Barber v. Otis Motor Sales Co., 147.

• Decision Date: 09 February 1921
• Docket Number: 147.
• Citation: Barber v. Otis Motor Sales Co., 271 F. 171 (2nd Cir. 1921)
• Parties: BARBER v. OTIS MOTOR SALES CO. [1]
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

271 F. 171

BARBER v. OTIS MOTOR SALES CO. ^[1]

No. 147.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

February 9, 1921

Jeffery Kimball & Eggleston, of New York City(Robert D. Eggleston of New York City, of counsel), for appellant.

Samuel E. Darby, of New York City, and Fred Francis Weiss, of Brooklyn, N.Y., for appellee.

Before ROGERS, HOUGH, and MANTON, Circuit Judges.

MANTON Circuit Judge.

Letters patent No. 781,802 were applied for on February 24, 1902, and issued on February 7, 1905, to William Barber.The patent is for a valve and valve gear for explosive engines.This suit was commenced in May, 1915, in the Northern District of New York.After final hearing, a decree was entered for the plaintiff, holding claims 8 and 9 of the patent in question valid and infringed.The opinion may be found in 231 F. 755 and this result was affirmed in 240 F. 723.

Shortly thereafter the plaintiff brought suit in the District Court for the Southern District of New York against the Reo Motor Car Company of New York.At the final hearing the District Judge there dismissed the bill.Barber v. Reo Motor Car Co.,245 F. 938.No appeal was taken from this decree.Thereafter the appellant moved in the District Court for the Northern District of New York to reopen the interlocutory decree granted herein, which was affirmed on appeal.The motion therefor was granted, the mandate of this court recalled, and a further hearing was had, after filing an amended answer setting forth prior art patents not called to the District Judge's attention.The District Judge adhered to his previous ruling and held claims 8 and 9 valid and infringed.It is from this interlocutory decree so entered that the appellant appeals.

There were pleaded and proved in the trial of Barber v. Reo Motor Car Co. in the Southern district of New York, prior patents which were claimed to anticipate the patent in suit.These were before the District Judge at the last hearing in this action, which resulted in the decree appealed from.None of the prior patents now relied upon as anticipation were cited in the patent office.The purpose of the invention is described by the patentee as follows:

'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.'

The claims in suit are as follows:

8.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 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.

Internal combustion engines are engines in which the fuel charge, consisting of a combustible gaseous mixture, is ignited and exploded inside of the engine; the sudden explosion of the gases producing the combustion serving to force down the piston in the cylinder, which imparts motion to a crank shaft or other part.The operation in such engine is that the inlet valve opens in, and the quantity of gaseous mixture is sucked into, the explosion chamber through the inlet valve upon the downward stroke of the piston, and the mixture is then compressed by the upward stroke of the piston, and at the top of the stroke the compressed gas is exploded by an electric spark or other form of ignitor, thereby forcing the piston down, this being the power stroke, and the exhaust valve is opened at the end of this stroke, and the exhaust gases-- that is, the products of the combustion-- are expelled through the exhaust valve and exhaust pipe into the atmosphere by the upward stroke of the piston.The inlet valve again opens, a new charge of fuel gases enters the combustion chamber on the next downward stroke, and the cycle of operation is repeated.Such engines have an inlet valve and an exhaust valve, which must open or be opened at proper times for the admission of the fuel gas to the engine and for the discharge of the exploded gases from the engine.

The explosions in such engines are very rapid-- from 50 to 500 or more per minute-- depending upon their speed, and this results in the exhaust valves being subject to a very high temperature, making them likely to warp, and causing soot or carbon to adhere to the valves and valve seats, which require occasional cleaning or repair.This condition has always existed in this class of engines, and provisions have always been made for the removal of such valves.But the appellee's invention concerns the facilities for the valve removal.It is the ease of removability of the valves that was the sole object of the patentee.The invention does not in any way improve the functioning or operation of the engine.Nor does it improve its efficiency.It purports to cover an automatic inlet valve-- that is, an inlet valve operated by the suction of the engine and not by mechanical means-- and an exhaust valve with a means for mechanically operating it.There is no patentable relation of each to the other, and the claims we shall treat separately.

Valves are designed for removal usually in two ways: First, with the valve seated directly against the inside of a cylinder casting, the valve is of necessity larger than the irremovable valve opening which it closes, and cannot be removed through that opening, but has to be withdrawn from the inside, which necessitates taking down the cylinders.Second, where the valve is seated against a removable valve seat, so that the valve and valve seat can, at the same time, be withdrawn outwardly.This latter construction is known in the art as a valve cage.The valve cage type has two principal designs, which differ as to the method of screwing the cage to the engine: First, the screwed bolt design, in which the valve cage is held in place by two or more screw bolts; and, second, the screw plug design, in which the cage itself is screw-threaded, so that it can be screwed directly into the cylinder casting.Both designs are identical in function and efficiency.It is the latter design which is covered by claim 8 of the appellant's invention.The screw plug design, as we shall refer to later, was known to the art at the time of the appellee's invention.

It is essential that the inlet and exhaust valve open and close at the proper time to make the engine function.For most inlet valves and all exhaust valves, mechanical means for opening them have been employed in the past, and the mechanical means employed have been a cam shaft in connection with a rod, called a push rod or rocker arm, actuated at one end by the cam shaft and at the other end actuating the valve stem, so as to open the valve.No matter whether such valves were operated by suction or mechanically, it was necessary to remove them from time to time for cleaning or repairing.The appellee's inlet valve structure consists of a bushing containing the inlet pipe, which is screwed into the top of the cylinder casting and locked into position by a lock nut.A valve seat ring, carrying the valve with valve stem expanding upward, is inserted by hand into this bushing in the cylinder cavity.To hold the valve seat ring in position and to close the opening of the outside, a screw-thread plug, having a perforated wall, is screwed into the bushing, thereby forming an inclosed chamber, into and through which the gas would flow from the inlet pipe into the combustion chamber when the valve is pulled down by the suction from the engine cylinder.By unscrewing the screw plug, the valve seat ring carrying the valve may be readily lifted out for cleaning or repairing.The valve itself is a common type of poppet valve in closed position by a spring and operates as valves of this type do.

The value of the combination is that, by unscrewing the screw plug, the valve may be...