Majority — Fullee C.J.
Syllabus
appeal from the circuit court of the united states for the SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO.after stating the case, delivered the opinion of the court.
Appellants manufactured no buggies or vehicles of any kind, but purchased and made springs which were fitted on wooden bars to be attached to the vehicles, and sold such spring bars in the market and to manufacturers of vehicles. The claims of the three patents, on which appellee’s suit was based, were to combinations relating to side-bar buggies and wagons, the side-bar gear and buggy body being elements of each combination. These patents are as follows:
The latter figure is as follows:
The specification states :
“ My invention relates to buggy, and wagon springs; and it consists in the attachment of springs to the bottom of the body at the sides, and crossing the bottom of the body, and connecting with the side bars on the opposite sides of the body, as will be hereinafter more fully set forth.
“ The annexed drawing, to which reference is made, fully illustrates my invention.
“A represents the hind axle, and A' the front axle, the latter having the usual head-block B. The hind axle A and head-block B are connected by side bars 00, in the usual manner. D represents the body of the vehicle.
“The body I) is connected to the side bars 00- by'means of two springs, GG-, composed of one or more plate's near each end: These springs are fastened to the under side of the body D at opposite sides. The springs then cross each other, and their ends are pivoted or hinged in clips II, fastened to the opposite side bars,- as shown.
“By this construction and arrangement of the springs I secure length of springs and elasticity of motion, and at the same time hanging the body low.
“ In combination with the side bars CC and body D, the springs GG, attached to the under side of the body at opposite sides, then crossing each other, and connected to the side bars on opposite sides, substantially as herein set forth.”
2. No. 9542; reissue, dated January 25, 1881, upon application filed November 27, 1880, being a reissue of patent No. 157,430 to Tilton and- Stivers, for springs for vehicles, dated December 4, 1874, upon application filed November 25, 1874.
The specification of the original patent read thus:
• “ The object of the present invention is to provide springs designed especially for buggies, carriages, and other light 'vehicles, which shall obviate all rocking motion of the body supported thereon, and cause the latter to be always maintained in a horizontal position when moving up or down, or when in a stationary position.
. “The invention consists in the employment of two independent crossed-leaf metal springs, the ends of which are rigidly secured to the opposite ends of the cross-bar supporting the vehicle-body, each spring being formed or provided with a socket, and the two sockets meeting each other at the centre of the body-supporting bar, so as to enable an axis or' pivot bolt to be passed through both sockets, for enabling the springs to turn thereon when the body is elevated or depressed. The invention further consists in securing a bearing and reenforcing plate of metal to the under side of the body-supporting bar, said plate being provided with pendent flanges at both ends, to serve as bearing-points for the ends of the springs, in order to prevent any lateral movement of the same, and to serve, in. connection with fastening-bolts, to securely' hold the springs .in place. * * * *■ *
“It is well known that elliptic or semi-elliptic springs, •secured to the centre -of the cross-bar supporting a carriage-body, will permit the same to rock from side to side, which is objectionable for various reasons.
“ I' propose to maintain a buggy, carriage, and other vehicle
*****
The claims were as follows:
“ 1. The combination of two springs, each composed of one or more leaves, and hinged together at their crossing point, and provided with an eye at one end to connect with the side sills of the running-gear, and at the other end connected with the cross-bar for supporting the body of the vehicle, substantially as described.
“ 2. The two leaf-springs, each provided with a socket at their crossing point, in combination with a pivot or axis bolt, substantially as described.
“ 3. The combination of two springs side by side, and connected together, with the side sills and cross-bar, for supporting the body in a horizontal position between the side sills, substantially as described.
“ 4. The reenforcing and bearing plate I, having end flanges, in combination with the body-supporting bar and the connected cross-springs, substantially as described.”
The specification wras amended in the reissue by substituting “ cross-piece attached to the body,” for “ cross-bar supporting the vehicle body,” “the body-supporting bar,” or “bar supporting the body; ” and also by inserting after the word
The original claims were changed in the reissue by the substitution in the first claim of “ cross-piece attached to the body,” for “ cross-bar for supporting the body ; ” and the word “ crosspiece” for “cross-bar” in the third claim; and omitting the word “ and ” after “ reenforcing,” and the substitution of the “ cross-piece attached to the body ” for the “ body-supporting bar,” in the,.fourth claim; and a fifth claim was added as follows: “ 5. In combination with the body of a vehicle and the side sills or bars, the two springs crossing each other side by side and attached to a cross-piece, substantially as described.”
3. No. 239,850, to C. W. Saladee for road wagon, dated April 5, 1881; application filed February 7, 1881. The claim is: “A spring-platform consisting of flexion springs arranged in pairs, the inner heavier ends of each pair being connected side by side to the central portion of the body or object supported, and the flexion portion of each spring curving downward from the centre and then upward to its connection with the frame, all substantially as set forth.”
