Siebert Cylinder Oil Cup Co. v. Harper Steam Lubricator Co.

4 F. 328, 1880 U.S. App. LEXIS 2614
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut
DecidedOctober 25, 1880
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 4 F. 328 (Siebert Cylinder Oil Cup Co. v. Harper Steam Lubricator Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Siebert Cylinder Oil Cup Co. v. Harper Steam Lubricator Co., 4 F. 328, 1880 U.S. App. LEXIS 2614 (circtdct 1880).

Opinion

Shipman, D. J.

This is a bill in equity to restrain the defendant from the alleged infringement of re-issued letters patent, which were issued on June 3, 1879, to Nicholas Siebert for a lubricator of steam-engines. The original patent was issued September 14, 1869.

The device, which is described and claimed in the re-issue, is clearly explained by General Ellis, the plaintiff’s expert, as follows:

“This device is an improvement in lubricators. It consists of a horizontal cylinder, in which transverses a piston, to one side of which is attached a piston-rod, which. passes through [329]*329the end of the cylinder, and serves as a gauge to indicate the position of the piston at the end of the cylinder. On the opposite side of the piston head is an opening, to which is connected a vortical pipe, between which vertical pipe and the cylinder is a three-way cock connecting with cylinder, vertical pipe, and discharge pipe. At the opposite end of the cylinder is a pipe, furnished with a cock, leading to a point at which the lubricating material is to be delivered. On the top of the cylinder is a feeding cup, likewise furnished with a cock for pouring in the lubricant; likewise, on top of the cylinder, is a small cock for allowing the air to discharge when the lubricant is poured in. The operation of this machine is as follows:

“The piston being pushed to the rear end of the cylinder, the lubricant is poured in to fill it upon the front side, or that which is furnished with the piston-rod. The pipes at the two ends of the cylinder are supposed to be submitted to an equal pressure from the steam. The vertical pipe at the rear end of the cylinder becomes filled with water from the condensed steam, the hydrostatic pressure from which, as it enters the cylinder, pushes the piston forward and expels the lubricant. On the rear side of the piston there is steam pressure added to the hydrostatic pressure of the water which condenses in the vertical pipe. On the front side of the piston there is the pressure only of the steam and the atmospheric pressure upon the small area of the piston-rod, which serves as a gauge. This makes an excess of pressure upon the rear, due to the hydrostatic column in the vertical pipe, which presses the piston forward and drives out the lubricant through the discharge pipe.”

The claims of the re-issue are as follows:

“First. The arrangement of a cylinder, A, provided with a piston, B, and pipe, N, substantially as described, whereby the lubricant is fed by means of hydrostatic pressure or steam pressure, or both.

“Second. The cylinder, A, pipo, N, and cocks, G and IT, arranged substantially as described, whereby the lubricant may be fed by hydrostatic pressure.

[330]*330“ Third. The method herein described of feeding a lubricant by means of hydrostatic pressure operating through devices substantially as herein shown and explained.”

The second and third claims only are said to have been infringed.

The defendant’s device has a vertical instead of a horizontal cylinder, has no piston, but the oil and water are sejaa-rated by the difference of their specific gravities. I assume, what is denied by the defendants, that the principle of its device is solely that of hydrostatic pressure. It may also be assumed that Siebert first introduced this principle in an automatic oiler of steam-engines. The important question in the case seems to me to be the validity of the second and third claims of the re-issue, if those claims are to receive the construction which would naturally be given to the language which is used.

When Siebert applied for his original patent in 1869 he was manifestly ignorant that the principle of hydrostatic pressure was contained in his device. This is manifest from the entire specification, which attributes the action of the piston, in forcing the oil through the delivery cock, entirely to the pressure of the steam admitted through the cock at the base of the vertióle pipe. For example, the patentee says: “A cock admits steam behind the piston, and forces it slowly forward, while another cock, at the opposite end of the cylinder, allows the tallow to pass to its destination. At the back of the cylinder is the cock, G-, which admits the steam, by the pressure of which the piston is forced along.” There is no mention in the claim of the vertical pipe, or of hydrostatic pressure. Indeed, the vertical pipe did not appear in the drawings, though it was shown in the model. Subsequent investigations having led Siebert to discover, in May, 1879, the value of hydrostatic pressure, “he caused to be made a new arrangement, by which the lubricant reservoir was. made to stand vertically, instead of horizontally, as in his first invention, and hydrostatic pressure was applied near its base, at the bottom of the lubricant. For this arrangement he took out his patent of February, 1871. The princi-[331]*331pie was manifestly the same as that revealed in the earlier patent, though the arrangement for its operation was different.” Garratt v. Siebert, 98 U. S. 75.

After the patent of 1871 had been granted, the patentee sought and obtained a re-issue of the patent of 1869. The re-issue described the invention as follows: “My invention consists ina novel method of feeding the oil to the cylinders, said feed being accomplished by means of hydrostatic pressure, operating throng]i devices substantially as herein described. In the general mode of feeding oil to cylinders, the opening through which the oil passes to the valves or other parts is the only point where the lubricant is exposed to the effect of the steam pressure, and the oil is subjected to constant ebullition, and an irregularity of feed is a necessary result. If steam can bo applied on each side of the body of the lubricant, so as to produce a state of equilibrium, and then some constant and regularly-augmented power be brought into operation to disturb this equilibrium in one direction, the oil will be forced in that direction, and be supplied with a regularity depending upon the regularity of tlie augmentation of the power used to disturb the equilibrium of the steam pressure on the lubricant. One of the powers I use to disturb the steam equilibrium is a hydrostatic column, formed by the condensation of steam in an extended pipe, to form one of the steam connections, to create the equilibrium before mentioned.”

Again he says: “The steam, becoming condensed in the pipe, N, forms a hydrostatic column behind the piston, and this column, acting in conjunction with the steam in pipe N, overcomes the pressure from pipe M, and the piston is forced slowly and regularly in the direction of the arrow, thus giving a constant and regular feed of the lubricant through the supply pipe, M, and the continued condensation of the steam regularly augmenting and supplying the hydrostatic column.

The testimony shows that the active principle for expelling the lubricant from the cylinder is the hydrostatic column in the vertical pipe, and that steam aids hydrostatic pressure to this small extent: “Upon the rear side of the piston the [332]*332steam exerts a pressure upon the whole area; upon the front side of the piston the steam exerts a force upon the whole area, less the area of the piston-rod, upon which small area is only exerted the pressure of the atmosphere.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
4 F. 328, 1880 U.S. App. LEXIS 2614, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/siebert-cylinder-oil-cup-co-v-harper-steam-lubricator-co-circtdct-1880.