C. J. Tower & Sons v. United States

17 Cust. Ct. 72, 1946 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 499
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedSeptember 13, 1946
Docket(C. D. 1023)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 17 Cust. Ct. 72 (C. J. Tower & Sons v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Customs Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
C. J. Tower & Sons v. United States, 17 Cust. Ct. 72, 1946 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 499 (cusc 1946).

Opinion

Cole, Judge:

The Norton Co. of Chippawa, Canada, exported to its parent company, the Norton Co. of Worcester, Mass., a shipment of merchandise invoiced as “Crude Artificial Abrasive (#38 Alun-dum).” Plaintiff, a customs brokerage firm, entered the goods at Buffalo where the collector of customs classified the same as refined bauxite under paragraph 6 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U. S. C. 1940 ed. § 1001, par. 6), assessing duty thereunder at one-half of 1 cent per pound. Plaintiff’s principal claim is for free entry of the shipment under the provision in paragraph 1672 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U. S. C. 1940 ed. § 1201, par. 1672) for “crude artificial abrasives, not specially provided for.”

It is immediately important that we examine the somewhat lengthy testimony offered by both sides. For the plaintiff, four witnesses testified, three of whom were employees of the Canadian manufacturer and exporter. We now reduce their testimony to a factual summation.

The office manager stated that his employer manufactures crude abrasives which are divided into two categories; i. e., aluminous [73]*73abrasives and silicon carbon abrasives; that the term "Alundum” is used by the company to designate its aluminous abrasives; and that tbe instant merchandise, which had no commercial use until 1939, is identified as "38 alundum in pellet form,” as distinguished from the other form of “38 alundum” which has been produced and exported in chunks or lumps since 1926. All of the manufacturer’s production of the imported material is sent to the parent company in Worcester, Mass., where “it has to be treated and crushed and sized.”

The head of the developing section of the research laboratory is responsible for development of the process by which the merchandise in question is manufactured. The raw material, purchased from the Aluminum Co. of America, is “Bayer process alumina,” a highly purified, white, sugary-like substance derived from refined bauxite. It is aluminum oxide in a very pure form containing “a minor amount of soda, trace of titania, about three-hundredths of a per cent of iron. Altogether the total alumina content would add up something in excess of 99.5 per cent.”

The “Bayer process” alumina is fed into a water-cooled furnace shell (Higgins type) to which a small amount (one-quarter of 1 percent of the furnace charge) of petroleum coke is added, and the mixture is fused by direct arc means. The resulting liquid is subjected to a quick-cooling process by being poured into a stream of high velocity cold water, producing the imported pellets which, without further processing, are sent to the Norton Co. of Worcester where, after further crushing, they are “hydro-classified, ball milled, acid treated, calcined, and sized.”

The imported pellets were characterized as “a minor variation of our 38 alundum,” an identification which was clarified by statements to the effect that “38 alundum” is manufactured largely in lump form. Chemically, the constituent elements in both pellets and lumps are substantially the same, the principal difference between the two types being their physical structure. The imported material was produced experimentally during 1918 and again during 1939, but production in commercial quantities was not developed until the spring of 1940.

The chief chemist at the Canadian exporter’s plant testified that the imported pellets are produced from refined bauxite, known as “Bayer process” alumina, which is “processed in the furnace, poured, and cooled.” His quantitative analysis of the material in question revealed the following constituents:

The silica, Sio2, was .10 per cent; the iron content, Fe203 was .04; the titania content, Ti02, was a trace, and the alkali or soda content, Na20, is .02 per cent. The balance of the material was aluminum oxide.

[74]*74The material is essentially aluminum oxide, being “recrystallized aluminum oxide,” possessing the same constituent elements now that it had before being rendered into the form of pellets. ,

The assistant director of research of the Norton Co. of Worcester, by whom the imported merchandise was finally received and processed for ultimate use in this country, also testified on behalf of plaintiff. He became associated with the company in 1916, having worked since then in the research laboratory, developing the application of microscopic techniques toward the study of abrasives, abrasive products, and refractors. The duties of his present position ás supervisor of the research laboratories bring him in close contact with the manufacture and sale of the Norton Co.’s products, and necessarily require a thorough familiarity with the materials used by his company, the kind of products sold, the nature of the customers’ business, and the use to which his products are put.

According to this witness, Mr. Abraham Albert Klein, the Norton Co. of Worcester manufactures abrasives, abrasive products, refractory materials, wear-resistant materials, and various types of grinding machines. It divides its abrasives and abrasive products into three categories, each of which is designated by a trade name; i. e., fused alumina abrasives, “Alundum”; a silicon carbide abrasive, “Crysto-lon”; and a boron carbide abrasive, “Norbide.” The aluminous abrasives, “Alundum,” are further classified, according to the degree of purity of aluminum oxide, as “Regular Alundum,” “57 Alundum,” and “38 Alundum,” the last being the purest.

The instant merchandise is a subdivision of “38 Alundum” and is identified as “E-163” or “38 Alundum Low Soda.” It is synthetic aluminum oxide, made out of Bayer process alumina, fused in an electric furnace, and tapped into a stream of water that quickly chills it. The imported material is not refined bauxite because Bayer process alumina (refined bauxite) has been changed to some extent in its chemical composition by lowering the sodium oxide content “but more particularly from the physical state because it has produced a material with a range of crystals and with the type of crystal shape that is necessary for the commercial use of the final product made from it.” The heating process imparts to the Bayer process alumina desirable properties for its ultimate use as an abrasive or a refractor.

The merchandise in question is the only kind of “Alundum” produced in pellet form; all others are made in lump form. The pellets are slightly purer, chemically, than the lumps, but the important difference is in the physical nature of the alumina crystals. The pellets are recognized as crude material because they are of no use in their imported form.

As of June 17, 1930, the date of enactment of the Tariff Act of 1930, “Regular Alundum” and “38 Alundum” were chiefly used for [75]*75abrasive purposes, but “57 Alundum” bad not been developed as a commercial abrasive. The merchandise in question, “E-163” or “38 Alundum Low Soda,” existed, prior to passage of the Tariff Act of 1930, only as experimental material and was not developed for commercial usage until 1940. Since then, it has been used entirely in the production of a material chiefly used “as a coating for the heaters which are in radio tubes,” and having “a minor use as a fine abrasive material.” The value of the finished product as a refractory material and as an abrasive lies in the “hardness” of the raw material, Bayer process alumina.

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Related

C. J. Tower & Sons v. United States
17 Cust. Ct. 80 (U.S. Customs Court, 1946)

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Bluebook (online)
17 Cust. Ct. 72, 1946 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 499, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/c-j-tower-sons-v-united-states-cusc-1946.