Inman Mfg. Co. v. Beach

• Decision Date: 02 December 1895
• Citation: 71 F. 420
• Parties: INMAN MANUF'G CO. v. BEACH.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

71 F. 420

INMAN MANUF'G CO. v. BEACH.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

December 2, 1895

Appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Northern District of New York.

This is an appeal from an interlocutory decree of the circuit court Northern district of New York, November 13, 1894, enjoining defendants (appellants), Horace Inman, John Warner, and A. A De Forrest, trading together as copartners under the name of Inman Manufacturing Company, from infringing claims 1, 2, 3 4, 5, and 7 of complainant's patent, reissue No. 11,167 dated May 26, 1891, for 'improvements in machines for attaching stays to the corners of boxes.'

PATENTS-- VALIDITY AND INFRINGEMENT-- BOX MACHINES.

The Beach reissue, No. 11,167 (original No. 447,225), for improvements in machines for attaching stays to the corners of boxes, held valid and infringed both as to claims 1, 2, and 3, which cover broadly every device for affixing stay strips to the outside of box corners by the combined action of a feeding mechanism, a cutting mechanism, and a pasting mechanism, in combination with any opposing clamping dies whose faces diverge, and also as to claims 4, 5, and 7, which have the same combinations, with the added element of a turning-in feature, and contemplate the affixing of the stay strip to both the outside and the inside of the box corner. 63 F. 597, affirmed.

Edmund Wetmore, W. A. Redding, and A. W. Kiddle, for appellants.

John Dane, Jr., for appellee.

Before WALLACE, LACOMBE, and SHIPMAN, Circuit Judges.

LACOMBE Circuit Judge.

The complainant, who is the inventor, filed his application June 10, 1885. Interference in the patent office delayed the issue of the patent (No. 447,225) until February 24, 1891. The reissue, No. 11,167, May 26, 1891, differs from the original only by the correction of an error in the drawings.

The specification states that:

'It has been customary heretofore in making paper or strawboard boxes to apply a stay or fastening strip over the joints at the corners of boxes, which strip is pasted down on the outside of the box, or is folded over the edge of the box, and is secured by paste both outside and inside of the corner, and such work, as far as I am aware, has heretofore been done by hand. My invention relates to a machine for doing this work.'

The specification then goes on to describe the machine in connection with the drawings. Its essential features are as follows: To a frame of suitable form there is affixed a block, B, having two oblique faces on its upper surface, upon which the inside of the corner of the box is to be placed. Above this block, B, there is located a vertically reciprocating plunger, G, with a die at its end having divergent faces, so arranged as to engage surface to surface with the divergent faces of the block when the plunger descends. Thus, when in operation, the block fits into the inside of the box corner, and the plunger die fits over the outside of the same. Suitable shafting, cams, guides, etc., to supply and regulate the motion of the various parts, are described. The stay strip, which is paper or cloth of a proper width wrapped in a continuous roll upon a reel located to the side of the block and plunger, is fed forward and over a pasting wheel. The forward end of the roll of stay strip, after passing the pasting mechanism, protrudes transversely to the box corner, over said corner; and, at or about the time when the plunger descends, a cutting mechanism shears off the end of the strip, so as to leave a sufficient length of stay strip upon the box corner subject to the action of the affixing mechanism. When this short stay strip is thus placed over the outside of the box corner, the engagement of block and plunger die, with the box corner interposed between, applies the pressure necessary to secure such stay strip in place. In the drawings the block and die are shown with faces diverging to inclose an angle of 90 degrees, and are thus adapted to fit the rectangular corner of a four-sided box. They are not, however, restricted to this precise shape, and the divergence of the faces may be changed to meet the varying angles which would be found in boxes with three sides, or with more than four sides, and still be clearly within the patent. The mechanism to fold the strip over the edge of the box, and affix it to the inside of the corner, is fully described. The block, B, is shown in section thus:

(Image Omitted)

It is of sufficient length to accommodate the width of stay strip to be affixed. The square-sided block, B, if firmly fixed in the frame, A, so that its upwardly projecting portion displays two diverging surfaces of the proper angle to fit inside the box corner. B, of course, projects forward of the frame, A, so as to allow the operator to place the box corner on the block without obstruction by the frame. In its top is cut a V-shaped notch, b, into which fits the square-sided anvil, I. When the anvil is in place, the block and anvil fill the entire inside of the corner. When the anvil is withdrawn, so much of the inside surfaces of the box as are next the corner are free from contact with block or anvil, and an unobstructed space is left, sufficient to accommodate the tucked-in part of the stay strip. The rest of the inside surfaces are still supported by the block. In operation, the box corner is so placed upon the block that, when the cut-off stay strip falls upon it, a portion of the stay strip projects inwardly beyond the edges of the two box sides which make up the corner. In the rear of plunger, G, which, it will be remembered, falls upon the outside surfaces of the box corner, there is a secondary plunger reciprocating vertically, and synchronously with plunger, G. This secondary plunger falls, not upon the box, but on the inwardly projecting portion of the stay strip, and bends it down. Before these plungers fall, the anvil, I, has been moved out of the V-shaped notch in block, B. It slides backward, and entirely off from the block. As soon as the secondary plunger has bent down the projecting portion of the stay strip, so that it hangs in front of the entrance to the empty V-shaped notch, the anvil, I, moves forward again into place, and, meeting on its way the downwardly hanging free edge of stay strip, pushes it forward into the inside of the box corner, smoothing it down as would the finger of an operator, and when the anvil, I, is once again in place, and both inside and outside of the box corner wholly in contact with the diverging faces of anvil block and plunger die, a final squeeze fixes the short pasted stay strip firmly in place.

After a full description of the several parts of the machine and their mode of operation (the above is a mere brief epitome of such description), the inventor proceeds:

'In many boxes the stay is simply pasted against the exterior surface of the box corner, and is not turned in or over the edge of the same, in which case the work can be done by using a nonreciprocating angular lower die or anvil, and a single upper die or plunger. In such case the form, B, will obviously not be necessary as a part separate from the die; or, in other words, a single lower die or form will take the place of the form, B, and movable lower die, I.'

'In some cases a continuous stay strip may be employed, which is covered or coated with dry adhesive material, in which case water will be used in the receptacle, J, and the roller, O, will operate to moisten the strip only.'

'As far as the main features of my invention are concerned, forms other than those illustrated of the several parts of the machine may be employed without departure from my invention,-- as, for instance, in place of the particular mechanisms shown for feeding or delivering fastening strips or stay strips to and between the clamping dies, or for applying paste or glue to the said stay strips; other forms of strip feeding and pasting devices may be used in practice, with the same general result as above described.'

The claims relied on are these:

'(1) The combination, with opposing clamping dies having diverging...