Hobbs v. WISCONSIN POWER AND LIGHT COMPANY, Civ. No. 2188.

• Decision Date: 25 September 1956
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 2188.
• Citation: 145 F. Supp. 64
• Parties: James C. HOBBS, Plaintiff, v. WISCONSIN POWER AND LIGHT COMPANY, and The William Powell Company, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Wisconsin

145 F. Supp. 64

James C. HOBBS, Plaintiff, v. WISCONSIN POWER AND LIGHT COMPANY, and The William Powell Company, Defendants.

Civ. No. 2188.

United States District Court W. D. Wisconsin.

September 25, 1956.

Richey & Watts, Cleveland, Ohio, Spohn, Ross, Stevens & Lamb, Madison, Wis., for plaintiff.

Schubring, Ryan, Petersen & Sutherland, Madison, Wis., for defendant Wisconsin Power & Light Co.

Haight, Goldstein & Haight, Chicago, Ill., Stroud, Stebbins, Wingert & Stroud, Madison, Wis., Zugelter & Zugelter, Cincinnati, Ohio, for defendant Wm. Powell Co.

STONE, District Judge.

Findings of Fact

1. This is a patent infringement action brought by the individual patentee, James C. Hobbs, a resident of Coral Gables, Florida, against Wisconsin Power and Light Company, a Wisconsin corporation, and The William Powell Company, an Ohio corporation, defendants, charging infringement of Patents Re. 23,272 and Re. 23,137. This Court has jurisdiction of the subject matter and of the parties and the venue is proper.

2. United States Patent Re. 23,272 was granted on September 26, 1950 on an application filed April 29, 1950 for reissue of Patent No. 2,321,597 dated June 15, 1943, which was granted on an application filed on February 23, 1940.

3. United States Patent Re. 23,137 was granted on July 26, 1949 on an application filed May 26, 1949 for reissue of Patent No. 2,443,187, dated June 15, 1948, which was granted on an application filed on August 15, 1944.

4. The plaintiff is the owner of Patents Re. 23,272 and Re. 23,137.

5. Patent Re. 23,272 deals with a "Valve Construction" and Patent Re. 23,137 deals with a "Pipe Coupling". Both patents are charged to be infringed by valves made and sold by the defendant, The William Powell Company to defendant, Wisconsin Power and Light Company.

6. Patent Re. 23,272 relates to valves for controlling flow of high pressure fluids, and steam. It discloses a valve having conventional valve parts in which the opening, through which the internal parts are inserted, is sealed with a pressure sealing joint. Such valves include a body having a passage therethrough with inlet and outlet openings, a valve disk or plug within the body carried by a stem and movable to different positions to open, close, or partially close the fluid passage through the body, and an access opening in the body large enough to permit the insertion and removal of the valve disk and associated parts. The access opening must be closed and sealed against leakage of the high pressure, high temperature fluid entering or passing through the valve, and must be capable of being readily opened for inspection, cleaning, repair and replacement of parts. The closure must support and guide the valve stem, and therefore must be positively held in correct position and alignment on the valve body.

7. Valve constructions in common use prior to February, 1938, included valves having a metal body with a valve seat and an opening through which the interior parts of the valves were inserted; one or more members (sometimes referred to as the bonnet) closing the opening in the valve body, packing, a gasket or other sealing means between the body and one of the closure members, a valve disk, plug or wedge insertable through the opening and engageable with the valve seat to regulate flow of fluid through the valve; a valve stem connected to the valve disk, plug or wedge; a packing around the valve stem; a yoke arm supported by the body, the yoke arm in turn supporting means outside of the body for moving the valve stem to seat and unseat the valve disk, plug or wedge; and means for preventing relative rotation of the valve stem and its guiding members.

8. Prior to February, 1938, check valves in common use included valves having a metal body with a valve seat and an opening through which the interior parts of the valve were inserted; one or more members (sometimes referred to as the "bonnet") closing the opening in the valve body; packing, a gasket or other sealing means between the body and one of the closure members; a valve disk, plug, or wedge insertable through the opening and engageable with the valve seat to regulate flow through the valve; a valve stem slidable in one of the valve closing members and operatively associated with the valve disk or plug; and means for preventing the relative rotation of the valve stem and its guiding member or members.

