Hall v. Macneale

• Decision Date: 05 February 1883
• Citation: 2 S.Ct. 73,107 U.S. 90,27 L.Ed. 367
• Parties: HALL v. MACNEALE and anotner
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

107 U.S. 90

2 S.Ct. 73

27 L.Ed. 367

HALL v. MACNEALE and anotner.

February 5, 1883.

E. N. Dickerson and Thos. A. Logan, for appellant.

James Moore, for appellees.

BLATCHFORD, J.

This suit is brought on letters patent No. 67,046, granted to Joseph L. Hall, the appellant, July 23, 1867, for an 'improvement in connecting doors and casings of safes.' The only claim alleged to have been infringed is claim 3, which is in these words:

'(3) The concial or tapering arbors, 1, in combination with two or more plates of metal, in the doors and casings of safes and other secure receptacles, the arbors being secured in place in the plates by keys, 2, or in other substantial manner.'

In regard to what is embraced in this claim the specification says:

'The nature of this invention consists in * * * securing a series of plates forming a casing or door of the safe by means of conical or tapering arbors, which, being tapped in from the outside of the door or casing, and keyed upon the inside, present serious obstacles to the removal of successive plates forming the body of the safe. Figure 1 represents a perspective view of a safe embodying my invention. Figure 2 is a horizontal section of part of the same. Figure 3 is a detail view, in cross-section, of the door of the safe, showing the shape of, and manner of securing, an arbor. The most approved manner of securing together the numerous plates forming the casings and doors of safes is by means of screws tapped in from one series of pairs or triplets of plates from the inside presenting no rivet heads upon the outside surface of the safes. * * * In the doors of safes the outer plate, D, is secured to the plate, E, F, by screws, b, countersunk in the plate, F. * * * The fourth plate, I, has about the same area as the plate, E. It is secured to the plate, F, by screws, e, which pass through the inner plate, K, in which they are countersunk. * * * In order to still further secure together the plates forming the door of the safe, I use a conical arbor, 1, or a number, if necessary; they are introduced in openings through the series of plates, being tapped into the two innermost of all the plates, and keyed in position. A smooth surface in the plane of the outer face of the door is presented, giving no means of removing the arbors, I, even should the key, 2, be removed. * * * Since the doors of safes are more exposed than any other part of them, it is necessary to embody in their construction such devices, which in themselves are the simplest, as shall effectually bar forcible entrance to the safes. The introduction of arbors for the purpose of more effectually binding in one compact mass the series of alternate iron and steel plates in the doors or bodies of safes will very much protract the labors of the burglar; indeed, it will be necessary, in order to remove one sheet in succession, to cut out the arbors, which are made of the hardest steel. The arbors may be tapped through the entire series of plates, and the inner end rivet-headed instead of keyed, as shown in the drawing, or the inner plate, as well as other in the series of plates, may be put together in sections, and, fitting into notches in the arbor- or arbors, secure them in position. In this latter construction the arbors need not be conical, but may have any cross-section, tapering longitudinally.'

When the specification says that the conical arbors are 'tapped in from the outside,' it means that screw-threads are cut on them and take into screw-threads in the body, and that the arbors are screwed in and have their smaller end towards the inside. The drawing, figure 3, shows this, there being five plates, and the arbor being in position, and tapering from the outside to the inside, the larger end being towards the outside, and a screw-thread being cut on the arbor for the distance of the thickness of the two innermost plates, and the arbor extending through the five plates, from the outer surface of all to the inner surface of all, and a key extending from the inside lengthwise of the arbor, the distance of the length of the screw-thread. The arbors, the specification says, 'may be tapped through the entire series of plates;' that is, the entire length of the arbor may have a screw-thread cut on it, and the inner end may be rivet-headed; that is, headed down into a rivet instead of being keyed. A peculiarity of the conical arbors is stated in the specification to be that they are tapped in 'from the outside,' and 'keyed upon the inside,' in contradistinction to the then existing most approved method of having screws with conical heads, the heads being countersunk in one of the plates, and the cone shape of the heads holding the screws so as to make it unnecessary to rivet them on the outside of the safe, the screws not going through all the plates, the head of the screw being towards the inside of the safe and the other end of it not projecting beyond the outside. Whether claim 3, in claiming 'the conical or tapering arbors, 1, in combination,' etc., is to be held, in view of the description in the text of the specification, and of the drawing, figure 3, to necessarily claim arbors which are tapped into two or more plates, or whether that claim excludes as a part of it screw-threads cut on the arbors, is not material to this case. If the former, the appellees are not shown to have used arbors with screw-threads on any part of the arbor that is within the plates. If the latter, then, infringement being shown, we are satisfied that claim 3 cannot be sustained. The contention of the appellant is that the invention covered by that claim requires only a conical hole, conical through the entire series of plates to be secured, and a conical bolt corresponding thereto, and secured in place in the plates by a key, or in any other substantial manner.

A patent was issued to the appellant September 25, 1860, for an 'improvement in locks.' The specification of that patent says:

'Resting upon the front plate, B, of the lock, as shown in figure 4, are seen two conical blocks, I, I', a plan of which is represented in figure 11. These are precisely alike in their construction, and they are adapted to the two stems, G and H, as will appear. They are of a length corresponding with the thickness of the door, M, to which the lock is applied, so that, when introduced into appropriate apertures in the door, their outer faces will be flush with the outer face of the door, and their inner faces flush with the inner face of the door, and against the front face of the lock, when the same is properly fixed upon the door. The blocks, I, I, enter their apertures in the door by a screw-thread, and they are held from turning therein, so as to return outwardly, by an ordinary key driven into a key-seat drilled from the inside of the door before the lock is...