Application of Rose, Patent Appeal No. 5653.

• Decision Date: 09 May 1950
• Docket Number: Patent Appeal No. 5653.
• Citation: 182 F.2d 198
• Parties: Application of ROSE.
• Court: U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals (CCPA)

182 F.2d 198 (1950)

Application of ROSE.

Patent Appeal No. 5653.

United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals.

May 9, 1950.

Harker H. Hittson, Columbus, Ohio, for appellant.

E. L. Reynolds, Washington, D. C. (Clarence W. Moore, Washington, D. C., of counsel), for Commissioner of Patents.

W. W. Cochran, Washington, D. C., on the brief as former Solicitor for Patent Office.

Before GARRETT, Chief Judge, and JACKSON, O'CONNELL and JOHNSON, Judges.

GARRETT, Chief Judge.

Appellant Rose seeks review and reversal of the decision of the Board of Appeals of the United States Patent Office affirming the rejection by the Primary Examiner of ten claims, numbered 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 16, 17, 18, 20, and 21, embraced in his application for patent on alleged improvements in a loader or conveyor such as is used in coal mines.

Specifically, says the Primary Examiner, "The invention relates to a hydraulic jack system for tensioning the conveyor chain on the discharge section of a loader used in a coal mine."

The Primary Examiner's description of the device, slightly paraphrased in order to avoid the use of designating numerals, which, in the absence of drawings, would not be clarifying, is as follows:

"The loader disclosed has the usual gathering section which picks up the loose coal and delivers it to the discharge conveyer. This conveyer has one trough section which is fixed on the frame and a swingable tail section. A conveyor chain extends thru both of these trough sections. The chain extends around a pulley mounted on an adjustable shaft.

"The tail section is swung from side to side of the frame by the two single acting hydraulic motors mounted on this section. Each motor has a piston carrying a pulley which cooperates with a steel cable.

"When the tail section is adjusted to one side or the other, the conveyer chain will become slack. The novelty in this case resides in the use of hydraulic jacks to adjust the position of the shaft to compensate for the change in the slack or tension of the conveyer chain.

"This jack system includes pumps mounted on the housings of the motors, hydraulic jacks mounted on the outer end of the frame and fluid conduits interconnecting the pumps and the jacks.

"The operation of the device is as follows:

"If fluid is admitted to one of the motors, the piston will move outwardly carrying the pulley with it. This will act on a cable to swing the rear section of the discharge conveyer. The cable on the opposite side of the frame will force the piston into a cylinder. The abutment, which is carried by this piston, engages the piston of one of the pumps. Liquid is forced from this pump to the two hydraulic jacks, and the pistons of these jacks move the conveyer shaft outwardly to take up any slack in the conveyer chain."

Seven claims stand allowed, four of which (numbered 3, 8, 9, and 10) were allowed by the Primary Examiner and three (numbered 4, 11, and 19) were allowed by the board, which reversed the examiner's rejection of them.

Eight of the ten claims on appeal — numbers 1, 2, 7, 16, 17, 18, 20, and 21 — were rejected by the Primary Examiner and the board as ambiguous and failing to comply with the definite requirements of section 4888, R.S., 35 U.S.C. § 33, 35 U.S.C.A. § 33, that an applicant for a patent shall "particularly point out and distinctly claim the part, improvement, or combination which he claims as his invention."

Claims 5 and 6 were rejected "as being unwarranted by the disclosure or incomplete," and claim 7 was rejected additionally for lack of disclosure.

In addition to being rejected on the ground of ambiguity, claim 18 also was rejected as being unpatentable over the prior art embodied in a patent, No. 1,785,402, issued to E. M. Arentzen December 16, 1930. Error is alleged as to that ground of rejection in appellant's reasons of appeal, but that reason is not discussed in the brief for appellant, and, under the well settled practice, it will be treated as having been abandoned. In re McCabe, 90 F.2d 111, 24 C.C.P.A., Patents, 1224.

Claims 1, 2, 7, and 21 also were rejected as unpatentable over the Arentzen patent and the rejection is covered in the reasons of appeal and discussed in appellant's brief.

The patent is for an articulated conveyor having use in the conveying and delivery of many kinds of "material, goods or merchandise." The conveyor, as stated in substance in the brief of the Solicitor for the Patent Office, comprises a rigid section and a horizontally swinging section. An endless "scraper chain" travels through the conveyor and at the free end of the conveyor travels over a roller or pulley which is rotatable upon a tail shaft that is mounted for chain tensioning adjustment. The mounting includes springs, or the like, operative to the movement of the swinging section to adjust the position of the shaft relative to that section.

We quote here appealed claims 1, 5, and 7:

"1. In a loading machine, the combination with a main frame, of an articulated conveyor mounted thereon including trough forming conveyor frame members mounted for relative swinging movement about an upright axis, endless draft conveyor mechanism adapted to travel through said conveyor trough, a tail shaft over which said draft mechanism travels, means mounting said tail shaft on one of said frame members for chain tensioning adjustment relative thereto, and non-resilient means operative in response to swinging movement of one of said frame members to adjust the position of said shaft relative to said one frame member, said means including...