9. Prior to February, 1938, valves in common use employed various types of joints between the body and the member or members closing the opening in the body through which the internal parts of the valves were inserted. Such different types of joints included flanged bonnet joints, welded bonnet joints, screwed bonnet joints, and union bonnet joints.

10. Prior to February, 1938, valves incorporating pressure seals at the valve receiving opening of the body were known to the art. Examples of such valves are the Forbes Patent No. 1,631,586, the Heine German Patent No. 511,843, and the Cocard Italian Patent No. 327,289.

11. The fluid pressure within the bolted bonnet valves exerted a pressure load on the bonnet tending to force it away from the body equal to the pressure of the fluid in pounds per square inch multiplied by the number of square inches of area of the bonnet within the circle of the packing material. This load acted in a direction to stretch the bolts and force open the joint between the body and bonnet and to permit leakage, requiring a tightening of the bolts to stop the leakage.

12. Forces in the valve stem created either by opening or closing the valve or by differential expansion or contraction between the valve stem and the valve body reacted through the bonnets of the bolted bonnet valves and were transmitted to the body through the bolts. Extremely high forces, created by expansion of the stem when a valve containing hot fluid was closed, acted in the direction to pull the bonnet from the body, stretch the bolts and open the joint to permit leakage, requiring a tightening of the bolts to stop the leakage.

13. Bolted bonnet valves used for high temperature, high pressure fluids also develop leaks from "creep" or elongation of metal under load at high temperatures, requiring a tightening of the bolts to stop leakage.

14. The high temperature, high pressure fluids of a steam power plant are extremely dangerous if permitted to escape, without restraint.

15. Efforts to avoid the leakage from bolted bonnet valves involved attention and inspection and frequent re-tightening of the individual bolts to correct any stretching and creep which had occurred.

16. It has long been known that the efficiency of steam power plants, that is, the amount of power that could be generated with a given amount of fuel, could be increased by generating the steam at higher pressures and temperatures.

17. Bolted bonnet valves were used prior to the date of the issue of the patents herein on higher pressures and temperatures by increasing the thickness of the walls, the thickness and size of the flanges, and the number and size of the bolts.

18. Prior to the issue of the patent in suit there had been a need for valves which would overcome the leakage and maintenance problem, which would permit the use of higher pressures and temperatures to achieve maximum efficiency in steam power generation, which would reduce the weight and bulk of the valves then being used, and which would reduce the wall thickness so as to reduce the stresses created by temperature changes and differentials.

19. The plaintiff, James C. Hobbs, after studying and teaching mechanical engineering at Carnegie Institute of Technology, started in 1911 working in the operation and design of steam power equipment and has continued that work ever since. He first encountered the leakage and maintenance problem of bolted bonnet valves in 1911. While working with the Diamond Alkali Company at Painesville, Ohio, he designed and built in 1928 and in 1933 to 1934, two steam power plants to generate steam at substantially higher temperatures and pressures than those theretofore used by that company. The second of these plants generated steam at 800 pounds per square inch pressure and 800°F. At that time Mr. Hobbs knew that he could achieve a great advantage in efficiency by going to still higher pressures and temperatures.

20. In the patent in suit the valve body is provided with a valve receiving opening and a valve seat. An outer member or abutment ring is secured to the body and projects into the valve receiving opening. A hollow inner guiding and clamping member is positioned within the valve receiving opening and telescoped with the outer member. Annular packing is disposed against the wall of the valve receiving opening and between axially opposed surfaces formed by the outer member and by a flange on the inner member. Force applying rings or nuts are screwed on the inner member and press against the outer member to pull the inner member axially outward and compress the packing against the wall of the valve receiving opening. Fluid pressure within the valve causes the inner member to slide outwardly a slight amount and increase the compression of the packing, so as to prevent leakage at all pressures without misaligning the valve stem with the seat. The valve body, and the inner member with the valve stem guided therein, are free to expand and contract independently without creating any forces tending to open the joint or cause leakage. The valve eliminates leakage and lessens the maintenance problem. In the form shown in Fig. 2 the reaction forces from the valve stem are transmitted to the outer member and the body so that none of these forces can act on the packing in a direction to open the joint or cause leakage.

21. Feed water and steam valves embodying the invention of Patent No. Re. 23,272 were tried out in a plant designed and built by plaintiff for Diamond Alkali Company at Painesville, Ohio, for...