Morgan Const. Co. v. Wellman-Seaver-Morgan Co.

18 F.2d 395, 1927 U.S. App. LEXIS 1963
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedMarch 28, 1927
DocketNos. 4450, 4453, 4454
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 18 F.2d 395 (Morgan Const. Co. v. Wellman-Seaver-Morgan Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Morgan Const. Co. v. Wellman-Seaver-Morgan Co., 18 F.2d 395, 1927 U.S. App. LEXIS 1963 (6th Cir. 1927).

Opinion

DENISON, Circuit Judge.

The Morgan Company and the Wellman-Seaver-Morgan Company are long-time competitors in the business of making and selling gas producers. These are coal-burning furnaces or retorts of generally cylindrical shape, 10 or 12 feet in diameter, and (with attachments) 15 or 20 feet high, weighing many tons, and costing several thousands of dollars each. Thera is a continued day and night operation, by which coal is fed into the top, and air under pressure into the bottom, ashes removed from the bottom, and gas produced and. carried away for use or storage. In these various appeals five patents are involved.

The Morgan Company (hereinafter for convenience called “Morgan”) sues the Well-man-Seaver-Morgan Co. (hereinafter called “Wellman”) upon claims 10 to 14 of Lummis patent, No. 1,178,086, filed in May, 1914; granted April 4, 1916, on a “gas producer,”' and upon claims 4, 5, 6, 10, and 21 of Lummis patent, No. 1,274,176, applied for in June, 1915, issued July 30, 1918, for “feeding mechanism for gas producers.” Both of' these patents have to do with a device for [396]*396automatically feeding coal into the top of the producer. Morgan also sues Wellman upon Jefferies patent, No. 1,255,015, issued January 29, 1919, upon an application filed in December, 1914, relating to “gas producers,” alleging infringement of all ten claims of this patent. Wellman counterclaims by alleging infringement of two patents which he owns. He claims infringement of claims 1, 2, 4, and 5, of the patent to Hughes, No. 977,651, issued December 6, 1910, upon an application filed in June, 1910, for a gas producer, and of claims 1, 2, 3, and 6, of patent No. 913,551, issued to Waldburger, February 23,1909, upon an application made in May, 1908. The Jefferies, Hughes, and Waldburger patents relate to means for or used in connection with supplying air blasts to and removing ashes from the bottom of the producer.

The district court denied relief to either party upon any claim, holding all of the claims in suit to be either invalid or not infringed.

Lummis Patent, No. 1,178,086. — Since there is a constant production of gas accumulating in the upper part of the producer, and under pressure, there are obviously some difficulties in feeding coal automatically and continuously into this chamber, and not allowing the gas to escape. One difficulty is that any feeding device moving in a body of coal will frequently catch lumps of coal or slate between its advancing edge and some other part of the device with which it makes a shearing contact, and thereupon the mechanism will be stopped, unless the device is given sufficient power and strength to crush the obstacle. Either alternative makes the device commercially unsuccessful. This trouble is of especial importance in gas producers, because there must be constantly a gas-tight joint in connection with the incoming eoal, and hence the pocket or the receptacle by which coal is carried into and deposited in the upper chamber must not permit the coal to lodge between its edge and the corresponding sealing edge, and also because there should be no interruption of continuity.

■ Lummis, in his first patent, disclosed the idea of using between the bottom of the coal hopper and the producer chamber two successive and independent carriers; the first was smaller than the second. He filled the first from his coal hopper and moved it over and dropped it into the second. On account of the difference in size, the second could not possibly be filled up to its upper .edge. He then drew the second over the opening and dropped its contents into the gas-producing chamber. Since it was not full, there could be no lodging of eoal caught by its upper edges. These two receptacles were moved horizontally and in longitudinal reciprocation. Lummis’ claim 10, which is typical of those in suit, reads: ,

“In a fuel feeder for gas producers, a member having a pocket, means for feeding a predetermined charge of fuel, less than the capacity of said pocket, to said pocket at predetermined intervals, and means for discharging said pocket between said intervals.”

In his second patent, which alone is superficially similar to the Morgan commercial device, he develops the same idéa of a nonfillable pocket as applied to a continuously rotating, instead of a longitudinally reciprocating feeding pocket. His feeding device may be generally described as a cylindrical, hollow, horizontal, rotary valve, interposed between an upper eoal supply and the lower producer chamber. The outer hollow wall is entirely cut away for its whole length and for a width of about one-sixth of the circumference. Thus the interior becomes a pocket with an opening. When the opening is on top, eoal will fall into the pocket; as the valve is rotated this entry of eoal will be stopped, and when the opening reaches the bottom the contents will be dumped on the fire. In the Morgan commercial form there are a longitudinal central partition in the valve and two openings, one into each of the chambers, thereby causing the general form as shown in the following cut:

[397]*397The general form of the corresponding parts of the Wellmán producer is as shown below.

In this Wellman feeder the upper rotating device is at the bottom of the hopper eoal column and turns anticlockwise. It consists of a shaft, to which are attached four right-angled vanes, and the outer edge of each vane carries a fin, preventing the eoal from at first falling off the edge. It is apparent that at a certain point of the revolution the coal will begin to fall over the fin, that the remainder will be somewhat gradually emptied out, and that coal from the vane above ’ will begin falling at about the time the vane below is emptied, even if they do not overlap. Hence it is evident that the eoal will fall in approximately a continuous shower, and by the lower device will be divided into successive charges, which are separately carried around and deposited.

Wé find it unnecessary to consider Well-man’s contention that the claims in suit of the first Lummis patent are invalid, or. should be confined to a reciprocating device. For the purpose of the opinion, we assume that Lummis was the first to adopt and apply the idea that the producer feeding pocket in an automatic device could be automatically prevented from completely filling, and, also assume that for such a pocket to travel between filling and discharge points in a rotary path is equivalent to traveling in longitudinal reciprocation. Even when making those assumptions, we are convinced that the first Lummis patent naturally contemplates, and is confined to, a device having two separate measuring, and feeding pockets, the first one of which measures off and segregates a charge of coal,' and then carries it over, in its segregated and independent condition, for deposit in the second or final feeding pocket, thereby and because of its segregation of a small charge insuring that the second pocket cannot be completely filled.

The Wellman feeder does not respond to this conception. His upper feeding device is essentially an overshot wheel, located in the coal stream, and regulating the speed of the stream flow. It is true there is a period during which each vane, with its fin, segregates a body of the coal and carries it along, but the body so segregated and carried does not preserve its integrity except momentarily, and not for the purpose of deposit in the lower pocket. The coal carried by one vane may all drop into one pocket, but probably it will not.

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18 F.2d 395, 1927 U.S. App. LEXIS 1963, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/morgan-const-co-v-wellman-seaver-morgan-co-ca6-1927.