Ingersoll v. Delaware & Hudson Co.

37 F.2d 465, 4 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 287, 1930 U.S. App. LEXIS 2571
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedJanuary 13, 1930
DocketNo. 78
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 37 F.2d 465 (Ingersoll v. Delaware & Hudson 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
Ingersoll v. Delaware & Hudson Co., 37 F.2d 465, 4 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 287, 1930 U.S. App. LEXIS 2571 (2d Cir. 1930).

Opinion

MANTON, Circuit Judge.

The District Court found elaim 32 of the patent to Ingersoll, No. 1,339,395, claims 16 and 17 of Ingersoll patent, No. 1,383,633, and claims 16,17, and 21 of Ingersoll patent, No. 1,547,-155, valid and infringed in these suits for infringement of four patents. There were a number of other claims sued on, but, since the plaintiffs have not appealed from the dis-allowance of such claims as infringed, it is unnecessary to consider them here.

The patents relate to improvements in, auxiliary or booster engines used to aid railroad locomotives in starting, or while running at low speeds. The appellant’s auxiliary engine is used on the engine tender and is of two forms. The appellees’ is a small steam engine mounted on the idle axle on a truck directly under the locomotive cab. A gear is put on the axle, and a driving engagement, with other gears connected with the booster engine, is caused to move by the control system. To make safe operation, the booster controls cannot operate except when the engine throttle has been opened to permit steam to reach the engine cylinders, and when the usual reverse lever, controlling the valves for admitting steam in the main engine cylinder, is plaeed in an operating position by the hand of the engineer. When the main throttle and reverse lever have been placed in such position, the movement of a latch causes the booster control mechanism to operate automatically to entrain the gears connecting the booster engine and the axle, and then steam is turned into the booster engine, and this brings it into control. This control mechanism is operated by an air pressure system, in which the valve or booster throttle, which admits steam into the cylinder of the booster ' engine, cannot be open, unless the main throttle is opened, and unless, also, the reverse lever is in its full forward position engaging the booster latch, and, with the reverse lever in such position, the air controls must move the gearing connected with the booster engine into engagement with the gear on the truck axle, and also then moving the booster throttle into position to admit steam to the booster engine, which thereupon begins to revolve and drive the axle on the booster truck. Such action, however, cannot take place until the main throttle is open and the reverse lever is in a forward position, as stated. The patents in suit have complicated organized systems with a multiplicity of automatic devices, and the operation is dependent upon the manipulation of the reverse lever of the locomotive to a certain position. •

The patents in suit used saturated steam in the early installations, and the condensation losses from saturated steam were so material .as to render very desirable the location of the auxiliary engine as near as possible to the source of steam, and this made the location of the booster under the locomotive advantageous. Because of thus so locating the booster, problems arose for its accommodation in the limited space at the back end of the locomotive, under the fire box and framed extensions. But 'problems of this kind were common to clutching devices where power is used.

Both the appellant and the appellees have combined old elements for the same function in different ways. The appellant’s principle of operation is old.. It admits steam to the auxiliary engine only while steam is being admitted to the main engine, and it causes the auxiliary engine to be operated solely while it is being put into operative connection with the axle to exert a tractive effect, and then to operate with full force.

In 1876, Cruezbaur (patent No. 173,164) conceived an arrangement for an auxiliary engine which was coupled only when the power of the other engine was insufficient, and provided a dutch which coupled the auxiliary engine to the axle, to be driven when the engine starts in operation. Evans, in his patent of 1915 (No. 1,136,947), provided an auxiliary engine for starting when the load was excessive, or when ascending steep grades. In the Evans booster, the main throttle controls the admission of steam to the auxiliary engine cylinders, as well as to the main engine, but the pipe leading from the throttle valve to the auxiliary engine is equipped with a-valve'by means of which the supply of steam to the booster engine may be [467]*467controlled and eut out when desired. The auxiliary engine shaft is geared to the axle gear by means of a pair of gear wheels, which alternately are brought into engagement with the axle gear by means of a gear shaft lever, whieh acts, not only as a gear-engaging lever, but also as a booster-reversing lever. Thus there is disclosed by the Evans patent a structure in whieh steam can be admitted to the auxiliary engine only when it is being admitted to the main engine, and in whieh gears driven by the booster engine are-caused to mesh with the axle gear of the trailer- truck when it is desired to use the booster engine, and are disengaged when driving by the booster engine is discontinued.

Cruezbaur’s patent showed the sequence of operation. The arrangement is such that the booster engine can have steam supplied to it only when and if steam is being supplied to the main engine, and the auxiliary engine is clutched- to the shaft, to be driven almost simultaneously with the beginning of the operation of the auxiliary engine. This is similar to the sequence of operation in the appellant’s system. In it steam cannot be admitted to operate the booster engine, unless steam is at first fiowing into the main engine and unless the clutch has been set for connecting the auxiliary engine to the shaft in its drive. Thus, there was an auxiliary engine and its mechanism for connecting it with the normally idle axle under the control of the throttle lever. Moreover, Cruezbaur solved the difficulty of butting teeth or lugs between the engaging members of the clutch, whieh might prevent engagement of the clutch, by providing a spring whieh would snap the clutch into place as soon as the auxiliary motor shaft began to revolve.

The same idea is disclosed in the Helmholtz patent, No. 516,436. The admission of steam in the Helmholtz auxiliary engine was under the control of the main valve, and, as in appellant’s structure, had a main throttle and auxiliary throttle. The Stuller patent of 1912, No. 1,032,516, shows an internal combustion engine whieh is started by means of an auxiliary engine operated by compressed air stored in a tank. When it is desired to start the auxiliary engine and engage the gear clutch, compressed air from the tank enters the cylinder and forces the piston to the right, to engage or mesh the gear, and at the same time a small quantity of air will pass through the pipe to the cylinders and the auxiliary engine, to start the latter slowly. Thus there was known to the art the principle of operation of admitting steam to the auxiliary engine only while steam was being admitted to the main engine, and causing the auxiliary engine to be operated slowly, while it was being put into operative connection with the axle to exert a tractive effect, and then to operate with full force.

In this state of the art, appellees’ patents appeared. The three patents in suit do not admit or contemplate the possibility of putting an auxiliary engine under the tender. Ingersoll’s patent, No. 1,547,155, was the first to issue; an application was filed October 2, 1917, and the patent issued July 21, 1925. In it the auxiliary engine cylinders drive the crank shaft, whieh has fixed upon it a gear designed to mesh with another gear on the truck axle.

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Bluebook (online)
37 F.2d 465, 4 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 287, 1930 U.S. App. LEXIS 2571, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ingersoll-v-delaware-hudson-co-ca2-1930.