Barber v. Otis Motor Sales Co.

• Decision Date: 31 March 1916
• Citation: Barber v. Otis Motor Sales Co., 231 F. 755 (N.D. N.Y. 1916)
• Parties: BARBER v. OTIS MOTOR SALES CO.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of New York

231 F. 755

BARBER v. OTIS MOTOR SALES CO.

United States District Court, N.D. New York.

March 31, 1916

This is an action in equity to restrain alleged infringement of United States letters patent No. 781,802, dated February 7 1905, for 'valve and valve gear for explosive engines,' and which patent was applied for February 24, 1902.The complainant also asks an accounting.

Fred F Weiss, of New York City(Samuel E. York City Darby, of New York City, of counsel), for complainant.

Coudert Bros., of New York City(R. A. Parker, of Detroit, Mich., of counsel), for defendant.

RAYDistrict Judge.

Claims 8 and 9 of the patent issued to William Barber, of Brooklyn N.Y., assignor to Ada S. Barber, No. 781,802, dated February 7, 1905, applied for February 24, 1902, are in issue.These claims read as follows:

'8.In an explosive motor, the combination with an explosion chamber having a T-shaped gas passage the main central or stem portion of which forms the explosive vapor inlet, of a valve seat ring provided with gas passages located in the end of the head portion of the T-passage adjacent to the explosion chamber, a puppet valve carried by the valve seat ring opening toward the explosion chamber, a spring normally keeping the valve in the closed position, and a screw plug provided with a perforate peripheral wall and a closed outer and an open inner end closing the outer or air end of the head portion of the T-shape passage and holding the valve seat ring in position thereof, through the perforations in the wall of which the explosive vapor passes from the main or stem portion of the T to the valve at the open end of such plug, substantially as shown and described.

'(9) In an explosion motor, the combination with an explosion chamber having a T-shaped gas passage the main central or stem portion of which forms the exhaust orifice of the explosion chamber of a screw plug closed at the outer end, open at the inner end, and having a perforated peripheral wall, so as to give free communication between the central hollow thereof and the main stem or central passage and the explosion chamber located in the head portion of the T-shaped passage, a puppet valve, the stem of which projects outward through the head of the plug seated upon the inner end of the plug, so as to cut off communication between the main stem portion of the T-passage and the explosion chamber, except when the same is forced away from the seat and toward the explosion chamber, a spring for normally keeping the valve in the closed position and means for forcing the valve stem inward, so as to open the valve actuated by the motor and adapted to be removed from contact with the valve stem without removal from the support thereof, so as to permit of removal of the plug and valve by the unscrewing of the plug, substantially as shown and described.'

Title to this patent is conceded to be in the complainant.The Otis Motor Sales Company is a dealer in the alleged infringing device, but the Reo Motor Car Company is the manufacturer and also a seller of such device, and that company is in fact defending this action.

The complainant has proved the utility and operativeness of his device.In view of the prior art, does it disclose patentable invention?This court thinks it does.A large number of prior patents have been introduced in evidence, but I am unable to find anything which anticipates, or which demonstrates that an ordinary mechanic skilled in the art would have produced what Barber did.

Claim 8 calls for the combination in an explosion motor of the following elements, viz.: (1) An explosion chamber which has a T-shaped gas passage, the main central or stem portion of which forms the explosive vapor inlet.(2) A valve seat ring provided with gas passages located in the end of the head portion of the T-passage adjacent to the explosion chamber.(3) A puppet valve carried by the valve seat ring opening toward the explosion chamber. position.(5) A screw plug provided with a perforate peripheral wall and a closed outer and an open inner end closing the outer or air end of the head portion of the T-shaped passage and holding the valve seat ring in position thereof through the perforations in the wall of which the explosive vapor passes from the main or stem portion of the T-shaped passage to the valve at the open end of such screw plug.

