Edison v. American Mutoscope & Biograph Co.

151 F. 767, 81 C.C.A. 391, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 4202
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedMarch 5, 1907
DocketNo. 153
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 151 F. 767 (Edison v. American Mutoscope & Biograph Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Edison v. American Mutoscope & Biograph Co., 151 F. 767, 81 C.C.A. 391, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 4202 (2d Cir. 1907).

Opinion

LACOMBE, Circuit Judge

(after stating the facts). Upon the ap)eal in the first suit we discussed the prior art and the general character )f the device sought to be patented at very great length. It is unnecessary to repeat that discussion. All that was said in the prior opinion, zowever, may be considered as embodied herein, since the conclusion hereinafter expressed is founded upon the findings then made, and which nothing in the present record or argument induces us to qualify n any manner. We held that Edison was “not a pioneer in the large sense of the term, or in the limited sense in which he would have been if he had invented the film. He was not the inventor of the film. He was not the first inventor of apparatus capable of producing suitable negatives, taken from practically a single point of view, in single-line sequence upon a film like his, and embodying the same general means of rotating drums and shutters for bringing the sensitized surface across the lens and exposing successive portions of it in rapid succession. * * * Neither was he the first inventor of apparatus capable of producing suitable negatives and embodying means for passing a sensitized surface'across a single lens camera at a high rate of speed and with an intermittent motion, and for exposing successive portions of the surfaces during periods of rest.” Also that “the real invention, if it involved invention as distinguished from improvement, probably consists of details" of organization, by which the capacity of the reels and moving devises are augmented and adapted to carry the film of the patent rapidly and properly.”

Upon the record in that cause, however, we held that the “prior art did not disclose the specific type of apparatus which is described in his patent. His apparatus is capable of using a single sensitized and flexible film of great length with a single lens camera, and of oroducing an indefinite number of negatives on such a film with a rapidity theretofore unknown.” The case was therefore an appropriate one for re[770]*770issue under section 4916, Rev. St. U. S. [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3393], since there is no suggestion of any fraudulent or deceptive intention in claiming more than the patentee was found to be entitled to. Upon reissue with claims restricted to the specific type of apparatus described in the patent, the question would be presented whether those claims as thus restricted were properly allowed in view of the state of the art and whether defendant’s device infringed them.

The specific type of apparatus shown in the patent was thus described in our former opinion:

“It is inclosed in a box-like easing from which, light will he excluded, except through the lens, and which embraces an ordinary adjustable camera having the lens end mounted in the side of the box. Two reels, inclosed in suitable cases, are located on opposite sides of the camera lens. The film is drawn from one of the reels on to the other across the lens. It is transparent or translucent, and tape-like in form, and is preferably of sufficient width to admit the taking of pictures one inch in diameter between the rows of holes on its edges. These holes are for engagement with the feed wheels for positively advancing the film. When the film is narrow, it is not essential to use two rows of perforations and two feed wheels; one of such rows and one feed wheel being sufficient. The two feed wheels are carried by a shaft and engage the film on one side of the camera opening. The .power is supplied by an electric motor which drives a rotating shaft carrying the feed wheels through a pulley held in frictional engagement with the feed-wheel shaft. The take-up reel, or'the reel which receives the tape after passing the lens, is also driven from the motor shaft through a pulley which is frictionally mounted upon the reel shaft. The shaft carrying the feed wheels is controlled by a stop or escapement movement which is driven positively by another shaft, so that, although the motor tends to drive the feed wheels continuously, they are only permitted to turn with -an intermittent motion by the stop or escapement device, the pulley which drives the feed wheels "slipping on the feed wheel shaft, while that shaft is held at rest by the stop or escapement device. A shutter consisting of a rotating disk having an opening in i't is mounted directly upon the motor shaft and revolves past the lens, so that the light from the lens is intermittently thrown upon and cut off from the sensitive surface of the film. The camera is shown as a single lens, and is arranged to project the image of the scene being photographed upon the film when the openings of the shutter disk are opposite the aperture between the lens and the film. In operation the apparatus is first charged with a tape-film several hundred or even thousands of feet in length. The specification states that the parts are preferably proportioned so that the film is at rest for nine-tenths of the time, in order to give the sensitized film as long an exposure as practicable, and is moving forward one-tenth of the time, and that the forward movement is made to take place 30 or more times per second, and preferably at least as high as 4G times per second, although the rapidity of movement or number of times per second may be regulated as desired to give, satisfactory results, and there should be at least enough so that the eye of the observer cannot distinguish, or, at least, cannot clearly or positively distinguish, at a glance, the difference in position occupied by the objects in the successive pictures.”

The securing of intermittent action to the parts which engage the film is effected by certain stop devices, the details of which need not be inquired into. They are equally adapted to other uses than those shown in the patent, and are the subject of a separate patent to Edison No. 491,993. The important distinctive feature is the manner in which these intermittently moving parts handle the film. In addition to the references in the earlier case, there are a number of patents introduced here, of which it is sufficient to say that we concur with the judge who heard the cause at circuit that the apparatus described' in the patent ex[771]*771hibits patentable novelty. Such novelty, however, cannot be predicated solely on the circumstance that the intermittently moving parts operate directly upon the film. The meritorious feature of the device is that they seize hold of the film firmly, move it positively, regularly, evenly, and very rapidly without jarring, jerking, or slipping producing a negative, which can be printed from and reproduced as a whole without rearrangement to correct imperfect spacing of the successive pictures.The specification states that when the film is clamped in the delivery case “the loose pulleys, 7, 18, slip without pulling said film along,” and that, when the film is released from that clamp, “the pulleys operate to pull the same along.” Loose pulley, 18, turns the take-up reel, and it has been suggested that the phrases quoted imply that such reel is in fact the feeding mechanism. A careful study of the patent has satisfied us that this is not so. The specification explicitly states that the “teeth of the wheels, 5, enter the holes along the edges of the film, for the purpose of positively advancing the film.” The organization described shows that the sprocket wheels are adapted to push the film along as they revolve, as well as to hold it back when they are at rest. The distance to be moved for each exposure is so short (an inch) that the film can apparently be moved forward by pushing as well as by pulling, since the guard or guide through which it moves protects it against buckling.

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Bluebook (online)
151 F. 767, 81 C.C.A. 391, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 4202, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/edison-v-american-mutoscope-biograph-co-ca2-1907.