Langmuir v. De Forest

• Citation: 18 F.2d 345
• Decision Date: 22 March 1927
• Docket Number: No. 562.,562.
• Parties: LANGMUIR et al. v. DE FOREST et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Delaware

18 F.2d 345 (1927)

LANGMUIR et al. v. DE FOREST et al.

No. 562.

District Court, D. Delaware.

March 22, 1927.

Samuel Owen Edmonds, of New York City, and Harry E. Dunham, of Schenectady, N. Y., and William G. Mahaffy, of Wilmington, Del., for plaintiffs.

Samuel E. Darby, Jr. (of Darby & Darby), of New York City, and E. Ennalls Berl, of Wilmington, Del., for defendants Lee De Forest and De Forest Radio Telephone & Telegraph Co.

William R. Ballard, of New York City, and Ward, Gray & Ward, of Wilmington, Del., for defendant American Telephone & Telegraph Co.

MORRIS, District Judge.

The subject-matter of this suit, brought under R. S. § 4915 (Comp. St. § 9460), by Irving Langmuir and General Electric Company against Lee De Forest, De Forest Radio Telephone & Telegraph Company, and American Telephone & Telegraph Company, is that defined in the counts constituting the issue in interferences Nos. 41,224 and 41,225 in the Patent Office. As a result of the decision of the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia (298 Fed. 1006), counts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8 of No. 41,224 (originally a three-party interference, but, by failing to appeal from an adverse decision of the Commissioner of Patents Meissner, the third party forfeited all his rights therein. Gandy v. Marble, 122 U. S. 432, 7 S. Ct. 1290, 30 L. Ed. 1223, Becker v. Chain Co. (C. C. A.) 273 F. 419, Garfield v. Western (D. C.) 298 F. 659) were allowed as claims 29, 32, 35, 36, 1, 2, and 6 of De Forest patent No. 1,507,016. Counts 6 and 9 became claims 15 and 17 of De Forest patent No. 1,507,017. These counts, the first four of which are known as the "work circuit" counts and the last five as the "radio signaling" counts, read thus:

"1. In a system for generating electrical oscillations, a work circuit, and means for generating and transmitting the generated oscillations to said work circuit comprising an evacuated vessel having a hot electrode, a cold plate electrode, and a cold grid electrode, said cold electrodes being electrically associated with each other, and a source of current for the hot electrode.

"2. The combination with a work circuit, and means for generating and transmitting the generated alternating currents to said work circuit, comprising an evacuated vessel having a hot and a plurality of cold electrodes therein, said cold electrodes being located at relatively different distances from said hot electrode, means to supply current to said electrodes, and circuit connections between said electrodes.

"3. A work circuit, and means for generating and transmitting the generated oscillations to said work circuit comprising an audion and its associated circuits.

"4. The combination with a work circuit, and means for generating and transmitting the generated oscillations to said work circuit comprising an evacuated vessel having filament, grid, and plate electrodes therein, means to supply current to said electrodes, and circuit connections between said electrodes.

"5. In a radio signaling system, an evacuated vessel including hot and cold electrodes therein, said cold electrodes being located at relatively different distances from said hot electrode, separate circuits connecting each of the cold electrodes to the hot electrode, said circuits being inductively associated.

"6. In a radio signaling system, an evacuated vessel containing hot and cold electrodes therein, said cold electrodes being located at relatively different distances from said hot electrode, separate circuits connecting each of said cold electrodes to said hot electrode, and means to set up successively increasing pulsations in said circuits.

"7. In a radio signaling system, an evacuated vessel including hot and cold electrodes therein, said cold electrodes being located at relatively different distances from said hot electrode, separate oscillating circuits connecting each of said cold electrodes to said hot electrode, said circuits being inductively associated.

"8. In a radio signaling system, an evacuated vessel containing hot and cold electrodes therein, said cold electrodes being located at relatively different distances from said hot electrode, separate circuits connecting each of said cold electrodes with said hot electrode, said circuits being inductively associated, a source of electromotive force and a signaling device being included in one of said circuits.

"9. In a radio signaling system, an audion including hot and cold electrodes therein, said cold electrodes being located at relatively different distances from said hot electrode, separate circuits connecting each of said cold electrodes to said hot electrode, and means to cause said circuits to react upon each other."

The two counts...