Home/Second Circuit/Excelsior Elevator Guard & Hatch Cover Co. v. Foote

Excelsior Elevator Guard & Hatch Cover Co. v. Foote

79 F. 442, 24 C.C.A. 673, 1897 U.S. App. LEXIS 1786
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedFebruary 23, 1897
StatusPublished

This text of 79 F. 442 (Excelsior Elevator Guard & Hatch Cover Co. v. Foote) 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
Excelsior Elevator Guard & Hatch Cover Co. v. Foote, 79 F. 442, 24 C.C.A. 673, 1897 U.S. App. LEXIS 1786 (2d Cir. 1897).

Opinion

LACOMBE, Circuit Judge.

The specification sets forth that the improvement, so far as it is relevant to the issue in this suit, “'consists in the combination with a number of hinged doors and a cord or chain for opening and closing them of a number of catches for engaging with the doors when opened, and serving to hold them .open independently of the cord or chain, and a connection between the catch of one door and an adjacent door, so that the closing of the last-mentioned door will effect the release of the other door from its catch, a.nd admit of its closing.” The mechanism is intended for use in buildings I where there are hatchways one above the other for several successive stories. All the doors of these hatchways may thus be opened or closed without it being necessary for the operator to leave the one floor, top or bottom, on which the operating windlass is located. The •doors are opened or closed not all at the same time, but successively, thus avoiding excessive strain upon the operating rope. The catches hold the doors when open, so as also to relieve that rope of strain. The release of each catch only by the closing of the door ahead of it insures the certainty that when the last door of the series closes all the doors ahead of it in the series have also closed. The claim reads as follows:

[443]*443“(1) The combination with a number of hinged doors and a cord or chain for opening and closing them of a number of catches for engaging with, the doors when opened, and serving to hold them open independently of the cord or chain, and a connection between the catch of one door and an adjacent door, so that the dosing of the lust-mentioned door will effect the release of the other door from its catch, and admit of its closing, substantially as specified.”

The operation of a series of hatchway doors by a single cord or chain, so that the operator need not leave the windlass on top or bot-1 om floor, was old. It was old to so arrange the mechanism that the doors would open and close successively and relieve strain. It was old to hold the doors, when opened, by engaging catches independently of the chain. It was old to release the catches by a pull upon a cord which was convenient to the hand of the operator. All this is disclosed in a patent to Sinclair.—No. 84,387, November 24, 1868, reissue No. 5,387, April 29, 1873,— and if is conceded that the only novel feature which the patentee introduced in the structure is the “connection between the catch of one door and an adjacent door.” This particular device is thus described in the patent:

“F designates catches arranged on the back of the hoistway, adapted to engage with projections on the front edges of the doors when the la Iter are raised, so as to secure 1hem in upright positions, a,nd relieve the chain or rope, !), of strain. These catches may be pivoted in place, and impelled downward at the forward end by springs or by weight; or they may have resilient shanks, as shown. To the upper catch is attached a cord, IT, which passes around a pulley, g, arranged on the back of the hoistway above, and thence down the hoistway, where it is secured to the door below, forward of its hinges. When it is desired to release the upper door, C, this cord, H, is pulled, so as to disengage its catch from it, and then the windlass, K, is turned, so as to pay out the chain or cord, and allow of the descent of the said door. To the catch of the lower door is attached a cord. G, which passes up the hoistway, around a pulley, f, arranged on the back of the hoistway, above the upper door, and thence to the upper door, forward of ihe hinges, where it is fastened. This cord, G, is so short that, just before the upper door closes, it pulls the cord sufficiently to effect the disengagement of the catch of the lower door from it. If, then, the windlass is turned so as to pay out the chain or rope, I), the lower door may be closed. The cord, H, is connected to the lower door, and operated by the closing of said door.”

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Bluebook (online)
79 F. 442, 24 C.C.A. 673, 1897 U.S. App. LEXIS 1786, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/excelsior-elevator-guard-hatch-cover-co-v-foote-ca2-1897.