Denominational Envelope Co. v. Duplex Envelope Co.

• Decision Date: 12 November 1935
• Docket Number: No. 3844.,3844.
• Citation: 80 F.2d 186
• Parties: DENOMINATIONAL ENVELOPE CO. et al. v. DUPLEX ENVELOPE CO., Inc.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

80 F.2d 186 (1935)

DENOMINATIONAL ENVELOPE CO. et al. v. DUPLEX ENVELOPE CO., Inc.

No. 3844.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

November 12, 1935.

G. Mallet Prevost, of Washington, D. C. (R. E. Cabell and Geo. Lewis Chumbley, both of Richmond, Va., and Prevost & Prevost, George A. Prevost, and Arthur P. Cyr, all of Washington, D. C., on the brief), for appellants.

Theodore S. Kenyon, of New York City (Williams, Mullen & Hazelgrove, of Richmond, Va., and Kenyon & Kenyon and Lewis O. Hutchinson, all of New York City, on the brief), for appellee.

Before PARKER, NORTHCOTT, and SOPER, Circuit Judges.

SOPER, Circuit Judge.

The Jones and Nielson patent, No. 1,403,250, of January 10, 1922, covering a mechanism for feeding articles of paper or envelopes to a rotary printing press of standard construction is the subject-matter of this suit. It was issued to Duplex Envelope Company, assignee of the inventors, by which suit was instituted in the District Court against Denominational Envelope Company, Union Envelope Company, Wesley P. Shomaker, Stevens Hughes, Donald E. Rheutan, Richard D. Rheutan, and Isaac Rheutan, charging infringement of the patent and praying for an accounting and payment of profits and damages, and for an injunction from further infringement. The defendants attacked the validity of the patent, denied infringement and set up other defenses which will be hereafter noted. The case was referred to a special master, who, in an able and painstaking report, sustained the validity of the claims of the patent sued on, and found infringement by the Denominational Envelope Company, the Union Envelope Company, Donald E. Rheutan, and Wesley P. Shomaker. The District Judge approved the report of the special master in all respects and signed an interlocutory decree referring the case again to the special master to determine the amount of profits and losses; from which decree, this appeal was taken.

The nature of the invention and its application to the facts of this case become clear when the events are outlined which led to the discovery. The Duplex Envelope Company, for nearly twenty years before the patent was issued, had been engaged in printing church subscription envelopes; and for five years, had been using presses developed by the Harris Press Company which were equipped with mechanical feed devices shown by the earlier patents No. 577,405 of 1897 and No. 661,245 of 1900 to Harris and McNutt. These devices it was the purpose of the patentees in suit to improve. In the operation of the Harris press, the envelopes were piled flaps down in hoppers in front of the feed rolls. A reciprocating feeder with projecting blades approached the stack of envelopes, so that the blades engaged the flap of the lowest envelope and pushed it forward until it was engaged by the feed rolls. The device was practicable but not without defects. The blades were apt to puncture the paper when operated at high speeds. If the envelope was warped, the blades sometimes failed to engage the flaps. Only 250 envelopes could be placed in a pile, for excess pressure interfered with the removal of the envelopes from the stack. Hence the constant attendance of a feeding operator was required. Another disadvantage was that it could be utilized only when the printing was to be done on the back of the envelopes, and if printing on the flap was also desired, the substitution of a different device was necessary, and the change from one to the other was consumptive of time and uneconomical. Still another defect was the wastage of stock resulting from the continued operation of the feed mechanism so long as the press cylinders continued to revolve through their own momentum after the impression cylinder was separated from the printing cylinder and the motive power was shut off. Three to ten revolutions would then ensue, during which the envelopes fed to the press were wasted; and this occurred the more frequently because the machinery was automatically stopped whenever the blades failed to function properly, as above described.

