Electric Storage Battery Co. v. Gould Storage Battery Co.

158 F. 610, 85 C.C.A. 432, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 4015
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedAugust 24, 1907
DocketNo. 255
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 158 F. 610 (Electric Storage Battery Co. v. Gould Storage Battery 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
Electric Storage Battery Co. v. Gould Storage Battery Co., 158 F. 610, 85 C.C.A. 432, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 4015 (2d Cir. 1907).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

The patent in suit relates to improvements in the regulation of the compensating action of a storage-battery when applied to compensate for fluctuations of electrical condition of a working-circuit, and consists essentially in reinforcing such battery by a supplemental generator at the time of disdiarge and regulating the action of the re-enforcing agent automatically by the electric condition of the working-circuit. The claims involved are as follows:

“2. The combination with a dynamo-machine and the working-circuit supplied thereby, of a compensating storage battery, a supplemental re-enforcing generator in the battery connection, and means for varying the power of such generator in accordance with fluctuations of current on the working-circuit.”
“6. The combination, with a dynamo-machine and circuit supplied therefrom, of a compensating storage-battery fed from such dynamo and a supplemental dynamo whose electro-motive force re-enforces the battery on discharge, and whose field is variable according to the fluctuations of electrical energy on the supplied current.”

The defendant denies patentable novelty and asserts noninfringement on various grounds.

We are relieved from a discussion of complainant’s or defendant’s apparatus, or of the state of the prior art, by the exhaustive, accurate, and eminently fair opinion of the court below, in which, for reasons stated by it, it concluded that the patent was valid, but was not infringed. We are not satisfied that the evidence shows that electrical connections in the working-circuit, as distinguished from the generator circuit, to regulate the supplemental generator, “produce a different kind of regulation and distinct results,” but with the other statements of fact in Judge Hazel’s opinion we are in accord. Indeed, we fail to find in the briefs or argument for complainant any criticism of those statements material to the issues involved herein. To a considerable extent the findings as to said issues are referred to- and relied upon by complainant in its brief. We shall confine ourselves, therefore, to a discussion of the conclusions of the court below raised by the following assignments of error, namely:

“First. In deciding that the patent in suit is limited to an apparatus in which the regulating coil is situated in the generator circuit and operates directly upon the supplemental dynamo machine or ‘booster.’
“Second. In deciding that the defendant’s system, cannot be included in the scope of claims 2 and 6 in suit, and its means of regulation do not correspond to those of complainant nor do they produce the same result.”

There seems to be some clerical error in the phrasing of this first assignment of error. The court did not hold that under the patent [612]*612the regulator coil must be “situated in the generator circuit,” but did hold that it must be situated in the “working-circuit,” as distinguished from the “generator circuit.” An understanding of the questions presented by this assignment of error will be more easily obtained by reference to what is called in the record a simplified drawing of the Mail-loux patent:

A is the main dynamo, B the storage battery, D the supplemental generator or booster, and M a regulation coil which controls the booster, as indicated by the arrow, being itself responsive to the fluctuations of electric condition on the circuit in which it is located. The drawing shows a circuit, colored red, which leads from the main generator to the points of connection, 1 and 3, with the battery branch; a circuit, colored blue, through which the current flows when the battery is charging or discharging; a circuit, colored green, which leads from the points of connection (1, 3) out to the translating devices— trolley cars; lamps, or what not — and carries the algebraic sum of the red and blue currents. This circuit, lettered X, Y, is supplied by the generator, as stated in the specification, “directly or indirectly” — directly as to the energy which is not stored up in the battery and indirectly as to the energy which is first stored up in the battery. This is the circuit which carries the current which does the work sought to be done by the entire system. Complainant’s expert Duncan admits that he understands “the term ‘working-circuit’ to refer to that part of the system which carries the total curi-ent at each instant that the translating devices are taking, or, put in other words, the circuit that at each instant is carrying the algebraic sum of the generator and battery circuits.” It is also called by complainant’s expert Woodbridge [613]*613the “outside supply circuit.” All the witnesses concur in describing the blue circuit as the “battery circuit,” and further concur that the phrase “generator circuit” is a proper one to distinguish the circuit leading from the main generator to the battery connections (1, 3).

In the defendant’s apparatus the regulation coil, which controls the booster through intermediate devices, is located in the generator circuit. Complainant’s expert concedes that if the specification of the patent should be construed as employing the terms “working-circuit,” “main line circuit,” “main circuit,” and “mains” synonymously — that is, that each expression applies to the same circuit — the regulation coil of defendant would not be included within the description of the patented device. So far as the second claim is concerned this concession disposes of the question of infringement, for that claim expressly refers to a control of regulation through fluctuations of “current on the working-circuit.” Indeed, although infringement of that claim is still contended for in the brief, it is thought that upon the oral argument counsel practically admitted that they could rely only upon the sixth claim.

Complainant seeks to differentiate claim 6 from claim 2, so as to hold defendant thereunder. That claim covers a regulation coil so placed as to be “variable according to the fluctuations of electrical energy on the supplied circuit.” It is suggested that claim 6 does not in terms refer back to the specifications or drawings; and it is contended that the phrase “supplied circuit” is to be more broadly construed than the phrase “working circuit,” that defendant’s coil is in a circuit supplied by the main generator, that it is placed there to compensate for load changes or electric fluctuations of energy on X and Y, and that such fluctuations on X and Y are, partially at least, found in the generator circuit. “In defendant’s system the regulation coil receives the smaller fluctuations in current, because the battery is connected outside of the coil and absorbs most of the current fluctuations, allowing, however, enough of them to fall on the generator and the coil and the red circuit for effecting the desired regulation.” (Complainant’s Brief.)

We do not find this argument persuasive. It seems to be an afterthought. No such differentiation between the claims was suggested when they were discussed by complainant’s expert in his analysis of the patent. He says:

“The regulating coil of the auxiliary generator must be so connected to the main circuit that it shall feel the effect of the change of load in the working-circuit in order to make the auxiliary generator perform its regulating functions.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Carnes Artificial Limb Co. v. Dilworth Arm Co.
273 F. 838 (D. Connecticut, 1921)
Homer Brooke Grass Co. v. Hartford-Fairmont Co.
262 F. 427 (Second Circuit, 1919)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
158 F. 610, 85 C.C.A. 432, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 4015, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/electric-storage-battery-co-v-gould-storage-battery-co-ca2-1907.