Masonite Corporation v. Celotex Co., 871.

• Decision Date: 19 October 1932
• Docket Number: No. 871.,871.
• Citation: 1 F. Supp. 494
• Parties: MASONITE CORPORATION v. CELOTEX CO.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Delaware

1 F. Supp. 494

MASONITE CORPORATION v. CELOTEX CO.

No. 871.

District Court, D. Delaware.

October 19, 1932.

Hugh M. Morris, of Wilmington, Del., and Drury W. Cooper, Herbert H. Dyke, and Delos Holden, all of New York City, for plaintiff.

Caleb S. Layton, of Richards, Layton & Finger, of Wilmington, Del., and Henry M. Huxley, and Edward A. Hampson, both of Chicago, Ill., for defendant.

NIELDS, J.

In this patent suit Masonite Corporation charges the Celotex Company with infringement of letters patent 1,663,505 granted March 20, 1928, to William H. Mason on his application filed September 18, 1925. The patent relates to hard, grainless fiber products and the process for making same, and was assigned to plaintiff.

The defenses are (1) noninfringement, and (2) that, if the claims in suit are given a construction broad enough to include either the process used or the product made by defendant, then they are invalid.

Plaintiff manufactures a hard board, designated "Presdwood," under this patent at its plant at Laurel, Miss. Defendant manufactures a hard board at Marrero, near New Orleans, La., called "Celotex Hard Panel Board."

The patent describes the finished product and the raw material from which it is manufactured: "The principal object of the invention" says the patentee, "is the production from natural wood, usually waste pieces from saw mills, of coherent grainless, hard, dense, stiff and strong products having practically all the characteristics of natural wood, but of increased density, and remade so as to be without grain and free from the weakness which natural wood has `across the grain.'" The production of wood fiber being the first step, the specification states: "The raw material, such as wood in small pieces or chips, is first converted into fiber." This conversion is produced by exploding and disrupting the chips from a gun theretofore patented by Mason. Afterwards the fiber is beaten into pulp, rolled into sheets, and dried under heat and pressure. The patentee further describes the product: "Fiber made by explosion as described is particularly well adapted for making a hard, grainless product because the resulting fiber contains practically all the original substance of the wood or woody material in a good state of subdivision," and "is very dense, the density being practically uniform throughout its thickness, has a specific gravity of approximately one, and is resistent to absorption of water, and with addition of size additional resistance to water penetration can be obtained." The patentee attributes "the high degree of homogeneity, hardness, denseness and stiffness to the continuous application of pressure and heat to the fibrous mass softened by moisture and containing all or practically all of the original wood or woody constituents until substantially dry, resulting in what may be termed a thorough cohering, coalescing, bonding or welding together of the component parts of the original wood or woody material."

The claims relied on are product claims Nos. 5, 6, and 26; and process claims Nos. 14, 16, 20, 22, and 23. Claim 5 is fairly typical of the product claims and reads: "5. An article of manufacture consisting of a coherent, grainless, homogeneous, hard, stiff and strong body of wood or woody material, which had been disintegrated into substantially fibrous state, wet, and dried from moist state under consolidating pressure and heat until practically completely freed from moisture, said body being denser than, and comprising practically all the substance of the original wood or woody material."

Claim 16 is representative of the process claims: "16. The process of making coherent, grainless sheets of wood or woody material which comprises the steps of disintegrating the wood or woody material into substantially fibrous material comprising practically all the substance of the original wood or woody material, soaking said fibrous material with water, forming into sheets and subjecting the sheets of fibrous material to consolidating pressure and heat following up the application of pressure during shrinkage and until practically completely freed from moisture to such extent that the product is not disrupted upon opening the press while still highly heated."

The defendant was incorporated in 1920. Its principal business is the manufacture of products from the waste of sugar mills called "bagasse." Incident to that business, defendant operates several sugar plantations and sugar mills. In the manufacture of sugar the cane is cut and stripped of its leaves. The stalks are cut into pieces usually about 3 feet long and sent to the sugar mill. There it passes through crushers and heavy hydraulic rollers that squeeze out the sugar bearing juice. The cane is substantially fibrated and shredded into short lengths running from very small fibers and pieces a half inch long up to several inches long. This residue is termed "bagasse" and was formerly used for fuel. At this stage it contains about 50 per cent. of water, 45 per cent. of fibrous material, and 5 per cent. of sugar fats, and waxes. Disregarding water it loses about 10 per cent. in weight caused by fermentation of the sugar content and the attack of microorganisms. The bagasse is compressed into bales of about 200 pounds each, and is transported to a storage filed where it is stacked until transported to defendant's board mill.

In 1921 defendant started a plant to manufacture insulating board from bagasse. In fibrating, the bagasse goes into a digester where it is subjected to the action of hot water for a period from one to three and one half hours under an average of 45 pounds pressure. It is then beaten into pulp. The pulp is thoroughly washed to remove the cooking liquor and further refined. Water proofing is added. A certain percentage of beaten waste news print paper is added to the pulp for bonding purposes and the material is pumped to a forming machine where it is further diluted with water and rolled into a wet lap. It forms a sheet 12 feet wide and of continuous length and is placed in a dryer 1,000 feet long. At the end of the dryer the sheets are cut up into pieces of the desired width and length, humidified and ready for shipment. Defendant has sold two hundred to three hundred million square feet of this insulating board a year.

In 1928 defendant began the manufacture of hard board from bagasse. To reduce it to fiber, the bagasse is loaded into a rotary digester. Instead of disrupting the bagasse with hot water, as in the manufacture of insulating board, the bagasse here is cooked in a lime bath at a pressure of about 50 pounds per square inch from two to six hours and converted into pulp. The amount of lime used is in excess of any amount necessary to neutralize the acidity of the bagasse. The percentage of lime, the pressure, and the length of cooking vary with the condition, age, and species of the bagasse. The pulp is then diluted with water, again washed and then placed in a Claflin refiner where the pulp is further refined and hydrated. About 2½ per cent. of scale wax is then added for water proofing. The pulp is then formed into a wet lap. The wet lap containing from 55 to 65 per cent. of water is cut into sheets and fed into a hydraulic press with steam heated platens and subjected...