Simonds Rolling-Mach. Co. v. Hathorn Mfg. Co.

93 F. 958, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 2307
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedApril 25, 1899
DocketNos. 260 and 261
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 93 F. 958 (Simonds Rolling-Mach. Co. v. Hathorn Mfg. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Simonds Rolling-Mach. Co. v. Hathorn Mfg. Co., 93 F. 958, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 2307 (1st Cir. 1899).

Opinion

COLT, Circuit Judge.

This suit was brought for infringement of two patents, "No. 319,754, dated June 9, 1885, and No. 419,292, dated January 14, 1890. The first patent was issued to George F. Simonds for dies “for forging articles circular in cross section,” such as car axles, and the second to the complainant, as assignee of Simonds, for the method of making irregular shaped metal articles, or “of making wrought-metal forgings that are circular in cross-sectional area.” The court below held that the first claim of the die patent was limited to irregular shaped articles, and did not cover dies for making balls; that the second claim must be strictly construed, and therefore was not infringed; and that the method patent was valid, and infringed by the defendants. 90 Fed. 201. The complainant appeals from so much of the decree below as limits the scope of the first claim of the die patent, and holds that the defendants do not infringe the second claim. The defendants appeal from so much of the decree as declares that they infringe the first claim of the die patent and the method pa tent.

It is apparent that the method and the die patents are not for the same invention. The former covers the method, irrespective of the specific means or instrumentalities employed; the latter covers certain specific features of dies used in carrying out the method. These are distinct inventions. The main defense to both patents relied upon in the court below and on this appeal is the alleged anticipation of Simonds’ method and dies by the prior English patent granted to William Bundy. Preliminary to the consideration of this question, it may be observed that Simonds’ method was radically new in the metal-forging art. It revolutionized the branch of the art to which it relates. It is practically and commercially successful. The Si[960]*960monels method patent is for “making wrought-metal forgings which are circular in cross-sectional area.” It deals with the forging of hot metal. It contains a description of the method, the mode of operation, and refers to different forms of dies which may be employed in carrying out the method. The dies illustrated in the drawings are so shaped as to roll balls, car axles, and other articles circular in cross section. The dies are used in pairs, and have raised working parts. They rotate and shape the blank between them. They travel in parallel lines in opposite directions. At the beginning of the operation the forward ends of the dies are opposite one another, and at the end of the operation the rear ends are opposite one another. The complainant’s expert, Mr. Livermore, gives a clear description of the Simonds method and dies;

“Briefly stated, the method consists in acting progressively upon different parts of the surface of the blank, the point of action traveling around the circumference of the blank, and at the same time traveling lengthwise of the blank; or, in other words, being in a spiral path around the blank, beginning at some point between the ends of what is to be the finished forging, and extending gradually towards the ends thereof. The action at each point consists in straining or spreading or crowding the surplus metal of the blank towards the ends, and at the same time compressing the metal that remains in the finished forging tó the exact form required at that point. Thus, at any given moment between the beginning of the operation on the blank and the completion of a forging there is a portion of the length of the forging that has been brought to the final shape, and the remainder is at this time completely unformed; and as the operation continues the length of the finished portion, is extended towards the ends, until finally the entire length has been completed, the end portion being finished at the last round of the spirally traveling, spreading, and compressing action.” “The dies are constructed to be used in pairs in a machine in which they are caused to travel in relatively opposite directions, the distance between tbe dies, generally speaking (or, more accurately, tbe maximum distance between the working portions of the dies), being substantially equal to the diameter of the blank; so that, without talcing into account the shaping effect of the dies, their action in traveling one past the other upon the blank between them is to rotate or roll the blank much as a pencil is rolled between tbe hands of a person when sliding one hand along the other, with the pencil lying between the two and at right angles to the line of movement. The two dies stand, at the beginning of the rolling operation, with their forward ends directly opposite one another, and during the rolling movement one die has passed completely over the other, so that at the end of the rolling operation the rear ends of the dies are opposite one another.” “The dies have raised working parts, which act upon and shape the blank rolling between them, said raised parts of the dies having a groove or channel extending lengthwise thereof, the cross-sectional shape of the bottom of which channel is the same as the longitudinal outline to be imparted to the forging; so that, if a finished forging were rolled along in the channel of the die, its line of rolling contact would fit the channel. s= * * These channels are not, however, of full width for the full length of each die, hut are of full width only at the rear'end of the die, the sides of the channeled, raised portions being cut away on diagonal lines, which converge from the rear end, where the channel is of full width, towards the front end of the die, where the channel substantially vanishes by reason of the cutting away of its sides. The raised portion of the dies along the sides of the channel are cut away upon planes that slope outward and downward from the line of intersection with the channel. * * * The surface of the bottom of the channel * * * is called the ‘forming surface’ of the die, as it imparts to< the forging the exact form or shape that is desired; while the sloping diverging surfaces at the sides of the forming channel * * * are called ‘reducing’ and ‘spreading’ surfaces, as they serve in the operation of the die to crowd the surplus metal of the blank towards the ends of the [961]*961forging, leaving only the metal which conforms to the shape of the bottom of the channel.”

Dr. Coleman Sellers, complainant’s expert, says, respecting the Simonds method:

“It is evident that the advantage to be derived from this method of rolling is that sice! can be worked at the lowest forging heat, precisely as a blacksmith would work it, and by means of dies that put no undue strain upon the metal, hut give the work necessary for a compact forging.”

The claim of the method patent is as follows:

“The method herein described of making rolled-metal forgings by acting upon all parts of a metal bar in spiral lines, so as at each part in succession and upon such lines to cause the liar to rotate, and to strain and spread the metal axially, and compress it to the required shape and size.”

The Bundy English patent was granted in 180(5. It was for an inven lion of “machines or instruments for the purpose of making leaden bullets and other shot.” It was not for forging hot metal. It does not. appear that leaden bullets were ever made with the Bundy machine, or that it made any Impression on the art of metal working. The specification says:

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Bluebook (online)
93 F. 958, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 2307, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/simonds-rolling-mach-co-v-hathorn-mfg-co-ca1-1899.