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Muser v. Bell

278 F. 904, 1921 U.S. App. LEXIS 2603
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedDecember 14, 1921
DocketNo. 67
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 278 F. 904 (Muser v. Bell) 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
Muser v. Bell, 278 F. 904, 1921 U.S. App. LEXIS 2603 (2d Cir. 1921).

Opinion

MANTON. Circuit Judge.

This is a suit for infringement on two patents, No. 1,207.142, granted December 5, 1916, and No. 1,242,659, granted October 9, 1937, to H. W. Darrow, and assigned to appellant’s intestate Eritz Muser. Both relate to portable washing machines commonly used in the household. Patent No. 1,207,142 relates to a washing machine of the rotating cylinder type; the clothes being washed in a cylinder and the mechanism for rotating the cylinder being arranged and constructed in such a manner, as claimed by the appellant, to be an improvement in the art. Claims 3, 6, and 14 are-involved. Patent No. 1,242.659 relates to an improved means for operating a clothes wringer attached to such washing machine. All of the six claims are involved.

The court below held the patents void for lack of invention, and the bill was dismissed. The appellant contends that upon this record the inventions in suit were shown to have been made by Darrow in 1907 or 1908, and that they constituted a definite and important advance in the art, and have contributed to making the cylinder washing machine practicable for general home use. She contends that Darrow invented “a machine having an admirable assemblage of co-operating parts, the first safe, compact, reliable, and convenient arrangement for controlling a driving washing machine of the evlinder type.” and that the inventions reside in a new arrangement of old (dements and are for combination patents. It is conceded that the separate parts are old.

The claims of patent No. 1,207,142 are as follows:

“ri. In a washing machine, the combination of a supporting frame, a tank in the frame, and a cylinder rotatably mounted Iherein; an upwardly extending driving shaft journaled upon the supporting frame; a gear mounted thereon; means for rotating the cylinder adapted to be actuated by the gear on the driving shaft; manually operatable means controlling the operative connection between the gear on the driving shaft and the means for rotating the cylinder; a motor mounted beneath the machine upon the supporting frame, and operative connections between the motor and the driving shaft.”
“(i. In a washing machine the combination of a supporting frame; a tank in the frame, and a cylinder in the tank, rota ta lily mounted in the supporting frame: a casing affixed to the frame on one end of the tank, a driving-shaft journaled in the casing; a motor mounted upon the supporting frame underneath the tank; operative connections between the motor and the driving shaft; a gear on the driving shaft; means for rotating the cylinder, adapted to be actuated by the gear on the driving shaft; and manually operatable means for shifting the gear on the driving shaft in operative relation with the means for rotating the cylinder, and for controlling the rotation of the cylinder without stopping or reversing the motor.”
“14. In a washing machine, the combination of a frame; a tank in the [906]*906frame; a cylinder rotatably mounted therein; a motor mounted on the frame underneath the tank; a driving shaft journaled on the frame at an approximately right angle to the axis of the cylinder; means operatively connecting the motor with the driving shaft; means on the cylinder, adapted to be engaged by a driving gear; a gear on the driving shaft; an intermediate gear, adapted to be actuated by the gear on the driving shaft, and engaging the means for rotating the cylinder, and manually operatable mechanism for oper-atively connecting the gear on the driving shaft with the intermediate gear, substantially as herein shown and described.”

This patent relates solely to the driving mechanism of the machine. The specifications read that the invention relates—

“in general to washing machines and more particularly to driving mechanism for both rotating the washing cylinder and operating the clothes wringer.”

[907]

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Bluebook (online)
278 F. 904, 1921 U.S. App. LEXIS 2603, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/muser-v-bell-ca2-1921.