Haines v. McLaughlin

• Decision Date: 19 May 1890
• Citation: 34 L.Ed. 290,10 S.Ct. 876,135 U.S. 584
• Parties: HAINES v. MCLAUGHLIN et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

135 U.S. 584

10 S.Ct. 876

34 L.Ed. 290

HAINES v. MCLAUGHLIN et al.

May 19, 1890.

This was an action at law brought to recover damages for an alleged infringement of letters patent No. 107,611, bearing date September 20,1870, and granted to James W. Haines, for an 'improvement in chutes for delivering timber.' The specification, claim, and drawings are as follows: 'Be it known that I, James W. Haines, of Genoa, in the county of Douglas and state of Nevada, have invented a new and improved chute for delivering timber from high mountains; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof which will enable others skilled in the art to make and use the a me, reference being had to the accompanying drawing forming part of this specification.

"Fig. 1 represents a side view of my improved chute.

"Fig. 2 is an end view of the same.

"Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

"This in vention has for its object to furnish to the public an improved chute for facilitating the transportation of timber of all kinds from the tops or sides of mountains or other elevations, and consists in constructing a chute so as to present a V form in cross-section; the same being arranged on an incline corresponding more or less to the surface of the ground over which it passes, and brought in connection with a spring or other water supply, to receive the water therefrom,

and thus form a smooth canal throughout its entire length. Heretofore, chutes for this purpose have been constructed with flat, or nearly flat, bottoms, which, while sufficiently objectionable as requiring a greater quantity of water to insure equal rapidity in the transit of the timber, are far more so for another reason, viz.: The log or piece of timber, more especially at points where the inclination of the chute is slight, is liable to be checked in its descent by friction against the bottom and one side of the chute, and when thus situated others may pass it, thus leaving it to be again set in motion by manual assistance, or other logs striking it. The whole may become wedged together, so as to form a total obstruction to the passage of succeeding logs, destroy the chute at that point or cause other serious injury, inconvenience, and, in any event, pecuniary loss. A, in the drawing, represents a wooden trough made of two boards, a and b, which are joined at an angle of about ninety degrees. This trough is supported by trestles or frames, B, B, of suitable construction, and is built up on the side of a mountain; its upper end being connected with a brook, lake, stream, or spring, to receive a supply of running water, which may, if desired, be regulated by means of a suitable gate. The timber or wood to be transported down wardly is thrown into the trough, and carried down by the water in the same. A very rapid and convenient means of conveying wood is thus provided. Having thus described my invention, I claim as new, and desire to secure by letters patent, the chute, A, of V form in cross-section, arranged on an incline in whole or in part, and adapted to receive a flow of water, for the conveyance of timber, as set forth.'

The defendants denied each and every allegation of the complaint separately and specifically, and set up other defenses. A jury trial was had, which occupied several days, and resulted in a verdict in favor of the defendants, upon which judgment was entered. A bill of exceptions was taken, and a writ of error sued out from this court.

The plaintiff's evidence tended to show that, in the fall of 1867 and the winter and spring of 1868, he cut a large amount of wood into lengths of four feet each on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada, with the design of floating it out of the mountains. These logs were rolled down the sides of the canon upon which the trees had grown, and plaintiff built a square or rectangular flume, having bottom boards 2 feet wide and side boards 18 inches wide. When he turned the water into the flume, and commenced putting in his wood, he found that the wood would run faster than the water, and that the lighter sticks would run faster than the heavier ones, jamming and choking up the flume. He then spread the upper edges of the side boards of the flume as far out as he could without breaking the nails at the bottom of the boards, and found that that afforded some relief. Then he took inch boards, 12 inches wide, nailed them together at an angle of 90 deg., so as to make a V chute, and set that in the flume. He lapped each length about three inches, by placing the lower end of one length upon the upper end of the next length below. This worked much better, but there was difficulty on account of the laps when the water wasl ight. He then changed to the butted jointed flume, in which the ends of the different sections abutted against each other instead of lapping. This was in September, 1868. It is admitted that the patent was applied for August 6, 1870.