It will be perceived that the third claim of the reissued Tilton patent includes, as a necessary element, two springs side by side and connected together; the fourth claim includes the connected cross-springs and the reenforcing plate, having • end flanges; while the fifth claim is substantially the same as the single claim of the Timken patent. Both have the two springs crossing each other, though in the Timken claim these springs must be connected at the heavier ends at the opposite side from which the light ones are connected with the side bar. It seems clear that the fifth claim was intended to cover sectional cross-springs without the articulated joint in the centre, and it does cover such springs, if the word “ preferably,” introduced for the first time in the reissue, is not an expansion of the invention described in the original patent; but we cannot concur with the learned Circuit Judge in his
Huber v. Nelson Manufacturing Co., 148 U. S. 270 , is much in point. There one Boyle obtained a patent for a sanitary closet, including, as an essential element of the claim, a flushing chamber, and subsequently applied fo>‘ a reissue for the purpose of eliminating that chamber, but this, it was held, could not be done.
The object of the original Tilton invention was declared to be to provide carriages or other vehicles with springs to prevent the rocking motion 'of the body supported thereon, and it was stated in the specification : “ It is well known that elliptic or semi-elliptic springs secured to the centre of the cross-bar of the carriage body will permit the same to rock from side to side. It is objectionable for various reasons.” It was proposed to remedy this by taking springs of the form shown, which might be properly termed sections of semi-elliptic springs, and arranging them to cross each other on the centre of the crossbar upon which the body was placed, each spring being provided with a socket at the crossing point and a pivot bolt passing through both springs, secured by a nut, this coupling preventing them from moving independently of each other. In the first claim the words were used, “ hinged together at their crossing point; ” in the second claim, “ two leaf-springs, each provided with a socket at their crossing point; ” in the
Appellee’s contention that the connection of the crossed springs of the third and fourth claims is a connection by means of the reenforcing plate and its flanges, which, the specification says, were intended to serve as bearing points for the ends of the springs, described in the fourth claim as a separate element in combination with the body-supporting bar and the connected cross-springs, requires no comment.
The new fifth claim omits the crossing connection altogether and covers matter recognized as old in the original patent, and claims three and four, if broadly construed in connection with the new matter introduced in the specification, render the central connection non-essential, since it might be omitted, if preferred. There is no basis for the theory of inadvertence, accident, or mistake, and the reissue cannot be sustained.
As. to the original patent, it should be observed that if the bolt passing through the sockets in that portion of the springs centrally under the body and coupling them together, as shown, were omitted, the result would be the Timken spring, and it •involved no invention on the part of Timken to dispense with that connecting link, thus leaving the springs practically identical. It is true that the Tilton patent, both original and reissue, showed the light ends of the springs secured to the side bars by links or swinging shackles, while the shackles were rigid in the Timken, but both these shackles were well known, and complainant cannot contend that the difference is material.
In short, the Tilton patent relates to. a crossing spring with a pivot bolt at the intersection. The Timken spring is the Tilton spring with the pivot bolt omitted, but in the defendants’ spring the two sections do not cross each other, and cannot have a pivot bolt at the intersection.
Many different styles of cross-springs appear in the record, representing springs of all kinds and shapes; springs placed
In Kenan’s patent of September 13, 1870, No. 107,386, we find crossing springs coupled at the crossing point by solid balls or blocks of india-rubber. In Labaw’s, No. 34,549, February 25, 1862, and Hubbard’s, No. 12,890, May 15, 1855, the connection is effected by a pivot.bolt. In Cooper’s patent, No. 200,435, February 19, 1878, each spring is formed of two sections, lying side by side, the inner end or heel of each section being secured to the wagon body but a little beyond its centre, while the outer ends are secured to the side bars.
Catterson’s English patent, No. 2642, May 15, 1854, shows cross-springs formed of two sections, lying side by side, pointing in opposite directions, provided at their ends with thin, flexible, curved portions, and there shackled.
The earliest patent in the record is the Mantón English patent, No. 4092,/,-dated July 18, 1817. This patent shows a rigid gear mounted on cross-springs having their heavy ends “ attached to the under side of the body at opposite sides, then crossing each other and connected to the side bar on opposite sides.”
The specification states : “ My improvement in the application of springs to wheel carriages consists in placing the springs which ar¿ to support the body of the carriage in a transverse or, cross-position, so that the length of the springs will be in a direction from side to side of the carriage, as represented by the drawings hereunto annexed, and that each spring shall be
Figure 1, omitting the frame formed by the axletree, the shaft supports, and the cross-rail, is as follows:
The Mantón specification covers a larger field than that of Timken, but the two devices are strikingly similar.
