Mead-Morrison Mfg. Co. v. Exeter Mach. Works

225 F. 489, 140 C.C.A. 531, 1915 U.S. App. LEXIS 2119
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedJuly 8, 1915
DocketNo. 1911
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 225 F. 489 (Mead-Morrison Mfg. Co. v. Exeter Mach. Works) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mead-Morrison Mfg. Co. v. Exeter Mach. Works, 225 F. 489, 140 C.C.A. 531, 1915 U.S. App. LEXIS 2119 (3d Cir. 1915).

Opinion

BUFFINGTON, Circuit Judge.

This case centers on the presence or absence of invention in patent No. 722,613, granted March 10, 1903, to Alnion F. Norris for hoisting apparatus. The novelty and utility of the device are clear. The court below, in an opinion reported at 215 Fed. 731, held 1he patent was invalid for lack of invention. From a decree so adjudging and dismissing the bill the owner of the patent appealed.

[1,2] Taking the hoisting art, in which Norris’ device has been widely used, as conveniently illustrative, we may say the proofs show that [490]*490prior to Norris’ patent, motive power for hoisting coal in buckets from the hold of a vessel consisted of two engines, which were placed near each other on a platform located in a tower. Each of these engines was geared to the shaft of a hoisting drum. To this tower was attached one end of a boom, which could swing both vertically and horizontally. Mounted on the boom was a carrier or trolley, from which was suspended a coal-carrying bucket. The larger of these two engines, called the hoisting engine, controlled the movement of the bucket up and down, the other in and out. As the engines were geared to drums on which 'the hoisting ropes wound, they had to be run at high speed to enable the buckets to make the three trips a minute which was required to unload a cargo of coal with due dispatch. Such speed, coupled with the fact that the engines were restricted in size and weight by the smallness of the tower house floor, resulted in great and objectionable vibration of the tower, the character of which will be noted hereafter. The device of the plaintiff almost entirely eliminated this vibration, reduced the wear and tear of the engines, and increased the speed of unloading to the extent of five buckets a minute instead of three. This was accomplished by the simple expedient of nesting a trolley engine between the two cylinders of a hoisting engine and making the two engines a unitary structure. Mechanically this gave to each engine the combined weight and solidity of both, and made each of much larger power and weight than was possible before. Through this gain in weight direct instead of geared engines could be used and run at a lower speed, space was saved, wear and tear were lessened, and, what seems at first thought wholly impossible, the vibration caused by one engine was largely neutralized by that of the other engine. These several features are conclusively shown by the proofs. Thus the president of the City Euel Company of Boston, which used both the prior and the patented types of engine, testified:

“To the direct engine there is scarcely any vibration. To the indirect, the vibration is very excessive. The vibration to the direct engine is scarcely noticeable, whereas we frequently have complaints from our men as to the excessive vibration from the geared engines, and have often heard the remark applied to a geared engine, ‘This tower will shake your teeth out.’ I have spent a great deal of time myself in our different towers, and am, very familiar with the question of vibration, which I find so great in the towers with geared engines that I do not go into them any more without it being of extreme necessity; whereas I find a great deal of pleasure in going into our tower at East Boston, which has a direct engine,, as it works so smoothly and with scarcely no vibration to the tower itself. * * * ”

He further testified that with a direct acting engine five bucket trips a minute were made as against three with a geared engine, and that with larger buckets; that owing to the excessive vibration men only work a third as long with a geared as they do with a direct; that one tower equipped with direct engines handles practically three times as much coal as two towers equipped with geared engines. He testifies that this quick dispatch has enabled them to secure larger vessels and reduce their freight from 5 to 10 cents a ton. One of the foreman engineers of the New England Coal & Coke Company testified substantially to the same marked difference in hoisting capacity of the direct engine, and added: ' .

[491]*491"The vibration of the geared engine was tremendous. Well, to run a geared envine for 10 hours the vibration and shake would almost completely tire a man out at tlie end of that time; and, as regards trouble caused by the vibration, there were a great many breakdowns. The direct connected engines could be operated for 10 hours without tiring a man.”

Ke testified these breakdowns occurred during discharges; that they were kept about all the time tightening the foundation bolts to keep the engine to the floor; that the steam pipes were broken; the different parts of the engine shaken apart while it was running, and the vibration broke parts of the tower. He said there were no breakdowns from vibration ou direct engines, and as a reason said:

“1 believe it to be on account of the slower speed the engine travels at, and both engines being mounted in the center of the tower, one on top of the other, and also tlie absence of gears.”

Ah experienced designer and erector of coal-hoisting plants testified that it was difficult to hold geared engines on their beds, that all sorts of methods were tried, but they could not hold them; that this caused breakdowns. He says:

"They can do a great deal more work with the direct-connected type—I should say about 30 per cent, more with the direct-connected type, on continuous running. As a matter of fact, it is hard to run for any length of time wirh the geared engines without breakdowns, but with the direct connected type we have no trouble that way. As a matter of fact, the men do run them on long stretches. They work night, and day with the direct-connected type, and they wore unable to do it with the geared type. For instance, take the plant down in Beverley; they start on a boat when she comes in, and they never stop until thé boat is discharged, and that, usually takes from 18 to ”0 hours on the type of coal that they handle. These direct-acting engines were put in for that purpose, as they had the geared type previously to building their new plant, and the men could not stand to work night and day.”

He further testified to an effort being made to increase the size of geared engines, but the vibration and repairs were such they were taken out. Referring to the lesser vibration on direct connected engines he testified:

“Of course the direct connected engine is run very much slower than the geared. '1’hat is one reason. Another reason, I think, is that because one engine is mounted upon the other—they are part of each other. For instance, if rhe large engine started and any vibration or sway started, the minute the trolley engine starts up this is all broken up and stops almost instantly.”

He adds his opinion that if the trolley engine was mounted on a separate frame from the hoisting engine and had its individual fastenings to the floor of the tower, this would not accomplish the same purpose as when the two engines were mounted on tlie same base. The testimony of the superintendent of the Suffolk Coal Company of Boston is:

“Q. How severe was the vibration caused by the separately mounted geared engines? A. The vibration caused from the separately mounted general engines was so great that it was practically impossible to keep the engines fastened to tlie floor as well as the levers and the connections.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
225 F. 489, 140 C.C.A. 531, 1915 U.S. App. LEXIS 2119, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mead-morrison-mfg-co-v-exeter-mach-works-ca3-1915.