Niles Tool-Works v. Betts Machine Co.

27 F. 301, 1886 U.S. App. LEXIS 2082
CourtUnited States Circuit Court
DecidedApril 1, 1886
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 27 F. 301 (Niles Tool-Works v. Betts Machine Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Niles Tool-Works v. Betts Machine Co., 27 F. 301, 1886 U.S. App. LEXIS 2082 (uscirct 1886).

Opinion

Wales, J.

The bill prays for an injunction, and an account for profits and damages. Letters patent No. 113,651, dated April 11, 1871, were issued to George A. Gray, Jr., for an “improvement in turning and boring mills,” and on the fourteenth of April, 1883, were assigned by the said Gray to the complainant. The first claim of the patentee is for “the tool-bar balancing device, consisting of a rope or chain, U, weight, Y, and pulleys, B, B, 'S, T; connected and operating substantially as and for the purpose specified. ” The nature and objects of the invention are declared to he:

“First. In a peculiar device for balancing the tool-bar in any position within its range, in such a way as to keep the weight up against the feed, and thus prevent the bar being forced up by the work when any slack exists in the feed, and permit of the bar being elevated and depressed freely by hand; tills balancing device differing from all others for tho same purpose in this: that the bar can be moved to any degree of angularity from an upright or other position, and moved with its saddle along tho rail horizontally, without changing the location of the weight which balances the bar.” ’

[302]*302That part of the general description referring to the drawings, and specifying the improvement, is as follows:

“A is the bed-plate of the mill; B, B', the housings; C the rail; and D the horizontally sliding saddle, which is snugly fitted to and slides upon the rail; E is the revolving table, operated in the usual way by the large gear-wheel, E, driven (through suitable connections) by the cone pully, G-, and ‘ back gear,’ II. The feeding mechanism for giving a horizontal movement to the saddle, and a vertical or inclined movement to the tool-bar, does not differ materially from others for the same purpose, the saddle being moved by the screw, I, and the tool-bar, K, by the rod, L; the connection to the bar, K, being made by a worm, friction-clutch, worm-wheel, and pinion gearing into the rack, M, on the bar. The down feed can be stopped by the slackening of the wheel, ÜST, which governs the friction-clutch. Both the cross and down feed are driven by the expansible gearing shown, operated by the shaft, O. The rail, C, is designed to be raised and lowered by power; the side screws, P, B', and connecting driving shaft on the top rail, being provided for this purpose. The swing, Q, in which the bar, K, slides, is constructed, as usual, in such a way that the bar can be swiveled to any desired angle to enable the machine to bore and turn tapering, etc. In order to balance the weight of the tool-bar in any position, whether inclined or vertical, in a way that will possess none of the faults attributable to devices heretofore existing for this purpose, I have provided the following device: Pulleys, It, It', are journaled upon the swing, Q; pulley, S, upon the tool-bar; and pulley, T, upon the end of the rail. A rope, chain, or wire cord, IT, fastened at one end upon the rail at O', is then passed over the pulley, It, under the pulley, S, over the pulley, It', and over the pulley, T, where it supports a weight, Y, which must be slightly heavier than half the weight of the bar, K, only. This device suffices to keep the bar up snugly against the force that feeds it down? so that the tool can never drop when < slack exists in the feed.’ It also enables the swing, Q, to be moved to a very extreme angle without deranging any of the parts, or materially changing the effect of the weight, Y, upon the bar, or even disturbing the weight itself. * * * The tool-b’ar slides between the gibs, X, on the swing, carrying, of course, the pulley, S, with it.”

Boring-mills are large and heavy machines, the tool-bar alone weighing from 200 to upwards of 1,000 pounds. Its tendency, of course, is to slide downwards, and it is therefore desirable, if not absolutely necessary, to counterbalance its weight in order to enable the operator to adjust it easily and safely to different kinds of work. Counter-balances for this purpose had been attached to tool-bars by various devices long before the date of Gray’s patent, but none, it is contended by the complainant, with such complete, useful, and advantageous results as are secured by the latter. The first and most common contrivance was known as the “drill style,” consisting of a chain or rope run over a couple of pulleys attached to the ceiling above the machine, one end of the chain being hooked to the top of the tool-bar and the other end to a counterbalancing weight. The objections to this mode are that (1) it requires facilities for overhead attachments involving extraneous supports, and thus prevents the machine from being a self-contained structure; (2) the pull of the balancing rope or chain can be directly upward only so long as the tool-carriage or saddle remains in one and the same position on the [303]*303rail, for the pulleys being stationary, as the saddle is pushed along the rail either to the right or to the loft, the counterbalancing weight produces a resistance to its movement; and (3) when the tool-bar is set at an angle, the pull is no longer in the line of the path of the bar, but sidewise, and the effect of the counter-balance will be to draw' the bar back into a vertical position, and thus produce a side friction or binding between the tool-bar and the guides in which it slides. To remedy some of these faults the “trolley style” was designed, in which the chain supporting the counter-balance, instead of passing over a stationary pulley overhead, passes over two pulleys secured in a little traveling carriage, or trolley, which moves on a track secured to the ceiling over the boring-machine. The end of the chain is attached to the ceiling instead of to the tool-bar, and a loop of the chain, hanging down from the trolley, carries a pulley which is fastened to the top of the tool-bar. As the saddle slides along on the rail the trolley overhead moves along its track in the same direction, and so keeps the trolley and pulley directly over the tool-bar, in whatever place the latter may be on the rail. This is an improvement on the simple “drill style,” (although the trolley does not always promptly follow the movement of the saddle on the rail, and has to be dragged along;) but it does not provide for a direct pull in the line of the axis of the tool-bar whenever the latter is changed from a vertical position. Another contrivance is the “Bradley style,” in which the pulleys are carried in a bracket projecting upwards from the swing; but the objections to this mode are so serious that it does not appear to have gone into general use, and seems now to be discarded. Its great disadvantages were that it formed an additional load upon the saddle, causing it to move hard upon the rail, and the counterbalancing weight, being within the frame-work of the boring-mill, was often in the way of the operator. Moreover, the weight was hung upon one side of the swing, and when this was loosened on the saddle, in order to adjust the bar at an angle, the weight was apt to turn the swing over suddenly, and cause serious damage.

The defendant in its answer sets up several anticipations, but in the proof relies upon the two just described.

It is very clear from the evidence that Gray’s improvement is a decided advance beyond all preceding counterbalancing contrivances in boring-mills, not only in providing greater facilities for the prompt adjustment of the bar in any desired position, but in all its various operations and results.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Shakespeare v. Enterprise Mfg. Co.
211 F. 477 (N.D. Ohio, 1913)
Beckwith v. Malleable Iron Range Co.
174 F. 1001 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Eastern Wisconsin, 1910)
Consolidated Rubber Tire Co. v. Finley Rubber Tire Co.
116 F. 629 (U.S. Circuit Court for the Northern District of Georgia, 1902)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
27 F. 301, 1886 U.S. App. LEXIS 2082, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/niles-tool-works-v-betts-machine-co-uscirct-1886.