Bleser v. Baldwin

• Decision Date: 23 April 1912
• Docket Number: 1,847.
• Citation: 199 F. 133
• Parties: BLESER v. BALDWIN.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

199 F. 133

BLESER v. BALDWIN.

No. 1,847.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

April 23, 1912

Appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of Illinois.

Appellee was granted two patents for improvements in acetylene gas generating lamps. The prior one was granted August 2, 1900 as number 656,874, and the other was granted May 22, 1906 and numbered 821,580. This suit was instituted to restrain infringement of claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 10, of the first-named patent, and claims 1 and 4 of the second-named patent, on January 21, 1909. The answer sets up the usual defenses of want of validity and noninfringement. In a general way, both patents cover devices having, (1) a water reservoir located above; (2) a receptacle for containing calcium carbide; (3) a tube leading from the former down into either direct or indirect co-operation with the contents of the latter, and distributing water thereto; (4) a valve controlling the flow of water from the reservoir to the calcium carbide chamber through said tube; and (5) a rotatable stem extending outside the reservoir so as to form a handle, and extending downward to and carrying the valve and then passing on down through, and some distance below the connecting tube. In both, the flow of water is regulated by the pressure of the gas generated in the calcium carbide chamber, acting upon the column of water in the tube, and by the valve arrangement.

In the first-named patent the stem serves (1) to rotate the valve into and out of the seat, and (2) to clear the inside of the tube from obstructing accretions. The latter is accomplished by bending the wire which acts as a spring core, and serves to steady the valve in the device of claims 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10, of the first patent, and claims 1 and 4 of the second patent, and by the piston-like action of the stem of claim 1. Claim 10 of the first patent pertains only to the manner of adjusting gas generation to the requirements of the lamp.

In the second patent, the stem protruding below the bottom of the tube is lengthened and bent at an angle so as to stir up the calcium carbide, which has a tendency to clog and cake about the tube opening. Each device provides for a burner. The tube and stem in the first patent in suit have only indirect contact with the carbide body, since these extend into a vertical foraminous tube resting upon and rising from the floor of the carbide chamber. This tube holds the carbide away from the end of the tube and stem. In the latter patent, these ends are not protected from, but extend well into the mass of carbide. The construction and operation of the devices of the patents in suit, so far as here involved, will be readily understood from the drawings here produced.

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It will be noticed that the protruding end of the stem, below the tube C in the carbide chamber is pointed. This, the patent asserts, secures the delivery of the water to the carbide in small drops or particles. An excess of water supplied to the carbide results in an excess of gas, which, in turn, stops the flow of water through the tube. The valve is manually adjusted, so that, otherwise than as above stated, there is no automatic adjustment of the water supply. The water pressure is determined by the height of the water column in the tube and tank. When the gas pressure exceeds the water pressure, there may be said to be an excess of gas pressure, and the supply of water will be resisted. It is therefore evident that the required pressure must be adjusted to meet the volume of gas required by any given burner. Some of these, of course, will consume more gas than others. In order to meet these varying conditions, the required pressure must be ascertained.

'In constructing my lamps,' says the patent, 'after deciding on the special form of burner to be used and determining that pressure of gas, with which it burns best, I make the water tube of such length that the mean height of the water in the reservoir, added to the length of the tube, will afford a pressure approximately equal to that which the lamp requires. The result will be that should the pressure in the gas chamber become too great, the supply of water will be automatically shut off, but as soon as the pressure in the gas chamber becomes normal or less, the water will drop slowly or rapidly as may be required.'

Appellant cites three patents in the prior art, viz.: Patent No. 591,132, granted to Handshy, October 5, 1897, for an acetylene gas lamp; patent No. 638,449 , granted to Dolan, December 5, 1899, for an acetylene gas generating lamp; and patent No. 644,910 to Hallows and Tucker, on March 6, 1900, for a like lamp.

The first-named patent calls for a water chamber, a storage or pressure chamber, and a carbide chamber. The partition floor between the two latter is a perforated diaphragm, and that between the first two is a flexible diaphragm. The valve which controls the flow of water into the tube which supplies water to the carbide rests upon a valve stem which is fastened to the floor of the carbide chamber. The water tube through which the valve stem extends, depends from the flexible diaphragm or floor of the water receptacle, in which also is located the valve seat, into the carbide body. The valve stem, the patent says, may be secured to the perforated diaphragm which separates the gas chamber from the carbide chamber, or it may be secured to the top cover of the water receptacle. It is intended to be rigid in any case. To close it, the flexible floor of the water tank must be lifted to contact with it by the gas pressure in the gas tank or chamber. There seems to be no reason why the flow of water through the water tube would not also be stopped by the gas pressure whenever it became excessive, just as in the patent in suit. That it could ever become excessive seems doubtful, since the pressure of the gas would operate to close the valve long before it would affect the water in the tube, because the weight or pressure of the water in the water chamber would be only a fraction of that obtaining at the bottom of the water tube in the carbide chamber. The valve stem is incapable of being rotated to clear the inner walls of the tube or agitate the carbide. The Dolan patent covers a flexible diaphragm, as in Handshy. The valve is carried by a fixed stem attached rigidly to a rod which depends from a nut located in the flexible diaphragm which is placed above the water chamber. The excess gas is conducted to the space between the water chamber and the valve carrying diaphragm. This latter being lifted by gas pressure closes the valve and cuts off the water supply. The carbide chamber is rotated at intervals to free the carbide from the lime and other accumulations. When the pressure of gas is removed, the diaphragm is released and the valve is dropped from its rest.

The patent to Hallows and Tucker has the water and carbide chambers. The water is conducted through tubes or a water jacket paralleling the sides of the two chambers, and next thereto down under the floor of the carbide chamber, and thence to the tube rising from that floor to the top of the carbide body, the entrance to which is controlled by a plug or valve operated by a revoluble stem which terminates at the top of the lamp in a milled nut. When the plug or valve is rotated out of its seat, the water ascends the tube and...