Consolidated Ry. Electric Lighting & Equipment Co. v. United States Light & Heat Corp.

• Decision Date: 13 June 1917
• Citation: 246 F. 127
• Parties: CONSOLIDATED RY. ELECTRIC LIGHTING & EQUIPMENT CO. v. UNITED STATES LIGHT & HEAT CORP.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of New York

246 F. 127

CONSOLIDATED RY. ELECTRIC LIGHTING & EQUIPMENT CO. v. UNITED STATES LIGHT & HEAT CORP.

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

June 13, 1917

Pennie, Davis, Marvin & Edmonds, of New York City (William H Davis, of New York City, and Dean S. Edmonds, of Chicago Ill., of counsel), for plaintiff.

Jones Addington, Ames & Seibold, of Chicago, Ill. (W. Clyde Jones, Arthur B. Seibold, and Raymond H. Van Nest, all of Chicago, Ill., of counsel), for defendant.

HAZEL District Judge.

The bill alleges infringement of letters patent No. 1,019,482, granted March 5, 1912, to Patrick Kennedy, on application filed March 17, 1908, for an improved method of charging storage batteries used in car-lighting systems wherein the generator is driven by the car axle, having means for maintaining its output constant, and being provided with a predetermined voltage relay to control the regulator for automatically charging the battery to its full capacity and then protecting it from excessive overcharge.

The predetermined voltage relay F1, to which reference is hereinafter made, is asserted by defendant to function substantially like that described in the prior patent to Creveling, which was heretofore considered by this court and held valid. Safety Car Heating & Lighting Co. v. U.S. Light & Heating Co., 222 F. 310. And it is also asserted that the Kennedy patent in suit was intended as an improvement thereon.

Before Creveling, the car-lighting art had adapted means for regulating the generator current, either for constant potential or constant current, and the existence of such different systems was recognized by the patentee. Creveling's invention was the addition to the constant current system of a battery protective device consisting of a potential stop charge relay placed across the battery terminals, so as to make it responsive to back voltage of the battery during the charging. When the battery voltage rose to a predetermined maximum, say 42 volts on a 16-cell battery, the relay, which until then had been inert, became energized, and the circuit was closed by a regulating coil, and owing to resistances in the circuit the dynamo output was decreased, the electromotive force of the battery was opposed, and overcharging prevented. Referring to the object of the invention and to prior lighting systems generally, the specification states:

'In railway car lighting, various means have been proposed to prevent an overcharge of the storage battery. These systems which have been most widely used in practice are (a) the system in which the generator is regulated to produce an electromotive force of constant value, so that the battery is charged at constant potential, and as the electromotive force of the battery rises it opposes that of the generator, thereby preventing an overcharge; (b) the system in which there is inserted between the generator and the battery a circuit breaker which is operated to cut off the charging current whenever the potential across the battery terminals reaches a predetermined maximum.'

There were numerous objections to the prior devices which were adjustable for regulating the generator to a constant potential or a constant current, arising, principally, from variations in potential or resistances originating within the storage batteries from the back voltage, which made it difficult to apply the usual tests for determining at any time the condition of the battery charge. These difficulties were of serious import, and the patentee designed to surmount them by adding to the system a meter device which in the early part of the charge delayed the action of the predetermined voltage relay and in the latter part of the charge, or after a slight overcharge-- after charging to its full capacity regardless of internal variations-- functioned automatically to prevent a long-continued overcharge of the battery. The object of the meter or time-measuring device was to ascertain and record the condition of the battery charge.

In describing the details for operating the device the specification refers to a plurality of small magnets, each controlling a star wheel and separately connected in series with one of the solenoid coils (Figs. B', C', D, and E') comprising part of the meter and functioning to increase the dynamo output to permit an uncounted quantity to go to the battery. Such uncounted or additional charge, complainant contends, was a corrective factor, to make up for battery losses from leakage or other causes; but whether it did so in fact is questioned by the defendant. When the system is in operation, the lighting of the lamps closes the lamp switch, and thereupon the circuit of the small magnets also closes, with the exception of one, which becomes excited and brings into position its star wheel together with another star wheel-- one star wheel indicating battery charge and the other battery discharge. To insure clearness of description, I quote from complainant's brief:

'The lamps are divided into banks which, in the particular instance chosen, are assumed to be of 10 amperes' consumption in each bank, so that, when any bank switch is closed, thereby drawing 10 amperes of current for the lamps, the corresponding magnet 5, 6, 7, or 8 is energized and its star wheel is given one reverse actuation in each unit of time. The effect is, of course, to indicate a discharge of 10 amperes. It is thus apparent that the construction of the meter is such that, for each unit of time during which the generator is acting to charge the battery at the normal rate of 30 amperes, the meter will indicate a charge of 30 amperes going into the battery, and for each unit of time during which any bank of lamps is burning, the meter will indicate a discharge of 10 amperes. If the generator is charging the battery when no lamps are lighted, the indication of charge will properly be 30 amperes. If lamps are lighted when the generator is not running, the indication of discharge will properly be 10 amperes for each lamp bank.'

The star wheels are connected with the magnets to comprise four separate lamp banks; each bank taking an equal quantity of current. When the lamps are lighted the dynamo supplies unmeasured current to the storage battery to equalize for losses, and the pointer travels forward three steps, indicating a charge of 30 amperes to the battery and each reverse step a discharge of 10 amperes.

The corrective factor interferes, no doubt, with determining the precise condition of the battery charge, and in this respect complainant asserts its device is not dissimilar to defendant's; but, however that may be, the principal object of the inventor was to provide a device for ascertaining at least the approximate state of the battery at any time. Did he succeed in producing a meritorious invention? Has he solved the problem of easily determining the condition of the battery charge-- a difficulty due to varying load conditions? And has he devised means for preserving the maximum efficiency of the battery?

The defenses are limitation of claims, inoperativeness, and noninfringement as to both systems marketed by defendant, viz. the so-called standard and double relay systems.

The claims relied on are 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and 8, but it will suffice to set forth the first and third, representing the method and apparatus claims respectively:

'1. The method of charging storage batteries which consists in supplying a charging current to the storage battery for a predetermined number of ampere hours regardless of the electromotive force of the battery, and thereafter causing a predetermined maximum potential difference across the battery terminals to discontinue the charging current, substantially as described.'

'3. In a train-lighting system, a generator driven from the car axle, a storage battery connected to said generator to be charged thereby, and mechanism for regulating the generator to a constant current output, in combination with a controlling device in said circuit which discontinues the charging current when the potential thereof reaches a predetermined limit, and mechanism for rendering the controlling device inoperative until the battery had been charged to a predetermined number of ampere hours, substantially as described.'

In claim 1 two definite steps for practicing the invention are set forth, namely: (1) Charging the battery for a predetermined time, regardless of the amount of current flowing thereto; and (2) stopping the charging current to cause a predetermined maximum to flow across the battery terminals. The first step provides for regulation of current supply to the battery by a meter device, the voltage relay F1 being dormant; while the second step requires that switch F be closed when the charge is nearly completed, to permit relay F1 to come into activity when the back voltage of the battery rises to the stage for which the relay has been set namely, 'the predetermined maximum potential difference.' There was evidence showing that when F1 was set at a high voltage, and the battery was not co-operating with the meter, the action of coil F2 was...