Winans v. Eaton

30 F. Cas. 262, 1 Fish. Pat. Cas. 181
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Northern New York
DecidedSeptember 15, 1854
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 30 F. Cas. 262 (Winans v. Eaton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Northern New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Winans v. Eaton, 30 F. Cas. 262, 1 Fish. Pat. Cas. 181 (circtndny 1854).

Opinion

NELSON, Circuit Justice.

This case should have been decided at an earlier day, but such has been the pressure of business in court since the argument, that I have been unable to devote that time to its consideration which its difficulty and magnitude required. The papers are very voluminous, and some of the questions involved depend upon complicated and contradictory evidence.

As this is a motion for a preliminary injunction, I shall not deem it necessary to go into the ease at large, or as fully as if it stood for a final hearing; but shall content myself by stating briefly the ground upon which I have arrived at the conclusion that the motion must be denied. This patent has been before me heretofore in the case of Winans v. .Schenectady & T. R. Co. [Case No. 17,865], •on a motion on the part of the defendants for a new trial. The case had been tried at law before his honor. Judge Conkling, and the questions involved were, the correctness of the rulings at the circuit.

In deciding upon these questions, it became necessary to give a construction of the patent, which will be found in the opinion then delivered, and which I do not understand is a matter of dispute on this motion.

The patent is for a new and useful improvement in the construction of cars or carriages intended to travel on railroads, which is particularly adapted to passenger cars; and after stating the difficulties to be encountered in running these cars on the road at great speed, from curvatures and consequent friction between the flanges of the wheels and rail, and from other obstructions and impediments specified, and after describing the parts and manner of the construction of a car, with a view to overcome these difficulties and impediments, the patentee closes by saying: “X do not claim as my invention, the running of cars or carriages upon eight wheels, this having been previously done; not, however, in the manner and for the purpose herein described, but merely with a view of distributing the weight carried, more evenly upon a rail or other road, and for objects distinct in character from those which I have had in view as hereinbefore set forth; nor have the wheels, when thus increased in number, been ..so arranged and connected with each other, either by design or accident, as to accomplish this purpose. What I claim, therefore, as ■my invention, and for which I ask a patent, is the before-described manner of arranging and connecting the eight wheels which constitute the two bearing-carriages, with a railroad car, so as to accomplish the end proposed by the means set forth, or by others which are analogous and dependent upon the same principles.”

In the arrangement of this passenger car, the patentee constructs the bearing-carriages each with four wheels, which sustain the body of the car, by placing one of them at or near each end of it; the two wheels on either side of the truck are to be placed very near each other. The spaces apart between the flanges need be no greater than are necessary to prevent contact. The car body rests upon bolsters supported on each of the two bearing-carriages or four-wheeled trucks, the bolsters so constructed as to swivel or turn on each other like the two front bolsters of a common wagon; the trucks may be so placed within and under the end of the car, as to bring all the wheels under it or without the end, so as to allow the body to be suspended within the two bearing-carnages. The closeness of the fore and hind wheels of the trucks, taken in connection with the uso of them— the trucks arranged as distant from each other as can be done consistently with the proper support of the car-body—is considered by the patentee as an important feature of the invention, as, by the contiguity of the fore and hind -wheels of each truck, while the two trucks may be at a considerable distance apart, the lateral friction from the rubbing of the flanges against the rails is most effectually avoided, while, at the same time, all the advantages attendant upon placing axles of a four-wheeled car far apart are obtained; for the two wheels on either side of the trucks, may, from their proximity, be considered as acting like a single wheel, and as the two trucks may be placed at any distance from each other, consistent with the required strength of the body of the car, all the advantages are obtained that result from having two axles of a four-wheeled car at a distance from each other, while its inconveniences are avoided.

The two wheels on either side of thetrucks are connected together by means of a very strong spring, the ends of which are bolted or otherwise secured to the upper sides of the boxes which rest on the journals of the axles, the [264]*264longer leaves of the spring placed downward. The bolsters extend across, between the two pairs of wheels, from the center of one spring to that of the other, and are securely fastened to the top of them. This is the car substantially as arranged and constructed by the patentee without going into all the details of the specifications.

As we held when the patent was formerly before us—the improvement claimed is the car itself, arranged and constructed as described in the patent, and which we have above in substance set forth; and the question now before us, is the same as before the jury on the former case, viz: whether or not cars or carriages for running on railroads as a whole, like the one described-in the patent, had been before known or in public use? And whether or not the cars manufactured by the defendants are, in arrangement and construction, substantially like it?

The case, in its present posture, does not call for a definite determination of these questions, as that must be postponed till the final hearing. These questions are only important to be considered now, so far as they may aid us in deciding upon the right of the complainant to have the defendants enjoined pending the litigation. For if there exist any reasonable doubt about the originality or novelty of the car, as arranged and constructed by the patentee, or about the substantial identity of the cars manufactured by the defendant^ with the plaintiff’s, then I am not at liberty to interfere and arrest the manufacture at this stage of the proceedings. The determination of that must be postponed till the case is matured and disposed of at the final hearing.

A good deal of proof has been furnished by the defendants in this case, bearing directly upon the question above stated, not before the court and jury in the case against the Schenectady and Troy Railroad Company. The most material is that relating to what is called in the proceedings the “Quincy Car.” We have a description of this car from Gridley Bryant, the inventor and constructor of it. He is an engineer, and in 1820 superintended the building of a railroad leading from the Quincy quarries, in Massachusetts, to the landing at Milton, a distance of between three and four miles. This is said to be the first railroad built in the United States. Bryant states that the eight-wheeled car on this road was constructed in the summer of 1829' and has been used on it from that time to the present: that the objects of the construction were to carry a large load on the eight wheels without injury to the road; to turn the curves freely, descend the inclined plane, andrun on the road carrying the stone as smoothly and safely as possible. It consisted of two four-wheel trucks, securely held by center pivots or king bolts about ten feet apart, which passed through the bolsters of a rigid body or platform framing, and the centers of the trucks.

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Bluebook (online)
30 F. Cas. 262, 1 Fish. Pat. Cas. 181, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/winans-v-eaton-circtndny-1854.