Independent Coal Tar Co. v. Cressy Contracting Co.

260 F. 463, 171 C.C.A. 289, 1919 U.S. App. LEXIS 2069
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedSeptember 5, 1919
DocketNo. 1402
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 260 F. 463 (Independent Coal Tar Co. v. Cressy Contracting Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Independent Coal Tar Co. v. Cressy Contracting Co., 260 F. 463, 171 C.C.A. 289, 1919 U.S. App. LEXIS 2069 (1st Cir. 1919).

Opinion

JOHNSON, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a final decree sustaining the validity of patent No. 1,062,029, for apparatus for spraying oil on road surfaces, issued May 20, 1913, to Franklin C. Pillsbury, assignor to Walter H. Cressey, and finding that the same was infringed by the defendant.

[ 1 ] The first claim only of the patent is involved in this suit, which reads as follows:

“The combination with a tank wagon having a discharge pipe and a valve in said pipe, of a spray pipe communicating with the discharge pipé, a steam pipe communicating with said discharge pipe intermediate the valve and the tank, whereby steam may he admitted to the tank through the discharge pipe, a steam pipe communicating with said discharge pipe in rear of the valve, whereby steam may he blown through the spray pipe, and means for applying a pressure to the tank above the liquid therein.”

Pillsbury, in his application filed in the Patent Office May 27, 1911, conceived that the novelty in his invention consisted in the introduction of steam under pressure directly into the tank of the •tank, wagon on top of the body of the contents. He then had in mind that the contents would consist of oil, and in his specification he thus describes his apparatus:''

“My improved apparatus comprises a spraying attachment adapted to be readily applied to a tank wagon, and means for introducing steam, under pressure, directly into the tank of the tank wagon and on top of the body of oil therein, so that the steam pressure within the tank will furnish the desired pressure for forcing the oil out through the spray device, and will also constitute means for heating the oil in the tank, thus increasing its fluidity, so that it will flow more freely. Where the steain is thus admitted directly to the interior of the tank, said steam will not only force all the oil out of the tank, but when the oil is exhausted the steam will then be discharged through the.spray device and during its discharge it will heat and thus increase the fluidity of any oil or other surfacing material which may remain in or upon the spray device; and will also blow out and clean the spray ■device thoroughly, so that said deviee will be ready for use again without any further attention as soon as the tank has been filled.”

* The. surfacing material to be used is not confined to oil, as the description contains the following statement: ■ . ■

“My invention is not confined to use in connection with heavy oils, such as are commonly used in surfacing of roads, but may. be used in connection with any road-surfacing material which is capable of being sprayed from a tank.”

[465]*465The principal elements of the apparatus set out in the description and shown by the drawings are a tank wagon propelled by steam from a boiler located upon it or drawn by a steam tractor; a tank designed to carry the material to be sprayed upon the road surface and made sufficiently strong to resist internal pressure; at the rear of the tank a discharge pipe, having a valve to shut off the flow from the tank, and connecting with a spray pipe having a series of nozzles similar to that used upon the familiar street sprinkling cart; a steam pipe with a valve in it connecting with the boiler upon the tank wagon, if it has one, or the boiler of the steam tractor, if drawn by that, so that steam under pressure may be supplied through a pipe to the top of the tank above the contents in the same, and also to a coil within the tank for the purpose of heating the contents; a branch of this steam, pipe with a valve leading to the rear of the tank, where it branches again, one branch entering the discharge pipe between the valve and the tank and the other between the valve and the spraying device, and each branch having a valve, so that the supply of steam through each may be separately controlled. The advantage of the use of the branching steam pipes at the rear of the tank is stated in the following language:

“The advantage of this construction is that steam may be admitted to the valve 5 on either side thereof, thereby warming the latter; or steam may be admitted directly to the spray device without passing through the tank wagon, if it is desired to heat the oil in the spray device or to blow it out.”

None of the original claims contained any mention of these steam pipes, and the combination which Pillshury claimed as new was:

(1) “The combination with a tank wagon of a spray device connected thereto, a source of steam supply for generating steam under pressure and means to introduce steam under pressure therefrom into the tank above the body of oil therein, whereby the steam in said tank not only furnishes pressure for spraying the oil but also helps heat the oil, and when the oil is exhausted blows out through and cleans the spray device.”

All the original claims were rejected, because anticipated by several patents which were cited by the examiner. On reconsideration several times by the Patent Office, amendments involving the same combination were rejected, because anticipated, although these amendments contained, as one element of the combination, the introduction of steam pressure fluid into the discharge pipe in the rear of the valve between it and the spraying device. The claim as allowed abandoned the introduction of steam, as a pressure fluid into the tank as one element of the combination, and in place thereof introduced “means for applying a pressure to the tank above the liquid therein.”

The only new element which was introduced by the amended claim was:

“A steam pipe communicating with the discharge pipe intermediate the valve and the tank, whereby steam may be admitted to the tank through the discharge pipe.”

The Patent Office could find no novelty in a combination by which steam was admitted to the top of the tank above the contents to serve a3 [466]*466a pressure fluid to* expel the contents of the tank, nor in the introduction of a steam pipe into the discharge pipe between the valve and the spraying device; but the combination, in which the introduction of a steam pipe between it and the tank was an element, was found to be novel and patentable. Before the patent in suit great difficulty had been experienced in securing a uniform discharge of road surfacing material by any then known device. Earlier patents consisted of a tank wagon equipped with a sprinkling arrangement so constructed as to admit pressure to the top of the tank to force out its contents through the spraying device, with an arrangement also for heating the contents of the tank; but none of them contained the branching steam pipe which enters the discharge pipe on either side of the valve as in Pillsbury’s.

The only witness who testified in regard to the operation of one of these stated that:

“The flow was very irregular; the space covered was not perfectly smooth, as was intended; these spaces had to be patched up. This was done by hand with a coal hod or watering pot containing some of the material. This left a space full of humps, or high and low spaces; the high spaces being those filled by hand. The traffic pushed the bunches back and forth, very soon producing holes.

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Bluebook (online)
260 F. 463, 171 C.C.A. 289, 1919 U.S. App. LEXIS 2069, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/independent-coal-tar-co-v-cressy-contracting-co-ca1-1919.