Claim 9 calls for the combination in an explosion motor of the following elements, viz.: (1) An explosion chamber having a T-shaped gas passage the main central or stem portion of which forms the exhaust orifice of the explosion chamber.(2) A screw plug closed at the outer end, open at the inner end, and having a perforated peripheral wall, so as to give free communication between the central hollow thereof and the main stem or central passage and the explosion chamber located in the head portion of the T-shaped passage.(3) A puppet valve, the stem of which projects outward through the head of the plug, seated upon the inner end of the plug, so as to cut off communication between the main stem portion of the T-passage and the explosion chamber, except when the same is forced away from the seat and toward the explosion chamber.(4) A spring for normally keeping the valve in the closed position.(5) Means for forcing the valve stem inward, so as to open the valve actuated by the motor, and adapted to be removed from contact with the valve stem without removal from the support thereof, so as to permit of removal of the plug and valve by the unscrewing of the plug.

It will be seen that these claims describe the object and purpose or function of certain of the elements.In the specifications of the patent the patentee said:

'The object of my invention is to provide a motor-engine of the explosion vapor type of a simple and cheap form of construction, so made that the inlet and exhaust valves thereof may be quickly and easily removed from the body of the motor without disturbance of the other parts, and quickly cleaned, adjusted, or renewed as occasion may require, and returned to position, and also to provide motors of such type with a combined electric circuit making and breaking and speed-regulating device of improved form.'

In this litigation we have nothing to do with the electric circuit making and breaking and speed-regulating device of improved form.The patentee then says:

'To such ends my invention consists, in substance, of a cylinder, a piston, reciprocating in the cylinder, a crank shaft in actuative connection with the cylinder by means of a connecting rod, an explosion chamber adjacent to the cylinder in communication with inlet and exhaust passages, an exhaust valve plug located in the exhaust passage, a normally spring-closed exhaust valve carried by the exhaust valve plug, a gear wheel carried by the crank shaft, a combined gearing and a cam wheel rigidly mounted upon an idler shaft meshing with a wheel carried by the crank shaft, and a rod reciprocating in a slip journal actuated by the cam so as to open the exhaust valve, such rod being adapted by rotation upon its axis to be thrown out of engagement with the rod of the exhaust valve, * * * an inlet valve bushing adapted to be secured in the casing of the explosion chamber, so as to be in communication therewith, with the atmosphere, and with the explosive vapor supply source, and an inlet valve plug carrying a normally closed inlet valve adapted to inclose the inlet bushing, although it is not to be understood that my invention is limited to a device comprising at once all of the devices and parts before mentioned, as the same consists of the construction of certain devices and parts, and the construction, combination, and arrangement of certain devices and parts, all as hereinafter more particularly set forth in the description and pointed out in the claims.'

In the specifications we also find the following:

'Above the cylinder A proper is the explosion chamber G, usually of the elongated form, shown extending at right angles to the axis of the cylinder A and having on the side of the extension forming the outer end of such cylinder the exhaust orifice H and on the opposite side the inlet orifice I, and formed in the explosion chamber wall at the end of the extension thereof between the inlet and outlet orifices is the ignition plug orifice K.'

It is thus plain that the explosion chamber is elongated or extended from side to side of Fig. 1, and that upon the upper side of the left-hand end of the explosion chamber, as shown in Fig. 1, is what is called the 'inlet orifice I,' and on the lower side and opposite I is what is called the 'outlet orifice H.'By inlet orifice and outlet orifice I think the patent means the whole of the space above the inlet valve and below the outlet valve respectively.Of course, the inlet orifice proper and the outlet orifice proper connect directly with these two spaces respectively.The patentee goes on to say in substance that:

'In such devices as heretofore used the larger proportion of accidents thereto and stoppages thereof when in operation are caused by clogging of either the exhaust or inlet valves, and in order to clear the same it has heretofore been necessary to remove numerous parts and uncouple the same one from another in order to put the motor in condition for operation again.This difficulty I obviate by so constructing and securing the inlet valve to the casing of the explosion chamber that by the unscrewing of a single screw part such valve, together with its seat, may be removed bodily from the

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