Michigan Cent. R. Co. v. Consolidated Car-Heating Co.

• Decision Date: 02 April 1895
• Docket Number: 250.
• Citation: 67 F. 121
• Parties: MICHIGAN CENT. R. CO. v. CONSOLIDATED CAR-HEATING CO.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

67 F. 121

MICHIGAN CENT. R. CO. v. CONSOLIDATED CAR-HEATING CO.

No. 250.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

April 2, 1895

This is a suit by a bill in equity filed in the court below against the Michigan Central Railroad Company by the appellee, the Consolidated Car-Heating Company, to restrain the infringement by the railroad company of rights secured to Elmore D. Cody, as inventor, and to John W. Hayes, as assignee of a part interest, by letters patent No. 329,017 for improvements in steam car heaters, granted October 27, 1885, upon an application filed August 11, 1884. The allegations of the bill are, in substance, that Cody was the first inventor of such improvements; that a patent was issued therefor on the 27th day of October, 1885, to him and to Hayes, to whom he had assigned a half interest in said invention; that the entire interest has come, by mesne assignments, to complainant; that the alleged infringement has, since the date of the patent been carried on by the defendant, in the using, and selling to others to use, car heaters embodying the same principles of construction and operation as those described in the patent; and that the complainant had reason to fear the continued use and selling of such car heaters; whereupon the complainant prays for an injunction, and for an accounting for profits, and damages. The answer admits the issuance of the patent, and at the time stated in the bill, but denies that Cody was the first inventor of the improvements therein mentioned, and alleges that they were fully shown and patented in letters patent No. 201,061, issued to W. Smith March 5, 1875 (car heater); No. 212,375, issued to S.W Graydon February 18, 1879 (car heater); No. 265,284, issued to D. D. & J. H. Sewall October 3, 1882 (car heater); No. 284,250, issued to N. Slingland September 4, 1883 (car heater); No. 126,343, issued to G. G. Stone April 30, 1872 (car heater). The answer also sets up the prior public use, for more than two years before Cody's application for the patent, by persons and at places enumerated,-- among them, by William Martin, at Dunkirk, N.Y.; that defendant uses a system and apparatus for car heating obtained from the Martin Anti-Fire Heater Company, which was patented to the said William Martin October 25, 1887; and that, when Cody made the application for his patent, he knew of the invention by Martin of the device and system covered by Martin's patent. The answer denies the infringement of the Cody patent: A replication to this answer was filed, and proofs were taken.

Three claims are shown in the Cody patent, as follows: (1) A system of piping for heating railway passenger cars, consisting of a supply pipe extending longitudinally under the central portion of a car, communicating with steam drums or coils inclosed in chambers under the floor of such car, in combination with pipes extending from the central portion of said supply pipe to the upper courses of coils of pipe along the sides of such car, and escape pipes from the central portion of the lower courses of said coils, communicating with and draining into a steam trap under the floor of the car, substantially as and for the purpose set forth. (2) In a railway car heater, side coils, H, H, on either side of the car, substantially as shown, in combination with the continuous steam-supply pipe, A, under the body of the car, between the upper courses of the side coils, H, H, and the supply pipe, A, an automatic steam trap, H, under the central portion of the car, and the intermediate connections between the lower courses of the side coils, H, H, and the steam trap, M, substantially as and for the purpose set forth. (3) The combination, in a railway car heater, of a steam-supply pipe, A, extending under the body of the car, from end to end thereof, and communicating near each end of the car with steam drums, B, B, in chambers under the floor of the car, and communicating near the center of the car with the upper courses of both of the side coils, H, H, with an automatic steam trap, M, communicating near the center of the car with the lower courses of both of the side coils, H, H, substantially as and for the purpose set forth. These claims indicate sufficiently for the purposes of the opinion the general form of the structure and system of the patent. It may be added that it contemplated the connecting of the ends of the supply pipe, and taking steam from the locomotive under all the cars in the train. The principal controversy in this suit is founded on the second claim, and the evidence taken by the parties relates largely to the question whether Cody or Martin first invented the system of car heating covered by the complainant's patent. Cody was in the employment of Martin's company, in the business of heating cars by steam, and in perfecting a system of piping adapted to that purpose, at the time when it is claimed for Cody that he made his invention; and the defendant claims that Cody took the invention from Martin, and afterwards patented it. The complainant put in evidence a certified copy of the file wrapper and contents, showing the proceedings in the patent office pending Cody's application. The nature of those proceedings is stated in the opinion following. The court below decreed for the complainant, and the defendant brings the case here on appeal.

