Phoenix Caster Co v. Spiegel

• Citation: 133 U.S. 360,10 S.Ct. 409,33 L.Ed. 663
• Parties: PHOENIX CASTER CO. v. SPIEGEL et al. 1
• Decision Date: 03 March 1890
• Court: United States Supreme Court

133 U.S. 360

10 S.Ct. 409

33 L.Ed. 663

PHOENIX CASTER CO. v. SPIEGEL et al.¹

March 3, 1890.

C. P. Jacobs, for appellant.

BLATCHFORD, J.

This is a suit in equity, brought in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Indiana, by the Phoenix Castor Company, an Indiana corporation, against Augustus Spiegel, Henry Frank, and Frederick Thoms, to recover for the alleged infringement of letters patent No. 190,152, granted May 1, 1877, on an application filed September 16, 1876, to Alexander C. Martin, for an 'improvement in furniture casters.' The specification, claim, and drawings of the patent are as follows: 'This invention relates to swiveling casters, and the objects of the invention are to secure in such casters freedom from pivotal wear of carpet or floor, and increased mobility in swiveling. The first object is attained by the use of two floor-wheels, whose axes are coincident, in connection with devices which insure the contact of both wheels with the floor, regardless of ordinary irregularities of floor surface. The second object of the invention is a natural result of the suppression of floor friction. In the accompanying drawing Fig. 1 is an elevation of my improved caster; parto f Fig. 1 is a vertical section; Fig. 2 is a side elevation; and Fig. 3 is a part elevation, exhibiting the portion cut away in Fig. 1. Common casters, in swiveleling, pivot upon the floor. The point of pivot motion is the point of contact between wheel and floor. Such pucker and wear carpets and are sluggish in their swiveling action. Two rollers side by side will, in swiveling, turn in opposite directions, and it will be found that they roll upon the floor, instead of pivoting, as does the single wheel; but, if the floor should be irregular, as is often the case, one wheel of the pair would not touch the floor, and the two-wheeled caster would become practically a one-wheeled caster. My improvement consists in making the axis of the two wheels oscillatory with reference to the article to which the furniture caster is attached. The axis of oscillation, being at right angles to the floor-wheels' axis, allows the wheels to accommodate themselves to ordinary inequalities of floor. Referring to the drawing, A is a flange, from which depends the stem or boss, C. This stem serves as a pivot for the swiveling motion, as a draft-pin for the wheel-housing, and as a means of uniting the parts. The housing, B, furnishes bearing supports for the two floor-wheels, E, E, and the anti-friction pivot-wheel, F. The latter wheel is situated centrally between, and vertically above, the floor-wheels. The housing swivels upon the stem in the usual manner. Were only a swiveling motion of the housing desired, its fit upon the central pivot might be close-allowing only looseness enough for the swiveling action; but the object sought by my improvement demands that the housing should have a compound motion with reference to the central pivot. It must revolve upon a vertical axis, and oscillate upon a horizontal axis. This compound bearing is formed by making the housing bearing slightly elliptical, and the housing collar-bearing in rocker form, as shown in Fig. 3. The rocker may be on the side of the hole nearest the anti-friction wheel, or on the opposite side; and the axis of the rocker should be in line with, and a continuation of, the axis of the anti-friction wheel, F, so that the anti-friction wheel may not impede the oscillating motion. By means of the relief resulting from the elliptic nature of the housing opening and the rocker-bearing, freedom for oscillation is secured without interfering with the functions of the central pivot as a bearing of rotation, draft-pin, and means of union. I claim

as my invention a furniture caster composed of the following elements: The floor-wheels, E, E, the anti-friction pivot-wheel, F, the housing, B, the elliptical housing opening, or its mechanical equivalent, and the rocker-formed collar-bearing, or its mechanical equivalent, all combined so as to allow the floor- wheel axis to oscillate horizontally, substantially as and for the purpose specified.'

The answer sets up as defenses want of novelty and non-infringement. After replication, proofs were taken on both sides. The case was heard before Judge Woods, and a decree was entered which stated that the court found that there had been no infringement of the patent, and that the bill was dismissed, with costs. From this decree the plaintiff has appealed. The opinion of the court is reported in 26 Fed. Rep. 272.

The caster used and sold by the defendants was known as the 'Yale Caster,' and was made at New Haven, Conn. The opinion of the court stated that the prior art was shown by reference to numerous earlier patents, both American and English, 'which, it is alleged, anticipated the Martin combination entirely, or at least in so far as to impose upon it a strict construction, limiting it to the particular arrangement of parts described, and excluding any pretense of infringement by the defendants.' The opinion then proceeds as follows: 'After a painstaking consideration of the evidence and accompanying models, the opinions of the experts, and the arguments and briefs of counsel, which upo both sides have been quite exhaustive, I am compelled to the conclusion that infringement has not been shown, and consequently that the bill must be dismissed. The combination of the patent in question accomplished no new result in mechanics, and differed from previous known combinations, designed for the same and like purposes, only in the construction of one or two of the parts, whereby perhaps a better but certainly not a different kind of result was accomplished than had been before effected. More than this cannot be justly claimed, as it seems to me. Besides, it appears that Martin's application for a patent was rejected and withdrawn two or more times, the examiner insisting, upon certain references, 'that all applicant's novelty in entire device is only expressed by words as specified.' In obedience to this ruling, the claim, and perhaps the specification, was modified, and the patent granted. It follows that the patent cannotnow, by a liberal construction, be made to include anything so denied by the patent-office, and without this the device of the defendants cannot, I think, be said to infringe.'

The claim of the patent is for a combination of the following elements: (1) The floor-wheels, E, E; (2) the anti-friction pivot-wheel, F; (3) the housing, B; (4) the elliptical housing opening, or its mechanical equivalent; (5) the collar; (6) the rocker-formed collar-bearing, or its mechanical equivalent. All these are to be so combined as to allow the axis of the two floor-wheels to oscillate horizontally with reference to the article to which the caster is attached. The floor-wheels, E, E, are mounted in a housing. This housing also furnishes bearing supports for an anti-friction pivot-wheel, F, which latter wheel constitutes the principal bearing surface between the floor-wheels' housing and the plate at the bottom of the piece of furniture, on which plate the anti-friction pivot-wheel travels in the...