Landis Mach. Co. v. Parker-Kalon Corp.

• Decision Date: 11 July 1951
• Docket Number: Docket 21952.,No. 245,245
• Citation: 190 F.2d 543
• Parties: LANDIS MACH. CO. et al. v. PARKER-KALON CORP. et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

190 F.2d 543 (1951)

LANDIS MACH. CO. et al. v. PARKER-KALON CORP. et al.

No. 245, Docket 21952.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued April 30, 1951.

Decided July 11, 1951.

John Dashiell Myers, Philadelphia, Pa., Kenyon & Kenyon, New York City, George T. Bean, New York City, Chester C. Baxter, Philadelphia, Pa., of counsel, for appellants-defendants.

Drury W. Cooper, and Cooper, Byrne, Dunham, Keith & Dearborn, all of New York City, William A. Strauch, Washington, D. C., of counsel, for appellees-plaintiffs.

Before CHASE, FRANK and L. HAND, Circuit Judges.

L. HAND, Circuit Judge.

The defendants appeal from a judgment holding valid and infringed Claims 1, 9 and 11 of Patent No. 2,010,730, issued to Arthur Harold Lloyd on August 6, 1935, upon an application filed on January 30, 1935. An identical British patent had issued previously. The disclosure is of a machine for the "centerless" grinding of "screwthreads," in which a "work-rest" supports the piece to be ground — the "work-piece" — which is not held at its two ends, as in an ordinary lathe, by a member that advances it in the line of its axis as the grinding proceeds. In the patent in suit the advance may be by means of a corresponding thread on a "backing wheel"; but it may also be because the "work-rest" is set at an angle to the axis of the "backing-wheel" which has a plain surface.¹ In that event, owing to the angle just mentioned, there is a sufficient co-efficient of the motion of the "backing-wheel" parallel to the axis of the "work-piece" to move the "work-piece." The consequent rotation, combined with the axial advance of the "work-piece," allows its thread — only the "threaded" pieces are mentioned — to be engaged by the "grinding wheel," whose axis is parallel to that of the "backing wheel," and upon whose circumference are "annular ridges"; which enter the grooves of the "work-piece" and grind them, the "grinding wheel" being rotated faster than the "backing wheel." It is an essential element in the invention that the angle of the "work-rest," and so of the "work-piece," shall be such that the "annular grooves" of the "grinding wheel" "do not foul the thread," (page one, col. one, lines 24, 28); and the optimum angle for that purpose is the "helix angle," a term of art not necessary to describe. However, that angle is only "preferable" (page two, col. one, lines 16-20); it is not necessary to the invention: all that is necessary is that the angle shall be such that the "annular ridges" "mate" with the grooves; and this we read to mean that, although the angle need not be exactly the "helix angle," it must not diverge too far from it. The word "mate," appears only three times in the specifications, (page one, col. one, line 20; page one, col. two, line 20; page two, col. one, line 69), and in each case the meaning is left vague. On the other hand Claims 6 and 7 are for a machine in which "the inclination of the axis of the work-piece to the plane of the axes of the wheels is dependent upon the helix angle of the "screw-thread"; and Claim 3 contains substantially the same language. They are the only claims which prescribe the "helix angle." Claims 1 and 9 in suit use the broader word, "mate," and Claim 11 does not even contain the "mating" feature. Therefore in conformity with the ordinary canon of interpretation of patent claims: i.e., in interpreting a series of claims, a limitation not present in one must not be implied, when the same limitation appears in later claims,"² we must not imply in any of the claims in suit the limitation that the mating angle need be the "helix angle"; but only that it shall be such as not to "foul the thread". Indeed, the use of the word, "preferably," clearly precludes our identifying that phrase with the "helix angle." It is of course true, since the "helix angle" is one at which the "ridges" of the "grinding wheel" do "mate" with the thread of the "work-piece," that the defendants' machine, in which the "mating" angle is the "helix angle," does infringe Claims 1 and 9 and a fortiori Claim 11. However, in so far as the selection of the "helix angle" can be thought to be the kernel of the invention, none of these claims can rest upon it. Thus we may assume for argument that the selection of the "helix angle" in order to "mate" the grinding "ridges" and "screw-threads" first appeared in Lloyd's disclosure. With this analysis of the meaning of claims in suit we address ourselves to the prior art as a measure of Lloyd's advance, and therefore of the validity of his claims. We shall confine our discussion to two inventions: that disclosed in Hanson's two patents (Nos. 1,640,991 and 1,640,992) which issued on August 30, 1927, and that in Heim's two patents (Nos. 1,579,933 and 1,683,974) which were applied for almost together, but the first of which issued on April 6, 1926. If we assume that both Heim and Hanson had in fact been generally known to the art since their appearance, it had waived for nearly seven years before Lloyd filed his British application on April 12, 1934. In that event, if Lloyd's combination of these disclosures resolved a want which had been felt all along: that is, if it swept the board; there would be reason to conclude that his discovery was beyond the capacities of ordinarily qualified members of the craft.

In order to answer this question we must first take up the two references. Heim's machine was for a "centerless grinder"; it contained a "grinding wheel," a "backing wheel" and a "work-rest," although it did not call all of them by those names. On the other hand, it was concerned only with smoothing the surface of cylindrical "work-pieces"; it neither cut threads, nor ground threads already cut. Taken alone, it was not therefore an anticipation of Lloyd, and we shall further assume for argument that without more it was not even so near that the changes necessary to make it capable of grinding threads, already cut into a smooth cylinder, would not support the claims in suit. Hanson's machine was "for grinding wheels for use in grinding grooved or threaded members such as screws taps or the like, so as to give the grooves or threads accuracy and precision," and it could be used both for forming the threads or "for finishing threads after the same have been roughed out." However, it was a "centered" machine, in which the "carriage, 12, having suitable head and tail stocks 13 and 14," supported the "work-piece" as a lathe supports its work: i. e., the "work-piece" was moved axially and rotated across the surface of the "grinding wheel" by a train of members totally unlike the "backing wheel" of Lloyd and Heim. For threads of small "lead angle" — i. e., pieces in which the threads are close together — in Hanson's machine the axis of the "grinding wheel" and that of the "work-piece" were parallel, apparently because in such cases the angular difference between the sides of the threads and those of the "ridges" on the "grinding wheel" are so small as to be negligible. However, when dealing with a "thread of large lead angle * * * the axis of the grinding wheel is inclined perpendicularly to the lead angle of the thread on the work. In this position the serrations, 55, of the wheel, 56, extend substantially in the direction of the thread angle of the work, 58, instead...