J. C. Sturgeon (J. B. Foraker, of counsel), for appellant.

Parker & Burton, for appellee.

Before TAFT and LURTON, Circuit Judges, and SEVERENS, District Judge.

Having stated the case as above, SEVERENS, District Judge, .

Prior to Cody's application for a patent, a variety of devices had been contrived for heating cars by steam or hot water in pipes, and some of them had been patented. In some there was shown a heater of water or generator of steam under each car which circulated the water or steam through side coils in the car, and back to the boiler, or, in case of steam, to a trap. Others took steam from the locomotive, and carried it directly through the body of the cars, either entire, or split into divided currents in each car, where it was circulated at the sides in coils of pipe, with incidental arrangements for trapping the water of condensation. Still others, approaching more nearly the system in Cody's patent, taking steam from the locomotive, carried it by a continuous pipe under the whole train, with joints at the end of each car, and with devices for taking off the steam in whole or in part, for the supply of the cars in the train according to their number. The steam thus taken off was carried up into the car, and there circulated, with more or less efficiency, in coils of pipe variously arranged along the sides of the car, and, after being condensed, was drained into a trap. William Martin had in the year 1883 contrived a system in its general features like the last described, and was then experimenting with it upon the cars of the Dunkirk, Allegheny Valley & Pittsburgh Railroad Company,-- a railroad running out of Dunkirk, N.Y., to Pittsburgh, Pa. This system had not yet been perfected. Difficulties were encountered with it, which the author was endeavoring, by study and experiment, to overcome. One of those difficulties, and probably the principal one, was that of so arranging the pipes as to get a continuous flow of steam through the coils of pipes and the drums, unimpeded by pockets of air and water from the condensing steam which would be formed in the circuit by the change in the horizontal plane of the car and pipes in passing over the changing grades of the road. Some other difficulties were to be overcome, which it is not necessary here to dwell upon. This, as we gather from the proof, was the condition of things, with respect to the Martin system, in the latter part of the year 1883. In November of that year, Cody was employed by the company in which Martin was interested, and of which he was manager, to work for it in fitting and putting into cars their steam-heating apparatus, and remained in that employment until the following March. During that time certain improvements were introduced into the Martin system which resulted in removing the principal difficulties which had been encountered, and from that time forward that system has been carried into extensive use in heating passenger cars on railroads. These improvements Cody claims to have invented, and they constitute the basis of his patent. The principal question discussed upon the argument was the one fact of whether Cody invented the improvements, or whether Martin invented them, and Cody was a workman simply constructing the apparatus under Martin's directions. But another question arises and is presented upon the appellant's contention that Cody so changed his specifications during the pendency of his application as to show another invention from that originally described, and give to his combination utility and value, and but for which it would be practically valueless. As has been stated, one of the problems which in 1883 confronted those who were seeking to construct an operative system was to devise an arrangement of the steam pipes such as would provide for the ready escape of air and water, so that they would not obstruct the circulation, and thereby prevent the free flow of steam through the pipes. Cody's application was made on the 11th day of August, 1884, and the patent issued to him and Hayes, as assignee, on the 27th day of October, 1885. In his specifications he said nothing about inclining the members of the side coils of his steam pipes, H, H, downward from the center of the car, where steam is taken in, to the end of the car, and also inclining downward the return pipes as they come back to the center and connect with the pipe which carries their contents...