Perkins Electric Switch Mfg. Co. v. Buchanan & Co.

• Decision Date: 24 March 1904
• Docket Number: 51.
• Citation: Perkins Electric Switch Mfg. Co. v. Buchanan & Co., 129 F. 134 (E.D. Pa. 1904)
• Parties: PERKINS ELECTRIC SWITCH MFG. CO. v. BUCHANAN & CO.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania

129 F. 134

PERKINS ELECTRIC SWITCH MFG. CO. v. BUCHANAN & CO.

No. 51.

United States Circuit Court, E.D. Pennsylvania.

March 24, 1904

Howson & Howson, for plaintiffs.

Marcellus Bailey and Curtis B. Johnson, for defendants.

ARCHIBALD District Judge. ^[1]

The issues in this case are few, and comprised within a narrow compass. While infringement is denied in the answer, it was not seriously disputed at the argument, and could not successfully be on the proofs. The socket manufactured by the defendants, in its general structure, is closely patterned after that of the complainants, and, whatever may be the incidental improvements, infringes upon it, for which of course, the patent held by the defendants covering these improvements affords no excuse. Neither, in view of this, can they very well question its utility, having copied it. If it had no advantage over other existing structures, why not follow them instead?

The novelty of the invention is contested, but the references cited against it are few, and, however they may limit, do not otherwise seriously affect, it. The patent held by the complainants was issued to Charles G. Perkins June 13, 1899 and is for an incandescent electric lamp socket. The claims relied upon in this suit are as follows:

'(3) In combination in a lamp socket, a cap, a shell, two blocks of insulating material, with recesses arranged to form two insulating-chambers, a plate with a binding-screw located in one of the chambers, and having its ends secured to the respective blocks, a plate with a binding-screw located in the other of the chambers, and having its ends secured to the respective blocks, and grooves in the edges of the upper block for the passage of the circuit-wires of (to) the respective binding-screws, substantially as specified.

'(4) In combination in a lamp socket, a shell, two blocks of insulating material with recesses arranged to form insulated chambers, a plate with a binding-screw located in one of the chambers, a plate with a binding-screw located in the other of the chambers, and a switch-block located in one of the chambers, and adapted to make contact with the end of the plate in the same chamber, substantially as specified.'

'(9) In combination in a lamp-socket, a cap, a shell, two blocks of insulating material located within the shell, insulated chambers formed by recesses in the insulation, and plates bearing outwardly-extending binding-screws located in the recesses, and having their ends secured by screws to the respective insulating-blocks, substantially as specified.

But four references are produced from the prior act, and of these the Snow and the Hubbell patents may be classed together. Both, in addition to a cap and shell, are made up of two blocks, or more properly disks, of insulating material secured together by metal plates on either side, to which the circuit wires-- introduced in the Hubbell through grooves on the edge of the upper block-- are attached by outwardly extending binding-screws. So far there is a correspondence with the plaintiffs' device, but there it stops. Between the blocks or disks is a large, single, open chamber, in which the key or switch mechanism is set, and across which there is an uninterrupted course for the electric current in case a short circuit happens in any way to be induced, while in the Perkins the two...