Passing to the question of prior use, the springs manufactured by Priest at Detroit, Michigan, show such anticipation of the alleged invention in the .three patents in suit as seems to us quite decisive. The learned Circuit Judge, however, rejected the testimony of Priest as wholly unreliable; but in our view that testimony was so fully corroborated by other witnesses and documentary evidence, that we are constrained to arrive at a different conclusion, whatever might be said of it standing alone.
The first of the Priest springs is known as the Meisner spring. In 1872 or 1873, Priest manufactured a buggy for Dr. Meisner, which had a body coupled to the side bars by double sweep sectional cross-springs, rigidly secured to the buggy bottom at opposite sides by bolts passing through their thick ends, then curved downwardly from the body and up again in the direction of the side bars, to which they were coupled by swinging shackles or links.
Rolfe testified that the buggy was made in September or October, and was painted prior to December 1, 1874, and he produced the bill for the painting dated December 31 of that year ; also his invoice book showing the buggy on hand January 1, 1875, as well as entries afterwards of a buggy sold Sir George Prescott, and of several other buggies with Priest springs; also bills of lading, dated March 25, 1875, from the Erie and North Shore Line, showing the consignment of the buggy to Lady Prescott, Strand Park, Herne Bay, Kent, England, one for the shipment from Detroit to New York, and another for the transportation from New York to London, April 10, by the steamer O. E. French; also letter of O. "W. Prescott, dated June 10, 1875, from Isenhurst, Hawkhurst, Sussex, England, showing that the buggy had arrived, and ordering another for Sir George Prescott ;• and another letter of G. W. Prescott, without date, purporting to have been written from Lawrence, Kansas, with reference to the second buggy. The testimony of Priest was sustained, not only by that of Rolfe, but of Rand, who packed and superintended the shipment of the buggy to England. Rolfe’s invoice book showed the buggy sold to Sir George Prescott, August 13, 1875, and also a Priest buggy to Dr. Drake on October 23, 1875. That the first Prescott buggy was made and shipped as contended, is satisfactorily made out, but the real question is as to the character of the springs upon it, and in respect of that Priest is corroborated by several witnesses.
Among the exhibits which Mr. Timken concedes in his evidence contain his invention, or are nearly the same aá his springs, are the Matlock or Kierolf springs and the Kunkle Brothers’ springs. The Kunkle springs were manufactured by one Ruple and sold to Kunkle Brothers in 1876 or the
Timken made his application October 27, 1877, and the evidence on his behalf as to when he made his invention, which we have carefully examined, fails to show that it was earlier than the other devices to which we have referred..
Appellee’s argument seems to be that the Timken patent should be so construed as to cover a double-sweep sectional spring, having the attaching ends connected to the bottom of the buggy or cross-sills at any point between the side and the centre, crossing the centre, bending downwardly for a distance and then upwardly to be attached to the side bar; having a thick end for attachment to the buggy bottom and a thin end' for attachment to the side bar shackle, the curve being such' as to allow the body to move up and down without expanding the side bar, but we do not understand this description to be within the terms of the patent, according to which the Tim-ken invention consisted in the use of sectional springs arranged in pairs side by side and crossing each other to couple the body to the gear. Now that sectional springs can be used for coupling the body to the gear of the vehicle ; that rigidity
If, however, such a construction could be put on the Timken patent as would save it from being held invalid for anticipation or for want of invention, that construction would certainly exclude appellants’ structure. The differences between them are well and accurately given by appellants’ expert. Timken’s sections have their heels attached at the sides of the wagon bed; cross the entire bottom .to reach the opposite side bar; cross each other like the letter X, and have their heels fastened independently and far apart below the wagon bed, by bolts passing through perforations in the springs, the flexible, portions of the sections comprising the entire distance between the shackle bar and the first attaching bolt. In appellants’ structure the heels of the sections attach at about the centre of the wagon bed and do not cross the entire bottom to reach the opposite side bar; the sections do not cross each other; the heels are attached closely contiguous to each other, by a rigid clip, secured by bolts and clips, the flexion of the section being limited to a length extending from the shackle end of the section to a point some distance nearer the shackle end than the bolt perforation through the section.
As to the Saladee patent, in view of the state of the art as shown by the exhibits, all made more than two years prior to the application for this patent, which was February 7, 1881, and tbe fact that the proof shows that the defendants’ springs are made in accordance with' the Stickle patent, and that Stickle made his invention, and reduced it to practice, prior to
The decree is reversed and the cause remanded with a direction to dismiss the bill.
Cases cited
- Huber v. Nelson Manufacturing Co. 148 U. S. 270 p. 147
- Duer v. Corbin Cabinet Lock Co. 149 U. S. 216 p. 155