These disadvantages were overcome through the development of the device covered by the patent in suit. The work was done by Archer G. Jones, founder of the plaintiff company, and Albert W. Nielson, who came to Richmond in 1917 to become its plant superintendent, leaving his former employment with the Harris Press Company for this purpose. The improvements which they made upon the Harris press are described in the patent in suit substantially as follows: There are three closely related parts of the feeding mechanism: (1) The suction feed means; (2) the valve mechanism whereby suction is applied to and released from the feed block; and (3) the means whereby feeding is stopped upon the operation of a throw-off mechanism. The suction feed means consist of a so-called sucker block through which extend a number of suction tubes. The block is carried on an arm which through a lug and a forked link is supported by an operating shaft that is constantly rotated in synchronism with the impression cylinder of the press. Upon this shaft is mounted an eccentric cam containing a groove in which rides a cam roller that is attached to the forked link. The cam rotates with the shaft, and the cam roller, being forced around the groove, causes the sucker block to be raised into contact with the stack of envelopes and lowered to deposit the envelope drawn by suction from the bottom of the stack upon the feed table. The suction is then released and the envelope is pushed forward by reciprocating fingers to the feed rolls.

The valve mechanism or the second of the elements referred to is the heart of the patent. It controls the application and release of the suction as the envelope is successively withdrawn from the stack and deposited on the feed table. The valve consists in part of two fixed stationary members mounted on the shaft that actuates the movement of the sucker block. Between these members is a disc which is keyed to the operating shaft and rotates therewith. The stationary members are provided with ports extending entirely through them; and the rotating disc is likewise provided with a port which during the operation is ordinarily brought into and out of registry with the fixed ports. On one side the valve is connected with the sucker block, and on the other, to the vacuum pump, so that when the three ports are in registry, the suction is effective, but when the solid surfaces of the disc are interposed, the suction is cut off. The vacuum in the sucker block, however, is not entirely broken, for at the moment there is no release to atmosphere. This release is provided by a recess in the disc which extends partially through the disc and leads by a vent to atmosphere. The recess comes into registry with the port that leads to the sucker block at the moment when the block reaches its lowest point at the feed table, so that the vacuum is then released and the envelope deposited.

The third element of the invention operates to discontinue the feeding process when the power is shut off from the press through a throw-off mechanism. This device consists of another disc also mounted upon the operating shaft and located between the rotating disc and the stationary member which connects with the vacuum pump. This second disc does not rotate with the shaft, but being loosely mounted, is partially movable thereon in a rotary manner. This disc is also provided with a port which, through the tension of a spring, is normally maintained in registry with the fixed ports of the stationary members; but when the throw-off mechanism becomes operative, the disc in question, through a chain of mechanism, is slightly rotated, and its port is carried out of registry with the fixed ports so that the suction is immediately cut off and the feeding of the envelopes is stopped.

It is convenient at this point to refer to the incorporation of the Denominational Envelope Company, the leading defendant in the District Court, and to describe the machine which is charged to have infringed the patent. The company was organized in Richmond in 1927 to go into the same business as the plaintiff company by Donald E. Rheutan and Stevens Hughes, who had just left its employ for that purpose. Donald E. Rheutan became the president, Richard D. Rheutan, a brother, treasurer, and Stevens Hughes, the secretary. Isaac Rheutan, the father of Donald and Richard, later became the owner of the majority of the stock. The company bought Harris presses similar to those used by the plaintiff, and then employed Albert W. Nielson, coinventor of the patent in suit, to install suction feed devices in order to make them comparable with those used by the plaintiff. Nielson, who had been the chief mechanic of the plaintiff company, left its employ in the fall of 1926 and was employed by the defendant shortly after its incorporation. A press in the plant of the Union Envelope Company, of which Isaac Rheutan was secretary and treasurer, was similarly equipped. Shomaker was employed by the plaintiff company to take the place of Nielson and remained with it between 1925 and 1931 when he also went with the defendant company. He did the work of equipping the defendants' machines with the devices covered by the two patents discussed in the opinion in a companion suit No. 3851 filed this day Duplex Envelope Co. v. Denominational Envelope Co. et al. (C.C.A.) 80 F.(2d) 179.

With respect to the construction and operation of the sucker block used in the defendants' machines, substantial identity with the sucker block disclosed in the patent is not denied. The same thing may be said in regard to the cut-off mechanism in the two structures. The real contest centers upon the construction, location, and mode of operation of the defendants' valve mechanism, the valve disclosed by the patent in suit being in fact the gist of the invention. In the defendants' structure, the valve consists of two...