of 66 F. 761 (Blount Manuf'g Co. v. Bardsley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Eastern New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Blount Manuf'g Co. v. Bardsley, 66 F. 761, 1895 U.S. App. LEXIS 3351 (circtedny 1895).

Opinion

WHEELER, District Judge.

This suit is brought for infringement, by the same apparatus, of the second claim of letters patent 289,380, dated December 4, 1883, and the first five claims of 458,-357, dated August 25, 1891, granted to Eugene I. Blount for improvements in spring door closers with checks to prevent slamming. The most analogous of such contrivances before known were that described in patent 140,638, dated July 8, 1873, and granted to Charles W. Oldham, which was on the wall at the side of the door, and had a piston, with ports in it, working with a spring in liquid in an upright plain cylinder, and an elbow lever with one arm attached to- the piston and spring, and the other connected by a rod to the door; and those described in patents 228,776, dated June 15, 1880, and 251,790, dated January 8, 1882, and granted to Lewis C. Norton, which had each, in an air cylinder, a spiral spring to close, with a piston to regulate the closing of, the door.

The apparatus of the first of these patents of Blount has a volute spring, like that of a watch, working in a case attached to the door or jamb, with the shaft of the spring connected by levers with the jamb or door, to close the door, and connected by a crosshead with a piston, having ports in it, working in liquid in a cylinder, having an outside passage connecting its ends, controlled by a valve, to regulate the closing. The second claim of this patent is for;

“(2) The actuating spring, and mechanism for transmitting its force to the door, combined with the regulating cylinder, having a passage connecting its [763]*763ends, and a controlling valve therefor, and the piston, provided with ports through it, and a valve controlling them, and its piston rod operating upon the said mechanism actuated by the spring, substantially as described.”

In tbe apparatus of ibe other the cylinder is brought under, and at right angles to, the spring chamber, and becomes a closed liquid chamber; the piston is divided into two parts, with connections between them, one being the working part and the other a guide, and the shaft is connected by a crank and pitman with the working-end of the piston. The first five claims of this patent are for;

“(1) A door check embracing in its construction a closed spring chamber and its spring, a closed cylindrical liquid chamber arranged at a right angle to the spring chamber, a piston in said chamber, a valve adapted to operate longitudinally in said chamber, an oscillatory shaft extended through said spring chamber into the liquid chamber, and a crank and pitman connecting the shaft with the piston, as set forth.
“(2) A door check embracing in its construction a closed spring chamber, a liquid chamber below said spring chamber arranged at right angles to the spring chamber, an oscillatory shaft extending through said spring chamber into said liquid chamber, and a piston having a valved port and longitudinally movable In said liquid phamber at a right angle to the axis of said shaft, the latter being connected to the said piston to operate the same, as sot forth.
“(3) A door check embracing in its construction a vertically arranged spring-chamber, a closed liquid chamber arranged at a right angle to the axis of the spring chamber, an elongated pision in said liquid chamber, adapted to operate longitudinally of said liquid chamber, and having a valved port, and provided at its front and rear ends with bearings to substantially lit the interior of the chamber, and a shaft extending through the said spring cliamber into the liquid chamber, and connected with the piston to operate the same and be operated thereby, as set forth.
“(4) A door check comprising in its construction a closed spring chamber and its spring-closed elongated liquid chamber arranged at a right angle to the axis of the spring chamber and in juxtaposition thereto, an elongated piston in the said liquid chamber, reduced in size, intermediate of its ends, an oscillatory shaft in said spring cliamber, and extended into the liquid chamber, and a crank and pitman connecting the shaft with ilie piston and arranged to operate intermediate the ends of the latter, as set forth.
“(ó) A door cheek comiirising in its construction a closed spring chamber and a closed liquid chamber arranged at a right angle to the axis of the spring chamber, and in juxtaposition thereto, as set forth.”

The defendant’s admitted apparatus is made according to patent 464,951, dated December 35, 1891, and granted to him, but having a closed liquid cliamber below the spring chamber. It is like the plaintiff’s, exeept that the piston is worked by an eccentric on the shaft fitted between the two parts of the piston, instead of by a crank and pitman. These patents of Oldham and Norton, and many others, and other things, are set up as anticipations and as showing want of patentable invention or novelty; and the want of allegation and proof of marking articles made and sold under these patents as so patented, or of notice of the patents, is 'relied upon against recovery of damages.

As Blount was not the inventor of door closers with checks, he was entitled to a patent for such only as were different from, and improvements upon, the others. The parts, and their arrangement, of the second claim of liis first patent, are essentially different from those of either Oldham or Aorton, and together they quite obviously constitute a door closer and check different from, and [764]*764better than, that of either. These, and the other things referred to, show similar parts to these in other arrangements for other purposes; but nothing shows them working together in any arrangement like this, for this or any other purpose. The taking of these parts and bringing them together, and making them work in this arrangement, was more than mechanical, and appears to have well amounted to a patentable invention. As those mentioned contained the things nearest to these parts, a detailed reference to the others seems to be unnecessary. That claim appears, upon these considerations, to be valid.

The other patent could properly cover only specific improvements upon the apparatus of this, which had not been patented to Blount, nor known to and used by others before. Railway Co. v. Sayles, 97 U. S. 554. He and others had taken out several patents relating to this subject in time between these two; of them all, 435,678, dated-September 2, 1890, and granted to him, seems to be the nearest, and is understood to be most relied upon. The principal feature of it appears to be the working of a wing on the shaft against a partition, from the shaft, both having ports, in a liquid chamber below the spring chamber, for regulating the closing of the door. This was bringing a liquid chamber containing regulating devices under the spring chamber; but not such of either as those of this other patent, and still more not the combination of either of the first four claims. Both chambers, however, appear to be closed, and the liquid chamber to extend outward, for inclosing the mechanism, at right angles to the axis of the spring chamber, and it is in juxtaposition thereto, which constitutes the combination of the fifth claim. No reference to the more remote elements and arrangements of other patents of this time is deemed to be necessary. In this view the first four claims appear to be valid, and the fifth invalid.

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Related

Railway Co. v. Sayles
97 U.S. 554 (Supreme Court, 1878)
Dunlap v. Schofield
152 U.S. 244 (Supreme Court, 1894)
Miller v. Murray
62 F. 923 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York, 1894)

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Bluebook (online)
66 F. 761, 1895 U.S. App. LEXIS 3351, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blount-manufg-co-v-bardsley-circtedny-1895.