Foster v. T. L. Smith Co.

244 F. 946, 157 C.C.A. 296, 1917 U.S. App. LEXIS 2076
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedFebruary 1, 1917
DocketNo. 2360
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 244 F. 946 (Foster v. T. L. Smith Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Foster v. T. L. Smith Co., 244 F. 946, 157 C.C.A. 296, 1917 U.S. App. LEXIS 2076 (7th Cir. 1917).

Opinion

BAKER, Circuit Judge

(after stating the facts as above). [1] I. Utility is presumed; but if we first apprehend the nature and advantage§ of the machine which Smith conceived, we shall be in a better position to understand and apply the prior art.

Smith’s most general conception of his machine as an entirety is' probably best stated in claim 32. There, the only limitations upon the form of the mixing receptacle are that it shall have but one opening, which must be clear and unobstructed and substantially concentric with the axis of revolution, and that it shall have a recognizable “middle.” The advantages of the one clear and unobstructed opening are that it may be used both for feed and discharge; that the feed may be one side where the materials are gathered and the discharge on the other side where the mixed concrete is being used; and that thereby a form of receptacle is provided wherein more than SO per cent, of the cubic capacity can be occupied by the ingredients that are being mixed, as against 10 or 15 per cent, in the cylindrical or horizontal drum machines which have ppenings at each end, one for feeding and the other for discharging. The saving of size and weight, in relation to the capacity of the machine, smaller cost of manufacture, lower selling price, decreased expense of operation, are of advantage both to the maker and the user. By having a “middle” part, as in a pot or jar, the tilting means and likewise the rotating means are applied [951]*951substantially in line with the center of gravity of the loaded receptacle and therefore both movements may be most readily effected; and also the driving pinion, journaled in the tilting axis, may thus engage the toothed rack on the periphery of the receptacle without the use of intermediary gears or oilier driving means.

In the practical art. of building and using concrete mixing-machines these advantages, and the type of machine which made them possible, were unknown prior to Smith’s disclosure.

II. Anticipation. We have examined all the prior patents in the record. Two are especially relied upon. If these do not anticipate Smith’s conception and disclosure of means, it is needless to set forth the particulars of the other prior patents.

Day and Bampard’s British patent, No. 441 of 1878, exhibits a concrete mixer of the horizontal drum Lype. The receptacle is supported at its right-hand end by a series of rollers which are attached to the tilting frame. The left-hand end is supported by a shaft which is journaled in the tilting frame. The tilting’ frame is rectangular and entirely surrounds the drum receptacle. By means of trunnions at the middle of the sides the tilting frame is supported within a stationary rectangular frame. Materials are fed into the right-hand end of the drum through a circular opening, concentric with the axis of the dram. Attached to the right-hand end of the tilting frame is a hopper that extends into the feed opening. The dram is rotated by means of a toothed rack which encircles the drum and engages with a driving pinion journaled in one of the trunnions. When the material is mixed it is discharged through an opetiing at the left-hand end of the drum. For this purpose the receptacle and its tilting frame may be depressed at the left until the end of the drum strikes the ground at an angle of about 45°. The second claim covers “the combined arrangement, substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated in the drawing annexed, wherely the mixing box can be revolved and at the same time tilted to and fro to- any desired angle.” In the specification the reference to “tilting to and fro” is that “the mixing box as the mixing progresses may also be rocked or oscillated on the trunnions to insure the perfect mixing of the materials.” When we look to the arrangement described and illustrated in the drawing, we find that the tilting to the right is very limited; it can proceed only to the point where the hopper which is permanently attached to the tilting frame strikes the right-hand end of the supporting frame. And even if the tilting axis were elevated so high that the left-hand end of the drum would not strike the ground the feed opening could not be carried below the horizontal position at the left on account of the hopper striking the fixed supporting frame at that end. Day and Bampard’s combination docs not include a mixing receptacle having one clear and unobstructed opening for feed and discharge, nor means for tilting the frame to any position in the entire circle of its revolution whereby the receptacle may be filled from any point above it and discharged either from the right-hand side or the left-hand side of the machine.

Taylor’s patent, No. 433,663, August 5, 1890, is for a tumbling ttox to clean castings. The machine is supported upon a fixed frame. [952]*952A tiltable yoke is supported by means of trunnions upon tbe fixed frame. Within the yoke is supported a receptacle of the pot or jar form. To the bottom of the receptacle is attached a beveled gear, which is engaged by a beveled pinion on. a shaft which is.housed in the tilting yoke and carries at its outer end a spurred gear which in turn engages another spurred gear mounted to rotate around the axis of one of the trunnions. The receptacle is thus rotated by means of two parallel shafts, two spurred gears, and two beveled gears. As the spurred gears are outside ■ and the beveled gears inside of the stationary frame, the shaft which is housed in the tilting yoke limits the tilting so that the receptacle can be loaded and discharged only on one side of the stationary frame. This Taylor structure lacks the Smith purpose and means of tilting, and likewise tire simple and direct rotating means, both of which are essential elements of the Smith combination.

[2] III. Invention. The prior art beyond question shows that each element of the Smith combination was old. Even if this were .not true, and if Smith had in fact created a new element, he would not secure a monopoly of it by putting it into a combination claim. If h.e did not separately claim it, he would by putting it into a combination donate it to the public. So the fact that the elements were old is not material, for the combination is itself the entity with which we are now concerned. We have found that this entity is new. In the light of the prior art, was the use of the inventive faculty required in its production? The prior art must be examined with the view of determining the purposes and laws of operation of the prior structures. If the idea of the patent in stiit so obtruded itself from the prior art that the ordinary mechanic could not help from stumbling upon it, then of course no invention was involved. While it may be easy enough now, after we have comprehended Smith’s purpose and means, to read a part of Smith’s total conception into the Day and Eampard patent, and another part into the Taylor patent, we are unable to find in either of them, when they are taken in the light of their purposes and laws of operation, the conception of Smith and his combination of means for embodying it. The Day and Lampard structure was of the horizontal drum type. Smith produced an essentially different type. Nothing of the sort had before appeared in the practical or even in the paper art of making and using concrete mixers. Granting, as we do, that tumblers for castings in foundries and puddling furnaces in steel mills are in analogous arts, and therefore must be taken into' account, yet it is evident that the strongest of such references, the Taylor patent, would have to be reorganized and materially modified in order to adapt it to Smith’s conception.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
244 F. 946, 157 C.C.A. 296, 1917 U.S. App. LEXIS 2076, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/foster-v-t-l-smith-co-ca7-1917.