United States Glass Co. v. Atlas Glass Co.

88 F. 493, 1898 U.S. App. LEXIS 2809
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 13, 1898
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 88 F. 493 (United States Glass Co. v. Atlas Glass Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States Glass Co. v. Atlas Glass Co., 88 F. 493, 1898 U.S. App. LEXIS 2809 (circtwdpa 1898).

Opinion

BUFFINGTON, District Judge.

The United States Glass Company, the owner of letters patent No. 260,819, granted July 11, 1882, to Philip Arbogast, files this bill against the respondents, the Atlas Glass Company and others. The patent is for an improvement in the manufacture of glassware, and infringement of its single claim is alleged. As complainant claims the patent is a pioneer one, and the claim should be given a broad and liberal construction, a reference to that part of the glass workers’ art bearing on the question at issue will aid in fixing the patent’s relative position in such art, and in determining the proper construction of the claim. Long prior to the patent in suit it was known that a finished hollow article of glassware could be formed by pressing, where the diameter of the vessel’s mouth was equal to or greater than the interior diameter of every part of the body. This was done by a single operation. A large lump of molten glass of proper size was dropped into a mold, and a plunger thrust in, which caused the soft glass to distribute itself throughout the entire space between the plunger and mold, which cavity formed the contour of the article to be formed. It will thus be noted that the plunger and press mold were recognized and adopted as means for obtaining, in the shapes mentioned, a body of any desired form, one of ■uniform thickness, and with a finished top, as distinguished from the unfinished top left by off-hand blowing. The single process of pressing could not, however, produce a finished article where the body bulged. Such bulge could only be secured by blowing. It was also a recognized practice to produce, by skilled preparatory blowing and manipulation, a blank, which was a hollow bulb of a size approximating the desired form, and with an even distribution of the glass. This blank was then inserted in a blow mold, and expanded to the pattern of the mold by mere mechanical, as contrasted with skilled, blowing. It will thus be seen that while the final blowing was recognized as a mere mechanical process when a proper blank was initially prepared. [495]*495and while pressing was recognized as a means of obtaining, by mere mechanical force, a hollow glass body of such proportion and uniform thickness as were desired, i\o one seems to huye seen the possibility of devising means for conjoining the two mechanical processes, and, by pressing, obtain the desired form of blank, and, by mold-blowing, expand it. The possibility of securing by pressing a preparatory condition suitable for blowing, to at least a limited extent, veas soon recognized as feasible, and this is shown by the patent of Gillinder, Kb. 51,386, issued December 5, 1865. It is contended on one side that this patent shows, in theory and substance, a complete anticipation of the process of the patent in suit, while by the other side it is brushed aside as disclosing merely a particular form of blowpipe, and as having no bearing whatever on the Arbogast patent. We cannot agree with either of these diverse contentions. While the device claimed is a mere blowpipe, yet the manner of its use and the function performed by it in the process in which it was employed are highly significant to the discriminating student of the art. It preempts and appropriates in advance of Arbogast a part of that field which, to award him pioneership, he must have been the first to occupy. Such significance lies in the fact that the tools were used in, and made practical, a process in which, by mere mechanical pressing, a hollow glass blank was produced, the upper part of which was in final finished form, and the lower part prepared for the subsequent modifying action of the blowpipe. It is true the claims of the patent only covered the tool, and that the avowed purpose of the applicant was to provide such means for manipulation subsequent to pressing that a handle could be mechanically pressed on the vessel at the first stage, instead of being attached after the blowing and shaping process, as was the prior practice. But it goes without saying (he claims made do not measure or limit the disclosure or teachings of the patent, and that the two significant features alluded to were embodied in the process in which the patented tool was used is proven by the patent itself, and by proof of extensive use of that process for many years prior to Arbogast’s application. That the upper part of the vessel was in finished form is shown by the fact that the solid plunger was-replaced by one of the same diameter, so that the initial upper forra necessarily remained unchanged during the secondary process, and that the lower part was blown, or at least was affected or modified by blowing, is shown — First, by the fact that, (he second plunger being shorter than the first, a cavity suitable for blowing was provided; second, by the fact a blowpipe was used; and, lastly, by the statements of the specifications following, to wit:

“It [che hollow plunger] is perforated or bored longitudinally through its center, and in this hole one end of the blowpipe, B, is fixed so that the mouth or open end of such vessel from the mold will fit over the plunger, A, in such maimer that the operator can safely expose it to the heat of the furnace, and expand it by blowing into it through the said pipe, A. * * * The vessel being thus securely held by the snap, as set forth, the operator proceeds to expand and finish it by heating and blowing in the well-known manner. * * * It will thus be seen that by means of this plowpipe molded vessels can be more expeditiously, uniformly, and perfectly expanded and finished, with the handles on as parts of the same, than by the old modes.”

[496]*496In considering this patent, we Lave not overlooked complainant’s contention that the Gillinder pressing was, so far as the wall thickness of the lower portion of the blank was concerned, a finally; that such thickness was not diminished by the secondary process; and that this latter process was a mere reshaping one, — a shortening up of the. vessel, and a formation of the bulge, not by blowing, but by pressure and manipulation. But this theory is negatived by testimony of equal, and, we think, of greater, weight, that expansion by blowing does take place during this process, by the contemporaneous statements of the specification noted, that expansion by blowing occurs,, and by the evident fact that the offhand blowing by which complainant says the finishing was done was necessarily of a somewhat nonuniform character, and there must perforce have been more or less variation and expansion necessarily resulting from the use of a nonun if orm force. Indeed, on the statement of complainant’s principal witness, Mr. Ripley, it was common practice "to put an air pressure into articles during their manufacture for the purpose of resisting the pressure of the bulb on the outside, and expanding any portion that had been flattened during the manipulation of the article.” But, on complainant’s own construction, we have during the process a blank, finished at the top and of uniform thickness in the body. This is formed around a cavity, and is provided with a blowpipe. Now, if such a blowpipe was thus used within the cavity simply to counteract and co-operate with pressure from without to modify the vessel’s contour, it is clear that the change from such negative resisting force exerted through the pipe to a positive expansive force by harder blowing, and to less or no pressure from without, would not seem so wide, so radical, and so inventive in its character as to stamp it of pioneer character.

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Bluebook (online)
88 F. 493, 1898 U.S. App. LEXIS 2809, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-glass-co-v-atlas-glass-co-circtwdpa-1898.