Dyer v. Coe

• Decision Date: 22 December 1941
• Docket Number: No. 7374.,7374.
• Citation: Dyer v. Coe, 125 F.2d 192, 75 U.S.App.D.C. 125 (D.C. Cir. 1941)
• Parties: DYER v. COE, Commissioner of Patents.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

75 US App. DC 125, 125 F.2d 192 (1941)

DYER v.COE, Commissioner of Patents.

No. 7374.

United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Decided December 22, 1941.

Mr. Frank E. Liverance, Jr., of Grand Rapids, Mich., with whom Mr. John Boyle, Jr., of Washington, D. C., who entered an appearance, appeared on the brief, for appellant.

Messrs. Wm. Wallace Cochran, Solicitor, and H. S. Mackey, Examiner, United States Patent Office, both of Washington, D. C., for appellee.

Before STEPHENS, MILLER, and VINSON, Associate Justices.

STEPHENS, Associate Justice.

This is an appeal from a decree of the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia dismissing, after a hearing on the merits, a bill in equity seeking, under Rev.Stat. § 4915,35 U.S.C.A. § 63, an order authorizing the appellee Commissioner of Patents to issue to the appellant Dyer a patent on his application for letters patent, SerialNo. 608,476, filed April 30, 1932.The appeal is from that portion of the decree in which the District Court held Dyer not entitled to the allowance of claims 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 28, 29, 30, 34, 35, 41 and 44.¹All of the claims relate to an apparatus for starting internal combustion engines of automotive vehicles.They were held by the trial court, accepting the views of the Commissioner, to be lacking in invention over the prior art.On this appeal the references relied upon by the Commissioner are:

  Collins           No. 1,862,006  June  7, 1932
                  Hasselbring       No. 1,763,702  June 17, 1930
                  Hasselbring       No. 1,596,876  Aug. 24, 1926
                  Renault (French)  No.   468,161  Apr. 17, 1914
                  Stevenson         No. 1,771,866  July 29, 1930
                  Ulam              No. 1,845,855  Feb. 16, 1932
                

Dyer's application, in terms of the wiring diagram set forth below, discloses an apparatus which operates as follows: When the action of auxiliary motor 40, gear 34 revolves, sleeve 24 is caused to move horizontally to the right along shaft 22,

ignition switch 98, 96 is closed and accelerator pedal head 122 is depressed, thus bringing points 88 and 86 into contact, an electric circuit is completed, through closed switch B, between battery 66 and auxiliary motor 40.The auxiliary motor, actuated by the battery, operates to rotate shaft 38 and beveled gear 36 mounted thereon.Enmeshed with gear 36 and rotating at a right angle thereto is beveled gear 34 which is threaded on worm grooved sleeve 24, which is itself splined to armature shaft 22 of starting motor 20.When, as a result of thus bringing starting pinion 28 into engagement with ring gear 30 which is attached to the flywheel of the engine to be started.At the same time the motion of sleeve 24 toward the right causes the lower end of lever 48 to move to the left thereby closing switch 54, 56.This completes an electric circuit between battery 66 and starting motor 20, and the starting motor then operates, through pinion 28 and ring gear 30, to turn the engine flywheel.As soon as the engine "catches," that is, starts to operate under its own power through the explosions of gasoline in the cylinders, sleeve 24 moves back toward the left, on shaft 22, to its original position — this because the speed of the engine operating under its own power is greater than that of auxiliary motor 40, which thereby (according to the specification)"acts as a brake to retard the movement of the gear 34."As sleeve 24 moves back to its original position it withdraws pinion 28 from engagement with ring gear 30 of the flywheel and at the same time, by occasioning a rightward movement of the lower end of lever 48, it causes disconnection of the electric circuit of the starting motor at switch 54, 56.The circuit between battery 66 and auxiliary motor 40 is also at the same time disconnected, the auxiliary motor thereby ceasing operation, by the opening of switch B by means of suction communicated from the manifold of the engine through tube 162.²

The principal reliance of the Commissioner is upon the Collins patent and the two Hasselbring patents, each of which defines an apparatus for starting an internal combustion engine of an automotive vehicle.We think it necessary to discuss only these.The Collins patent discloses a variable fuel control (accelerator) pedal mechanically connected to a lever which operates a switch connection closing an electric circuit between a battery and a starting motor.When the automobile engine commences to operate under its own power, a pin, by gravity made a part of the mechanical connection between the accelerator pedal and the starting motor switch, is, by force of suction from the manifold, withdrawn.This breaks the mechanical connection mentioned, the switch opens, and the starting motor is thus rendered inoperative.The accelerator pedal is then free to be operated as a throttle without affecting the starting motor.The Hasselbring patents disclose an apparatus wherein by closing an ignition switch a solenoid (a type of "power operated means") is energized through the closing of a circuit between it and a battery.Movement of the magnetic core of the solenoid then closes a circuit between the starting motor and the battery, and at the same time causes, through a series of mechanical connections, the engagement of gears which establish driving connection between the automobile engine and the starting motor.In the Hasselbring patents the engine starting is completely automatic upon the closing of the ignition switch.The Hasselbring patents also describe means, either by vacuum or by magnetic switches similar to those employed by the appellant, for rendering the starting motor inoperative and releasing it from engagement with the engine flywheel.

Claim 1, typical of the rejected Dyer claims, reads as follows:

"1.Control apparatus for internal combustion engines comprising, a current source, a starting motor adapted to be operated by current from said source means for establishing driving connection between the starting motor and the engine, power operated means other than the starting motor for operating said last named means, means for variably controlling the quantity of combustible mixture supplied to the engine and means operated by said mixture controlling means for controlling the operation of said power operated means."

Certain elements described in this claim are lacking in Collins, to wit, a starting motor adapted to be operated by a current source, means for establishing driving connection between the starting motor and the engine, and power operated means other than the starting motor for operating the last named means.But these are supplied by the Hasselbring patents.Thus claim 1 of Dyer describes an apparatus which could be produced by a combination of Collins and the Hasselbring disclosures.The Commissioner concluded, and the trial court also held, that it did not involve invention to produce this combination.After a careful examination of the claims in issue and of the references we think it cannot with...