Panzl v. Battle Island Paper Co.

138 F. 48, 70 C.C.A. 474, 1905 U.S. App. LEXIS 3769
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedApril 19, 1905
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 138 F. 48 (Panzl v. Battle Island Paper 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
Panzl v. Battle Island Paper Co., 138 F. 48, 70 C.C.A. 474, 1905 U.S. App. LEXIS 3769 (2d Cir. 1905).

Opinion

TOWNSEND, Circuit Judge.

The court below has exhaustively discussed the prior art and explained its bearing upon the patent in suit, and in stating its reasons for the conclusions reached has fairly presented the issues of validity and infringement and the arguments by which the contentions of the parties are supported. The controlling questions herein may be summarized as follows: (1) The definition of chamotte. (2) The disclosures of the prior art. (3) Infringement.

As to the meaning of the word “chamotte,” the court says, inter alia, as follows: s,

“The testimony of the expert witnesses is conflicting. The technical signification and classification of chamotte as a particular ingredient for lining is left in doubt by the evidence, and reference has therefore been had to standard dictionaries, publications, and books of science for such information as in the judgment of the court was necessary to clarify the disputed point.”

Then, quoting from various definitions, the court says:

“The testimony of complainant’s expert witness supports this definition. He testifies that when speaking of chamotte he means calcined clay, which is essentially silicate of alumina and water. In its preparation the water or moisture is driven out by heating, so as to produce contraction and baking of the clay. He further adds that ordinary fire brick is not chamotte, and only becomes such after undergoing the process outlined. * * * According to the expert witnesses for defendants, chamotte is merely crushed fire brick — that is, clay without sand, heated to a high temperature — and hence is the identical material referred to as fire brick in the patents of Wenzl Kellner, No. 4,959, Norton, No. 480,934, and others contained in the record. If the consideration given to the word ‘chamotte’ in order to ascertain its exact meaning and import impelled the acceptance of the view of the defendants’ [50]*50expert witnesses, the invalidity of the Panzl patent because of the prior art would seem plain, and the combination of the materials mentioned in the claims would lack invention. But it is apparent from the definitions above quoted that the term ‘chamotte’ technically is accorded a wider signification than that claimed by the defendants, and that it is not restricted to ordinary fire brick with which furnaces are lined, though in its classification burnt clay or fire brick is included.”

The appellant contends that this conclusion is not justified, because complainant’s expert testified as follows:

“X-Q. 49. Will you please state what you understand by the term ‘chamotte,’ as found in the claims in the patent in suit? A. I mean thereby calcined clay which is essentially silicate of alumina and water. In preparing the chamotte the process simply consists in driving out the water and producing such temperature that the clay contracts and bakes together. X-Q. 50. Then I am to understand that ordinary good quality of clay calcined or hydrated forms what is termed chamotte? A. After it has undergone the process roughly outlined.”

Appellant claims that upon the strength of this definition by complainant’s expert Endemann it directed its proofs to show that chamotte was merely fire brick, and was shown in the prior art in compositions identical with that covered by the patent in suit, and that the court was not justified in giving to the word “chamotte” an interpretation wider than that stated by complainant’s expert and derived from dictionaries and other publications.

The admission of an expert witness is, of course, entitled to weight in the interpretation of technical terms employed in a patent. But the court is not necessarily concluded by such interpretation when other satisfactory evidence is available. Furthermore, an examination of the whole testimony of „ the expert Endemann serves to explain the foregoing particular statement relied on as-an. admission, and to show that he merely meant that chamotte was a calcined clay, which is essentially silicate of alumina and water, and that a calcined clay brick may or may not be chamotte, according to whether it has the porosity and chemical affinities essential to constitute the product known as “chamotte.” His understanding of the word is shown by the following testimony:

“X-Q. 77. Would a composition for lining digesters, as contemplated by the patent in suit, consisting of silicate of soda, cement, water, fire brick, and sand, be embraced or contemplated, in your opinion, by either or any of the claims of the patent in suit? A. Fire brick is an exceedingly loose description, inasmuch as fire bricks vary considerably in composition. We have even fire bricks which do not contain any clay at all, like those which are made of magnesia.”

So far as this witness is concerned, therefore, the term “fire bricks” covers a class of articles alike in use, but variant in composition, and is broad enough to include chamotte; but the word “chamotte” denotes a species of specially pure calcined clay, but which must be silicate of alumina, and which, by reason of its properties, is peculiarly adapted for the chemical and mechanical actions and results necessary in order to produce the acid-proof, unshrinkable composition of the patent in suit. In these circumstances, the court has examined the record and standard publications, and has found therein confirmation of the contention that chamotte [51]*51is a special substance well known in the art, and that ordinary fire brick does not possess the properties of chamotte. Inasmuch, therefore, as the term “fire brick,” if used in the patent, would not have sufficiently identified this peculiar product to enable one skilled in the art to produce the patented product, but would have •obliged him to experiment with the various materials known under said name, we think the patentee was justified in the use of said word; that it may even have been necessary to a full disclosure of his alleged invention; and that, in view of the evidence, the ■court correctly found that fire brick was not necessarily the equivalent of chamotte.

Appellant, after the decision of the case, moved to reopen it, in order to show that it used only fire brick, and did not use chamotte, within the meaning given to it by the court in its opinion. This motion was rightly denied. The new evidence sought to be introduced might have been brought before the court at the original hearing. Pittsburgh Reduction Co. v. Cowles Electric Smelting & Aluminum Co. (C. C.) 64 Fed. 125, and cases cited.

It is further contended that the patent is inválid, in view of the prior art. After a careful analysis of the prior patents, the court below reached the conclusion that none of them showed how to so combine the materials of the patent in' suit as to produce mono-calcium silicate, free from di- or tri-calcium silicate, and that, as this was essential in order to obtain an acid-proof composition, and complainant alone had thus succeeded where the others had failed, his patent was valid. The court says:

“The process of mixing hydraulic cement and silicate of soda for the purpose of making an adhesive and chemical resisting lining was very well known at the date of the patent in suit. The characteristic feature, however, of the Panzl combination rests in compounding the ingredients of the process in certain proportions so that the chemical reaction referred to will be obtained, and an acid-proof lining be produced.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
138 F. 48, 70 C.C.A. 474, 1905 U.S. App. LEXIS 3769, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/panzl-v-battle-island-paper-co-ca2-1905.