In re Sweetland

• Decision Date: 05 April 1926
• Docket Number: No. 1760.,1760.
• Citation: 12 F.2d 163
• Parties: In re SWEETLAND.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

12 F.2d 163 (1926)

In re SWEETLAND.

No. 1760.

Court of Appeals of District of Columbia.

Submitted November 10, 1925.

Decided April 5, 1926.

Nelson Littell and W. H. Kenyon, both of New York City, and J. H. Milans and C. T. Milans, both of Washington, D. C., for appellant.

T. A. Hostetler, of Washington, D. C., for Commissioner of Patents.

Before MARTIN, Chief Justice, ROBB, Associate Justice, and SMITH, Judge of the United States Court of Customs Appeals.

SMITH, Acting Associate Justice.

Ernest J. Sweetland on July 3, 1920, filed an application in the United States Patent Office, praying for letters patent to a lubricating system combining a means for forcing or conveying, from internal combustion engines to a purifying chamber, lubricating oils befouled with dirt, metal particles, carbon sediment, and other foreign matter, a means in the purifying chamber for filtering the oil and cleaning it of its impurities, and a means for returning the filtered or purified oil to the engine or crank case from which the turbid oil was taken. The filter member of the combination is a pressure filter, and consists of a fluid-tight case inclosing a plurality of filter surfaces upon which is gradually deposited a carbonaceous slime as the contaminated oil is forced through them. Additional deposits of slime are made on the filtering surfaces as the filtration proceeds thereby increasing the efficiency of the filters.

The Examiner held that the claims of Sweetland's application were not patentable, and on appeal to the Board of Examiners that decision was affirmed. The First Assistant Commissioner sustained the Board of Examiners, and from his decision this appeal was taken. Claims 1, 3, and 21 are illustrative of the combination claims involved in the appeal and are as follows:

"1. In a lubricating system for automotive internal combustion engines, comprising in combination a purifying chamber for receiving oil from the engine, means operatively associated with the engine for causing the oil to pass from the engine to the purifying chamber and back to the engine, means in said purifying chamber intercepting the passage of deleterious matter, so that clear oil freed from carbon sediment will be returned to engine."

"3. In a lubricating system from automotive internal combustion engines, an auxiliary oil circulatory passage independent of the normal path by means of which the oil is fed to the bearings capable of receiving and returning lubricating oil to said engine, pressure creating means for circulating said oil and means interposed in said circulatory passage capable of extracting all visible foreign substances and returning through said circulatory passage oil having substantially the same degree of clarity as new unused oil."

"21. In combination with the lubricating system of an automotive internal combustion engine, of an auxiliary passage, a pressure filter in said passage, said filter including filter elements capable of intercepting and separating the carbon sediment from oil passing therethrough."

The decisions of the Patent Office were mainly based on patent No. 1,339,769, issued to John Sherman Leigh, which discloses a device for the removal, during the operation of internal combustion...