In re Becker, Patent Appeal No. 4050.

• Decision Date: 06 March 1939
• Docket Number: Patent Appeal No. 4050.
• Citation: 101 F.2d 557
• Parties: In re BECKER.
• Court: U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals (CCPA)

101 F.2d 557 (1939)

In re BECKER.

Patent Appeal No. 4050.

Court of Customs and Patent Appeals.

February 6, 1939.

Rehearing Denied March 6, 1939.

E. F. Wenderoth, of Washington, D. C. (John E. Lind, of Washington, D. C., of counsel), for appellant.

R. F. Whitehead, of Washington, D. C. (Howard S. Miller, of Washington, D. C., of counsel), for Commissioner of Patents.

Before GARRETT, Presiding Judge, and BLAND, HATFIELD, LENROOT, and JACKSON, Associate Judges.

JACKSON, Associate Judge.

This is an appeal from a decision of the Board of Appeals of the United States Patent Office affirming a decision of the examiner rejecting claims 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 15 and 16 of appellant's application for a patent. Claim 21 was rejected by the examiner but allowed by the board. Eleven other claims were allowed by both tribunals below. Claim 9 is an apparatus claim. The other appealed claims are process claims.

Claims 5 and 9 are illustrative of the claims in issue and read as follows:

"5. A method of making artificial sausage casings of pasty animal or vegetable fibrous masses comprising working said animal or vegetable masses into a plastic kneadable mass and then forming casings from said mass with a substantial portion of the fibers disposed transversely to the longitudinal axes of said casings.

"9. An apparatus for making sausage casings of animal or vegetable material from a plastic kneadable mass comprising a tubular housing, a substantially smooth cylindrical core rotating in said housing said housing serving as a bearing for said core, one end of said core being smaller than the inner diameter of said housing in order to form an annular space and means for leading plastic material into said annular space."

Appellant's application relates to an apparatus and a method for making artificial sausage casings. Animal or vegetable material, before it is put in the machine, is worked into a plastic, kneadable, fibrous mass. It is then put in the machine and finally extruded in tubular form through an annular passage in such a manner that a part of the fibers comprising the material lie transverse the length of the tube. The improvement intended, as stated in the application, is that instead of all the fibers running lengthwise in the wall of the tube, lateral strength is materially gained by having a part of them run transverse to the length of the casing. In the apparatus disclosed there is a core member adjacent the space through which the material is extruded. The core member has a rotary movement which causes the fibers to assume a position transverse to the casing. Before extrusion the material is forced through a space between two stationary concentric annular surfaces in the apparatus which serves to align the fibers on the inner and outer surfaces of the casing along its length, the fibers between the two surfaces of the casing retaining their transverse position.

The references relied upon are: Clark, 454,030, June 16, 1891; Edison, 704,698, July 15, 1902; Samuel, 1,656,681, January 17, 1928.

The board held that claims 5, 6, 7, 12, 15 and 16 were substantially met by the patent to Samuel; that apparatus claim 9 was broad enough to read on each of the patents to Edison and to Clark and affirmed generally the decision of the examiner, except that it allowed claim 21 as above set out.

The patent to Samuel discloses a process of manufacturing artificial sausage casings from a more or less pasty mass or emulsion comprising waste animal substances. Appellant concedes in his brief that the material employed in his process is also composed of waste animal substances.

Appellant contends, however, that the material of Samuel is of soupy consistency while the material of appellant is "kneadable." We think it clear from the disclosure of Samuel that he provides for animal material of two consistencies, one of which is soupy and the other thick or pasty. This, we believe, is evident from his showing of two ways of producing his product. In one, a core is dipped into the emulsion and when it is removed a thin layer of emulsion adheres to it. When this dries it is removed from the core and is immediately ready as a sausage casing. Apparently the emulsion used in this process is soupy or thin.

He discloses further, however, a process providing for the manufacture of a continuous tube as follows:

"The more or less pasty emulsion is supplied by means of a funnel or the like to and through a nozzle having in its mouth a concentric core so that the ejection opening is of annular form. By employing a suitable pressure-agent, such as pressure-air, in connection with usual apparatus, devices or means for forcing the pasty emulsion through the annular orifice of the nozzle, with the agency of said pressure-air, a tubular thin-walled body of any desired length can be obtained, which when dried, may be severed into as many sections as desired to form the single artificial sausage skins."

We infer from the second disclosure that the material used must, of necessity, be of sufficient body, plasticity, or pastiness to be molded into tubular shape by the described extrusion, even though the...