Electro Mfg. Co. v. Yellin, 8108.

• Decision Date: 22 January 1943
• Docket Number: No. 8108.,8108.
• Citation: 132 F.2d 979
• Parties: ELECTRO MFG. CO. v. YELLIN et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

132 F.2d 979 (1943)

ELECTRO MFG. CO. v. YELLIN et al.

No. 8108.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

January 22, 1943.

James R. McKnight, of Chicago, Ill., for appellant.

S. Aaron Rosen and Max R. Kraus, both of Chicago, Ill., for appellees.

Before SPARKS and KERNER, Circuit Judges, and LINDLEY, District Judge.

SPARKS, Circuit Judge.

Appellant charged appellees with infringement of United States Patent No. 2,264,141 issued to Nemeroff on November 25, 1941, on an application filed March 26, 1941. The defenses were noninfringement and invalidity. The District Court decreed that the patent was neither infringed nor valid, and from that decree this appeal is prosecuted.

The invention relates to fluorescent lighting fixtures, and more particularly to those of a type adapted to be suspended from the ceiling. In order to set forth clearly his alleged contribution to the art, Nemeroff, in his specification, presents his view of the art and follows this with the precise advancement which he claims to have made. He states: "The structural portion of lighting fixtures of this type commonly consist of a hemi-cylindrical sheet metal casing which is suspended by means of tubes or other brackets from the ceiling of a room * * *. Tube sockets are attached to the curved surface of this structure so that the tubes when secured in the sockets extend generally horizontally from end to end of the hemi-cylindrical surface. A fixture of this type illuminates the room in which it is disposed comparatively evenly and the fixture in general when not illuminated has a pleasing appearance, especially when the ends of the fixture are covered by generally semi-circular plates or caps which hide the ends of the fluorescent lighting tubes. One defect of a fixture of this type, however, is that when lighted, light will radiate from the tube surfaces and will be reflected from the curved surface of the fixture in such a manner that the illumination over the curved portion of the fixture is of comparatively even intensity. The ends of the fixture, however, are opaque and cast shadows upon the ceiling, and in general, do not give a satisfactory visual impression when so closely associated with the brightly illuminated surface of the fixture. This defect cannot be overcome by providing transparent ends for the fixture since fluorescent lighting tubes radiate substantially no light in an axial direction. The ends of the tubes, therefore, are dark even though light is being radiated from the curved surfaces of the tube."

Nemeroff then states that the principal object of his invention is to provide a simple, economical, easily assembled and novel fluorescent lighting fixture that overcomes the alleged defect referred to in the second paragraph of his specification.

It is fair to say that this particular field of art is comparatively new, yet it is conceded that all the elements in this patent are old in this particular field, and the only new thing alleged to be disclosed by the patent is that the dark and opaque ends of the fluorescent lighting tubes when in operation are made light. This is done by providing end caps of a translucent material, which are generally semi-circular in shape, and have a diameter somewhat greater than the total diameter of the fixture, including the tubes. These end caps are secured to the end plates which preferably are coated with a light-reflecting medium, such as white enamel, by means of screws threaded into the end plates, and are spaced from those plates by bosses molded integrally with the end caps. At their edges the end caps are provided with inwardly extending flanges which cover the brackets and the dark ends of the fluorescent tubes, and which extend somewhat beyond the ends of the tubes so as to be co-extensive with a portion of the lighted surface of the tubes near their ends.

Preferably these caps should be white, or a shade comparatively close to white, so that when the fixture is not lighted the appearance of the caps will be much the same as that of the tubes and the reflecting surface immediately behind them. When the fixture is lighted, no light will be cast from the tubes in an axial direction to illuminate the caps. However, the light radiating outwardly from the lighted end portion of the tubes will strike the inwardly extending portions of the flanges. This light will be intercepted by the flanges and because of the translucent nature of the material, the light will be diffused through the flanges and from the flanges inwardly throughout the portion of the caps covering the ends of the...