Bridge v. Excelsior Company

• Decision Date: 01 October 1881
• Citation: 26 L.Ed. 1190,105 U.S. 618
• Parties: BRIDGE v. EXCELSIOR COMPANY
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

105 U.S. 618

105 U.S. 618

26 L.Ed. 1190

BRIDGE v. EXCELSIOR COMPANY.

October Term, 1881

APPEAL from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Missouri.

The case is stated in the opinion of the court.

Mr. Robert H. Parkinson for the appellants.

Mr. Samuel S. Boyd for the appellees.

MR. JUSTICE BRADLEY delivered the opinion of the court.

This case arises upon a bill in equity, founded upon certain letters-patent dated July 18, 1876, and numbered 180,001, granted to one Esek Bussey for an improvement in cooking-stoves. The appellants, as his assignees, sue the Excelsior Manufacturing Company and the other appellees for alleged infringement, and pray an injunction, an account of profits, and an assessment of damages. The appellees filed an answer, denying infringement, and alleging the patent to be invalid by reason of certain older patents and of the prior public use of his alleged invention. The patent relates to an oven-shelf placed on a level with the bottom of the oven when the door is open, and outside of the oven, to serve as a shelf for pans and other vessels to rest on, when drawn out of, or shoved into, the oven. The claim is not for the shelf as that is admitted to be old, but for an automatic device for raising the shelf upright and enclosing it within the door when the latter is closed and letting it down to a horizontal position when the door is opened. The device is a cam attached to the door, which passes under the edge of the shelf, and gradually raises it to a nearly perpendicular position as the door shuts. The shelf falls back of its own weight when the door opens, resting on the cam. The claim of the patent is as follows:——

'What I claim, and desire to secure by letters-patent, is——...