Bowman v. De Grauw

• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York
• Citation: Bowman v. De Grauw, 60 F. 907 (S.D. N.Y. 1894)
• Decision Date: 26 March 1894
• Parties: BOWMAN v. DE GRAUW et al.

60 F. 907

BOWMAN v. DE GRAUW et al.

United States Circuit Court, S.D. New York.

March 26, 1894

This was a suit by Henry A. Bowman against Walter N. De Grauw and others for infringement of a patent.

Campbell Hotchkiss & Reilly and J. E. Maynadier, for complainant.

R. B McMaster, for defendants.

TOWNSEND District Judge.

The questions herein are presented by a bill in equity for the alleged infringement of letters patent No. 469,395, granted to complainant February 23, 1892, for improvements in the method of making flags. The defenses are anticipation and lack of patentable novelty. The object of the alleged invention was to provide a practical and economical mode of so affixing stars or other emblems to the opposite sides of the field of a flag that they should accurately correspond in their respective relations without requiring especial care on the part of the operator. This was accomplished by temporarily fastening emblems, such as stars, on the face of the field, and unformed blanks, sufficient to cover the corresponding area, on the back of the field. The cut-out star, or guide star, the field, and the blank were then stitched together by a zigzag or herring-bone stitch, which passed alternately through the raw edge of the guide star and the field and blank, and through the field and blank. The blank was then cut out around the lines of stitching so as to make stars of suitable proportions on the back of the field. 'By this mode of operation the stars on both sides of the flag are made accurately opposite to each other. The zigzag stitching prevents the raw cut edges from wearing off, while the stars lie flat and smooth upon the field fabric, and do not present thick, bulky seams, nor give to the flag a stiffness such as comes from pasting stars.' The claims of the patent are as follows:

'(1) The method of making flags herein described, consisting in affixing and accurately duplicating the emblems or stars on opposite sides of the field fabric by stitching through the field and an underlying blank fabric from the outlines of the superposed accurately formed star or emblem properly located on the face of the field and subsequently trimming the blank to the outline indicated by such stitching, whereby said stars for both face and back are given similarity of configuration and a smooth flat-laid attachment without unduly stiffening or encumbering the flag. (2) The method of making flags as herein described, which consists in locating and temporarily fastening accurately formed stars or emblems upon the face of the field fabric, then temporarily fastening an unformed fabric or blank upon the back of the field fabric covering the position and area of the face stars stitching through the several plies on the outlines of the accurately formed star by overseaming stitch embracing the raw-cut edges thereof, and then trimming away the outlying portions of the unformed blank fabric to conform to the stitched outlines of the face stars, substantially as set forth. (3) A flag having the emblems of stars with raw-cut edges affixed thereon in duplicate upon opposite sides of the field or ground fabric and secured by overseam stitching that embraces the raw-cut edges of the face stars by zigzag stitches and is carried through the fabrics of the field and back stars, and said back stars having their edges trimmed adjacent to but outside the line of stitching, in the manner set forth.'

It will be seen that claims 1 and 2 cover the method, and claim 3 the article, described by the patentee. The patent in suit covers a form of what is known as appliqué, in which an emblem or design is applied in relief to a field or ground. It is admitted that the use of a zigzag stitch to secure a superposed fabric to a ground fabric, and to prevent the raw edge of the fabric from raveling, was not new, nor was it new to use such stitching to form a pattern on a blank underneath the ground fabric, and to cut away the portions of the blank around the lines of stitching. But complainant claims that he was the first to show how, by a single sewing operation, two stars could be practically sewed to a field so that the front and back stars should register exactly, raveling should be prevented, and a strip of each one of the three fabrics permanently united. In the present consideration of the questions at issue, it will be assumed that this statement, if limited to the flag-making art, is correct.

The evidence as to the state of the art shows that, in an English patent granted to William Madders in 1865, for improvements in embroidery, a class of single appliqué work is described, in which a face fabric cut in a certain pattern is first temporarily secured to a field, and is afterwards firmly fastened by buttonhole stitches passing alternately through the field and across the edge of the face fabric, and then through both the field and the face fabric. As early as 1880, various samples of patching and embroidery by appliqué work, stitched by machine, with the same kind of herring-bone or zigzag stitches as are described in the patent in suit, and stitched in the same way in order to prevent raveling, were exhibited at fairs, and sent to manufacturers and others in this country in connection with descriptive circulars advertising the Wheeler & Wilson sewing machine. A similar method is shown in the Henderson provisional English patent of 1867 and the Lamprell provisional English patent of 1875. Lamprell claims by his stitch to have secured one of the results claimed by Bowman,--the avoidance of stiffness. Other exhibits show samples of double appliqué work, employed long prior to the alleged invention. In the Wheeler exhibit both patterns were cut out before being applied, and were then secured by a stitch passing first through all three fabrics, and then through the field alone. In the exhibit 'Steward Sample No. 1' the double appliqué was used to unite a stamped paper pattern, a field fabric, and a blank by an ordinary stitch.

Various witnesses, experts in embroidery and other needlework testify to having performed for 10 years last past this double appliqué work, with and without a zigzag stitch, upon face fabric, field fabric, and blank, for making single letters, monograms, and other designs, to register alike on both sides of the field fabric, and to having afterwards cut away the superfluous material from the blank. Mary J. Hewitt, for 15 years employed by the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Company to make samples of their sewing-machine work for exhibitions and fairs, produced a sample showing a 'W. & W.' in cloth, stitched on both sides of a piece of flannel, and testified that, in 1887, she put such a 'W. & W.' on a horse blanket for the Wheeler & Wilson Company, and described how it was done. She first cut out a 'W. & W.' in blue cloth, and pinned it on the upper side of the blanket, and put a broad piece of cloth on the under side. Then she stitched them together around the edge of the upper pattern, and, turning the blanket over, cut the under piece of cloth out along the line of stitches, so that the letters...