The evidence also tended to show that one A. C. Cleveland built a flume a little over a mile in length, with lapped joints, for the transportation of wood, the contract for the construction of which he made on June 22, 1868, and which was completed on the 21st of July, 1868, and used continuously until the early part of August, 1868, when Cleveland disposed of it to other parties. Cleveland described the mode and manner in which it was constructed, of two boards nailed together in V shape, and put on trestles wherever necessary; and it was conducted along the mountain a distance of 6,700 feet in length Evidence was also given on behalf of the defendants in respect to what the witnesses called a sluice at Case's tannery, at the town of Mariaville, Hancock county, in the state of Maine, in 1858, and which was still in existence at the time of the commencement of the suit. This sluice was described, in substance, as follows: 'At Case's tannery, there was a mill-dam twelve feet high, measuring from the center of the stream to the top of the dam. It was the custom to float logs down that stream, in the spring of the year, from points which lay several miles above Case's tannery to other places below the tannery. In order to pass the logs over the mill-dam, the said sluice was constructed. The sluice was about four feet across the top, and was built with two inclined sides, the planks of which were butted, and the joints broken, which in cross-section stood at an angle of forty-five degrees, and were joined together at the bottom, and thus formed a trough in the form of a right-angled triangle, with the right angle at the bottom. This sluice or flume was some three or four hundred feet long, and was four feet across the top. Its upper end was set into the mill-dam, so that the water from the dam would flow into and fill it sufficiently to convey the logs. It was built at a regular incline down the stream, and its lower end was a foot and a half or two feet above the water in the stream bolow the dam. The sluice or flume was built upon and sustained by suitable frame-work. The dam set the water back above it from a half to three-quarters of a mile. When the logs reached the lower end of the mill-pond, each one, as it floated, was steered by the use of poles to the upper end of the sluice, through which it was carried by floating upon the water which ran through the sluice. A million feet of logs, lumber measurement, could be run through the sluice in a day, and two or three million feet were usually so run through the sluice each year. The sluice or flume was built on a regular incline. The water ran swiftly through it at a depth of about three feet, varying from day to day according to the supply in the dam.' Eight different withesses testified to the existence of the said Mariaville sluice, and each one of these witnesses said that he had never seen a V chute, for carrying wood or lumber down a mountain side, such as described in the plaintiff's patent. One of them, however, testified that he saw one of these chutes used in transporting lumber down the mountain side over uneven grades, in California, in 1873.

Close, who constructed this sluice in Maine, was called as a witness, and produced a diagram which he thus described: 'My exhibit represents a cross-section of my sluice or flume, except as to stringers, A, A, which are not shown in cross-section. The flume itself, shown by the planking, P, P, is composed of plank on the inside of a frame, and set at a con- venient angle of about forty-five degrees, and is supported on horses, one of which as shown in the part marked 'D, D.' The feet of the horses rest on cross-sills, one of which is shown in the parts marked 'B.' From each end of the cross-sill, B, a brace, C, extends to the upper ends of horse, D, and the whol structure rests upon stringers, A, A. The planking is pinned or nailed to the inside of the frame. The stringers extend underneath the whole length of the flume, which can be extended to any desired length. The horse frames, D, D, can be set at any desired distance apart, say from four to five feet; their only purpose being to support the planking, P. This device gives a flume of V form in cross-section. The diamond piece, V, was placed in the throat of the horses, D, D, for the purpose of saving water, and rested on the top of the planking. Piers were built over falls and gulches, and over land, as the conformation of the ground required, and by the use of trestle-work or posts. In one case that I know of, such a sluice has been built on tops of trees cut twenty feet from the ground. My flume was built on an incline to give a current or draught of water, and was used for the conveyance of logs or other lumber by means of the flow of the water. The way I happened to build this sluice was a case of necessity, as I will describe. The Messrs. Case, who owned the tannery at the place where I built the sluice at Mariaville, had a long race-way or...