Diamond Match Co. v. Ruby Match Co.

• Decision Date: 13 January 1904
• Citation: 127 F. 341
• Parties: DIAMOND MATCH CO. v. RUBY MATCH CO.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of New Jersey

127 F. 341

DIAMOND MATCH CO. v. RUBY MATCH CO.

United States Circuit Court, D. New Jersey.

January 13, 1904

Edwin J. Prindle, Charles J. Williamson, and Paul Bakewell, for complainant.

E. B Stocking, for defendant.

ARCHBALD District Judge.

This suit is based on letters patent issued to E. B. Beecher September 11, 1888, for a machine for making matches, which the defendants are charged with infringing. Starting with the block from which the match splints are to be produced, the machine in one continuous operation, by means of its various devices and appliances, is able to complete and deliver ready for use, 6,000,000 matches, with the help of one man, within the compass of an ordinary working day. Extraordinary as is the result, the process is a reasonably simple one. The splints, as they are cut, are inserted by means of the cutter and cutter heads, row by row, into perforated plates, presented to receive them. These plates, loaded with splints, are carried by an endless chain, driven by appropriate machinery, to other parts of the apparatus, where the ends are dipped in a paraffine bath, and further on to a composition box where ignitable heads are affixed. To allow the heads to harden, the plates are passed back and forth over numerous pulleys for a suitable interval, and are finally brought in a completed state back to the beginning, where they are ejected as they were inserted, row by row, by a corresponding row of punches, to make way for a new set of splints. At the point of insertion, as at the adjacent point of ejection, the endless carrier, with its perforated plates, must be held rigid, in accurate position to permit the inserting and ejecting of the splints, and must be advanced, step by step, until each plate is disposed of. On account of the great weight of the carrier as a whole-- some 1,500 pounds-- it cannot be stopped and started its entire length in this way without racking the machine; so that, in order to permit of this intermittent motion, a short portion, just before this point is reached, is hung slack between pulleys, while the progress of the rest is not disturbed. The carrier is thus given in part a step by step, and in part a continuous, motion, which, permitting, as it does, of the automatic process just described, may be regarded as the controlling feature of the invention. Closely associated with this is the use for the carrier of perforated metal plates attached together in endless chain, by which the capacity of the machine is immensely increased, and the damage from fire and its consequences-- a serious matter in matchmaking--is greatly relieved. It is clear that there was nothing which had anticipated it in the prior art, as the following considerations will show:

As early as 1854, Gates and Harwood, of Utica, N.Y., secured a patent for an endless chain match machine, in which the carrier consisted of a continuous series of short wooden clamps or slats in pairs, each pair being pressed together by an intermediate bow-shaped metal spring, and having their contiguous faces lined with felt, in order to more effectively retain the match splints between them. These clamps, as they were fed over the cutters in pairs, were opened by a wedge, a row of match splints cut from the block by the cutters was carried up and inserted in them, the wedge was withdrawn, a hammer from above descended and evened the row, and the carrier moved on. Conveyed in this way, the splints were taken to other parts of the machine, where they were treated with friction heads, and after a sufficient interval brought back to the point of ejection, where a hammer, similar to that which evened the row, knocked the matches loose. The question is raised as to the character of the feed motion, whether intermittent or continuous, but it is clearly the latter. To make it otherwise, the gear or worm at the head of the shaft, z, must be an irregular or drunken worm, of which there is no indication, and without this it must be assumed to be of the ordinary and natural character. Moreover, the wedge which opens the clamp is said to have a longitudinal motion, in order to move in the direction in which the clamp is going, which would be altogether unnecessary if its motion was arrested. But what is conclusive on the subject, if there is any doubt about it, is that in the subsequent (1858) patent of Miller and Gates-- Gates being one of the patentees in the Gates and Miller-- the intermittent motion there shown is expressly claimed as an improvement, as it also is in the Newton (1858), its English counterpart, both provisional and final. It is of no consequence, as against this, that in the Steber (1883) patent the motion of the Gates and Harwood is referred to as a step by step motion. The reference is probably a mistake, the Miller and Gates being intended; but it is not material, as it cannot impose on the patent what is not there. The Gates and Harwood must therefore be accepted as having continuous progression, without more. This was the view originally taken of it by the plaintiffs' expert, which was nearer the mark than his subsequent retraction. The attempt to make out of it, however, a combined step by step and a continuous motion cannot be sustained. This is done by regarding the rear clamp as held or forced backward by the opening wedge while the forward clamp goes on; but this is altogether too refined and fanciful. It is also charged of the Gates and Harwood that the specifications do not disclose an operative machine, and a criticism of several of its features upon that basis is indulged in. The subsequent machines, however, of which it was the forerunner, sufficiently refute the suggestion. They form a type which has done valuable service in the art, and which with a capacity of a million matches daily has maintained its place by reason of its efficiency (notwithstanding others to be presently mentioned), until supplanted by the Beecher.

The Miller and Gates, and the Newton, its English representative, which immediately followed (1858), was merely an improvement on the Gates and Harwood. It had, the same as the other, an endless carrier made up of wooden felt-lined clamps, the principal change, as already intimated, being from a continuous to an intermittent motion. This was followed at some distance by the three Stebers-- two in 1883 and one in 1884-- in which the same motion as the last, and the general features of both the preceding machines, were retained, which is all that needs to be noted of it.

In the meantime, however, a somewhat different type had been evolved by McClintock Young. The endless slat carrier was abandoned, and a succession of perforated plates substituted, each of which, as filled, was removed and dipped by hand into a composition bath to affix the heads. In its original form (1871) the perforated plates were of wood, and were adapted to be used as a permanent holder or back for the finished matches, if desired, or they could be ejected, and the plates used again. But later (1877) the plates were made of metal, and furnished with handles, and for the more effective feeding of them into and through the machine they were provided with couplings to make a continued series. When filled, however, they were detached again, and taken out singly or in sections, and the match splints dipped by hand into the composition head bath, as before; so that, while an endless series is spoken of in the patent, it is only in this sense, each plate by means of the clamp and pin being successively coupled and uncoupled from the one preceding or following it. By reason of the increased length of the rows and the economizing of space between them by the use of perforated metal plates, this machine was capable of producing three and a half million matches a day, a large advance; but requiring, as it did, the attention of several operatives, and being subject to other disadvantages, it did not do away with the other type, which still continued to be used. In 1884 a novelty was devised by Faas by substituting, in place of the perforated plates, 'dipping frames,' so called, made up of rectangular transverse bars with beveled edges, held together by springs and opened by pawls to receive the splints.

This represents the art in matchmaking machines prior to the invention of Beecher, so far as we are concerned. In it, as will be seen, are two distinct types, each having merits of its own, and Beecher manifestly gleaned from both. Discarding the wooden slats of the earlier type, with their limited capacity, exposure to fire, and high percentage of loss of splints, he made up his carrier of a succession of perforated plates such as were used by Young, but handled them automatically and in endless chain, combining an intermittent and a continuous motion in the way described in order to accomplish it. However old the elements so made use of, he certainly was the first to bring them together as they here appear, supplying the necessary adaptation...