Home/First Circuit/Pneumatic Scale Corp. v. Automatic Weighing Mach. Co.

Pneumatic Scale Corp. v. Automatic Weighing Mach. Co.

200 F. 573, 119 C.C.A. 53, 1912 U.S. App. LEXIS 1883
Court of Appeals for the First Circuit·Decided November 22, 1912·No. No. 959·Published

Opinion

COLT, Circuit Judge.

This suit was brought for infringement of the Thomas patent, No. 766,004, for improvements in automatic weighing machines. The application was filed December 17, 1896, and the patent issued July 26, 1904.

In the proceedings under the original bill infringement was not .denied, and the only defense relied upon was priority of invention by George W. Watson, to whom a patent had been issued for the same invention. Upon this issue, this court, on January 5, 1909, decided in favor of Thomas, and directed that a decree be entered for •an injunction and account. 166 Fed. 288, 92 C. C. A. 206.

. The case is now before the court upon a supplemental bill. This supplemental bill raises the single question whether the defendant’s bucket wheel feed machine and screw feed machine infringe the Thomas patent. These machines were not before the court in the proceedings under the original bill.

The bucket wheel feed machine is shown in the Pennock patent, No. 782,874, dated February 21, 1905, and it is in evidence that this machine has been manufactured by the defendant since 1900. The .screw feed machine is shown in the Doble patent, No. 720,008, dated Pebruairy 10, 1903, and it is in evidence that this machine has been manufactured by the defendant since 1903.

The Thomas patent in suit relates to that class of automatic weighing machines which require two operations. By the first operation the approximate or preliminary load is obtained, and by the second operation the complete load. We are only concerned in this case with the first feature, or with the preliminary load mechanism. This is the main feature of novelty in the Thomas machine, and the qúestion of infringement resolves itself. into the single inquiry whether the defendant’s machines which are now before the court contain this feature.

The preliminary load in an automatic weighing machine involves the problem of delivering a certain quantity of material from a hopper to a package. Before Thomas, the material was first delivered from the hopper to a measuring or weighing receptacle, and from that receptacle to the package. Thomas conceived the idea of doing away with all forms of intermediate measuring or weighing devices, and delivering the material direct from the hopper to the package by means of a stream flowing by force of gravity from the hopper to the package for a definite time. This is called in the patent a “time stream,” whereby the material is supplied to the receptacle for “a predetermined interval of time.”

[575]*575In order to determine whether the defendant’s machines contain this novel feature of the Thomas invention, it is necessary, first, to examine the Thomas patent, and to ascertain what the patentee meant by “time stream,” whereby the material is supplied to the receptacle for “a predetermined interval of time.”

The patent begins by stating the class of automatic weighing machines to which the invention relates:

“My Invention relates to that class of automatic weighing machines In which, in order to combine speed with accuracy, each load is brought to the required size by means of two operations, during the first of which an approximate load is obtained, quickly, and during the second of which the coin píete load is made up by means of a small or drip stream.”

The patent then refers to the prior art:

“So far as I am aware, the approximate load has always been obtained hitherto either by a preliminary measuring or weighing operation accomplished by a measuring device or scale operating separately from the scale on which the final load is weighed or by cutting down the size of a single stream delivered to the scale prior to the completion of the load therein.”

The patent then proceeds to state the purposes of the invention; the main purpose being to do away with all forms of preliminary measuring or weighing devices:

“My present invention is designed to simplify and otherwise to improve upon these prior machines, by doing away with all forms of preliminary measuring or weighing devices, as well as all devices for varying during the weighing operation the size of the stream delivered to the scale on which the complete weight is obtained, and also to produce a machine of increased capacity and rapidity of operation, without loss of accuracy in the results obtained.”

The patent then states the main feature of the invention, which consists in obtaining the preliminary load by a “time stream”; the material being supplied to the receptacle for “a predetermined interval of time”:

“To those ends a main feature of my invention may be stated, broadly, to consist in obtaining the approximate load by what may be termed a ‘time stream,’ material being supplied to the receptable thereby for a predetermined interval of time, and in completing the load by means of a small or drip stream, delivered to the receptacle while supported upon a scale to which the partially filled receptacle is transferred; the drip stream being cut off by the tipping of the scale as soon as the load is completed. Preferably the arrangement is such that a preliminary approximate load may be delivered to each receptacle simultaneously with the completion of the previously obtained approximate load upon the scale, so that each complete load may be obtained in the time required for the operation of the drip stream alone by properly regulating the quantity delivered, by the time stream. This latter quantity is preferably delivered through a valve arranged to he opened and closed automatically by the operation of the machine at the proper time, so that said quantity in the case of a given material will depend only upon two factors1 — namely, the size of the stream and the time during which it is allowed to run — and may readily be adjusted by varying either of said factors, preferably the former.”

The mechanism described in the patent by which the preliminary load is obtained by a “time stream” is illustrated in the following diagrams :

[576]*576In describing this preliminary load mechanism, the patent says:

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Pneumatic Scale Corp. v. Automatic Weighing Mach. Co., 200 F. 573, 119 C.C.A. 53, 1912 U.S. App. LEXIS 1883 (1st Cir. 1912).

200 F. 573 (Pneumatic Scale Corp. v. Automatic Weighing Mach. Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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166 F. 288 (First Circuit, 1909)