Young v. Jackson

43 F. 387, 1890 U.S. App. LEXIS 1677

This text of 43 F. 387 (Young v. Jackson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Young v. Jackson, 43 F. 387, 1890 U.S. App. LEXIS 1677 (circtsdny 1890).

Opinion

Wallace, J.

The patent insult, No. 222,720, granted February. 17, 1880, to Hugh Young, covers improvements in a machine for sawing stone. The invention to which the first claim of the patent relates consists, as the specification states, “in certain novel constructions and combinations of parts, whereby a reciprocating saw-sash, moving along guides, has combined with it means for the feeding and withdrawing the saw toward or away from said guides.” That claim, which is the only claim now alleged to be infringed, is as follows:

“In machines for sawing stone, the combination, with a reciprocating saw-gate or sash, of moans for feeding and withdrawing the saw-blade toward or away from the guides governing its reciprocating motion without impairing the parallelism of the saw-blade to said guides, substantially as speciiied.”

As described in the specification and illustrated in the drawing, the machine consists of a main frame and a secondary frame or saw-gato. The saw-gate or sash is the ordinary rectangular frame in which mill saws are stretched, formed of two ends, each of which is composed of two posts, and the ends are connected by a transverse bar. The ends of the saw-gate are supported by guides attached to the main frame, which allow the gate to be reciprocated on the line of the guides. The reciprocating motion is communicated by any suitable mechanism. The saw-gate carries a blade, which is set in a plane parallel to the guides, and is attached to carriers capable of being moved within the gate to and from the direction of the guides. The specification states:

“ The blade is not carried directly by the gate, but by carriers, which are arranged so as to be capable of a synchronous movement within the ends of the gate, or, in other words, of a movement in direction at right angles, or thereabouts, to the reciprocating movement of the gate, to effect the feed and withdraw the blade, and this without affecting or interfering with the parallelism of the blade to the guides.”

The arrangement of the carriers which permits this movement consists in part of the posts of the gate ends, which serve to guide the carriers, and allow them to play in a plane at right angles to the guides, and in part of the devices for actuating them simultaneously and on a perfectly [388]*388parallel line with one another. These actuating devices are preferably indicated in the specification as consisting of feed-screws, one threaded to each carrier, which are connected with one another, and controlled by a cross-shaft with spur-gear arranged on the transverse bar of the gate. In operation the blade is attached to each end of one of the carriers by tension buckles or straps, and the carriers are actuated by the screws to feed the blade to a position to abrade the stone to be sawed; the saw-frame is then reciprocated, thus reciprocating the blade; and, when the work is done, the blade may be withdrawn by the screws from the place of its reciprocation. The claim is a-broad one for a combination of the saw-gate with the means for feeding and withdrawing the blade so that the blade will he constantly maintained parallel with the line of its reciprocating movement. The means for feeding and withdrawing the blade consist of those which hold or carry it, and those which control its transverse movements, and include carriers between which the blade can be strained or stretched, together with any suitable means to move the carriers synchronously, and maintain them constantly on a perfectly parallel line.

The question in the case is whether there is novelty in such a combination, in view of the prior state of the art as disclosed by earlier patents or publications. A machine is shown in the patent to Funk of January 28,1873, which describes a saw-gate which is reciprocated on guides longitudinally, and having a blade reciprocated by the gate, and attached to carriers capable of being raised and lowered in the gate itself, so as to be fed and withdrawn from its work without moving the gate. In that machine the blade is stretched between the two ends or legs of the gate, and attached to carriers (or slides) in each leg, which play in guides. The blade is raised and lowered in the gate by a cord and windlass attached to the main frame of the machine, and connected with the carriers by a yoke depending above the gate, the arms of which are attached to the carriers. By turning the windlass the carriers are raised in the guides synchronously, thus raising the blade from the place of its reciprocation. By relaxing the windlass the carriers and blade drop to the place of reciprocation by gravity. A machine having all the elements of the claim except the independently adjustable blade with its holding devices is described in the patent of Young, Young & Hubert, of February 16,1876. In that machine the blade is attached rigidly to the legs of the gate, and the gate itself is moved to and from the place of the reciprocating work, thus moving the blade, by feed-screws in each leg controlled from above by a shaft with spur-gear. . The legs move simultaneously, and maintain the blade perfectly parallel at all times with the line of its reciprocating movement. The patent to Stearns of Septemter 19, 1876, describes a machine in which the saw is mounted upon and reciprocated in the main frame of the machine, and fed to and withdrawn from the place of its reciprocation by feed-screws threaded in carriers in the legs of the frame, and rotated by a connecting shaft with intermediate gearings arranged on the transverse bar of the frame. The devices for actuating the blade transversely are the same as are described [389]*389in the patent in suit, and move both carriers simultaneously and on a perfectly parallel plane. The provisional specification of Graham & Graham, filed with the English commissioner of patents July 31, 1876, describes a sawing-machine having a novel method of mounting and actuating the reciprocating blade. They state:

We employ a strong, rectangular frame, which reciprocates or runs upon pulleys in suitable guides in an outer frame, and within this frame we mount one or more blades for carrying tire diamond cutters so as to be capable of being raised or lowered with respect to such frame in a perfectly parallel direction by a vertical screw at either end, geared together in order to adjust such blade to the thickness of the stone requiring to be cut, and which screws also serve to feed the blade as the cutting operation proceeds. We also employ a right and left handed quick-threaded screw at either end for the purpose of raising the blades and cutters from contact with the groove being cut in the stone during that portion of the stroke when the diamonds are not cutting. These screws are actuated by star wheels fixed upon their upper extremities.”

None of the earlier patents describe a sawing-machine having a saw-gate distinct from the main frame, and reciprocating on guides, which is provided with carriers which permit the blade to be moved independently of the gate itself towards and away from the line of the reciprocating movement by devices which maintain the carriers in a positive and constant parallelism to the line of the guides, and actuate them synchronously. The Graham provisional specification is only valuable as indicating that Young was not the first to conceive the idea of mounting and actuating a blade in a reciprocating saw-gale so that it could be. fed and withdrawn from the place of its reciprocating work, and held perfectly parallel during these operations, independently of the gate itself.

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43 F. 387, 1890 U.S. App. LEXIS 1677, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/young-v-jackson-circtsdny-1890.