Pullman Palace-Car Co. v. Wagner Palace-Car Co.

• Decision Date: 17 April 1889
• Citation: 38 F. 416
• Parties: PULLMAN PALACE CAR CO. v. WAGNER PALACE CAR CO. et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

38 F. 416

PULLMAN PALACE CAR CO. v. WAGNER PALACE CAR CO. et al.

United States Circuit Court, N.D. Illinois.

April 17, 1889

Offield & Towle, B. F. Thurston, and Runnels & Burry, for complainant.

George Payson and Coburn & Thacher, for defendants.

Before GRESHAM and BLODGETT, JJ.

GRESHAM J.

This suit was brought for an injunction and damages for infringement of letters patent No. 373,098, issued to Henry Howard Sessions, on November 15, 1887, for a 'new and useful improvement in the construction of railroad cars,' and assigned by him, before issue, to the complainant. The improvement is thus described in the specifications:

'The invention hereinafter particularly described is embodied in the application to the individual cars, which, when coupled, will compose a train, of a frame-shaped plate arranged in a vertical plane parallel with a vertical transverse frame passing through the car body, and projecting, by means of backing springs, for a short distance beyond the end of the car. The height of said frame-plate, for the best results, should be substantially that of the height of the car to which it is attached, and the same should be so shaped as to allow free communication between the ends of adjacent cars for the passage of persons through such frame plates. The purpose of the improvement is two-fold: First, to diminish the racking effect upon a car body, due to its momentum when it is suddenly brought from a state of motion to a state of rest from any cause, as well as the same injurious consequences when a car is suddenly started from a state of rest; and secondly, to diminish the tendency to a swaying or oscillating movement, which is developed whenever a train is running at high speed upon an ordinary railroad track. The end to be accomplished is to cause the frame plates to act as spring buffers whenever cars are being coupled, or whenever a train is suddenly checked or started, and also to act as frictional resistance plates to oppose or counteract the influences which tend to induce a swaying or oscillating movement in the several cars of a train. In place of the arrangement of springs shown to exert pressure upon the frame plate, it is obvious that any other can be substituted which will meet the requirements of necessity or convenience, according to the judgment or choice of the constructor. * * * To employ this improvement it is not necessary that the ordinary spring buffers in use should be dispensed with. In my judgment it would be well to retain such appliances to diminish the effect of shocks. By my improvement the body of the car is stayed against the racking effect of such shocks by the yielding frame-plate buffer, which is applied not merely in the line of horizontal planes of the platforms, but also in the lines of vertical planes extending substantially to the top of the superstructure, whereby the duration of the life of the car is greatly promoted.

* * * The front ends of the upper set of backing springs take their bearings at the two upper corners, respectively, of the frame-plate, or, as shown in the drawings, against shoulders on the bars, c, c', which bars are jointed to the frame plate at v'. The rear ends of the springs abut against the ends of the keepers, k, k', and through the eyes of these keepers the bars, c, c', can slide. These keepers are shown in the drawings as bolted to the sides of the vestibule extension of the car body, and the coiled springs t, t', are, for convenience, wound around the rods or bars, c, c'. In case there should be no vestibule extension of the car body, the keepers may be attached in any convenient way to the main body of the car, so as to furnish resisting abutments for the pressure springs, and guides for the rods connecting with the frame-plate. The spring pressure to act against the lower portion of the frame-plates is obtained, as exhibited in the drawings, from the coiled spring, m, which takes a bearing at one end against the solid frame-work of the car, and at the other end against a cross-head beneath the entrance platform car, which cross-head, by means of the rigid links, s, s', is connected with the threshold of the frame-plate, a, the said links or bars s, s', being knuckle-jointed to the threshold-plate, o.'

The two claims, both of which it is alleged are infringed, read:

'(1) The combination with the end of a railway car of a frame-plate or equivalent series of buffers backed by springs, arranged with its face in a vertical plane, and normally projecting beyond the end of the car, whereby, upon the coupling of two cars, a spring buffer will be interposed between the superstructures of such adjacent cars above their platforms, and also frictional surfaces under opposing spring pressures to prevent the racking of the car frames upon sudden stoppages and to oppose the tendency of the cars to sway laterally when in motion, substantially as hereinbefore set forth. (2) The combination of a spring buffer or friction plate with the ends of the adjacent cars of a train, said buffers being located on the ends of the superstructures of the cars, respectively, and substantially at the tops of the same, and so arranged that when the two cars are coupled the faces of the buffers will bear against each other in contact under pressure, substantially as and for the purposes specified.'

It is claimed that by attaching the Sessions organization rigidly to the car bodies, so that the frame-plates have no capacity to move sidewise independently of the movement of the cars, the frame-plates act as spring buffers in frictional contact under constantly opposing spring pressure between the superstructures of the cars, and that, thus combined with the ends of the cars, and acting in co-operation with the platform springs, the buffer-plates are far more effective in dissipating the force of shocks in collisions, and in resisting the forces which tend to create oscillation, than if they were in close proximity, or even in frictional contract, but not under such pressure. It is not claimed that the improvement possesses the merit of entirely overcoming the tendency to oscillation in cars in motion. All that is claimed for it is the power to dissipate the force of shocks, and to resist and overcome the swaying tendency to an appreciable and useful degree, as compared with anything previously known in the art. The unevenness and curvatures in tracks cause cars in motion to vibrate, and it is claimed that the Sessions device possesses special merit, as compared with previous devices of the same character, in its ability to counteract the first impulses to these oscillatory movements. 'It is common experience,' says the specification, 'that when a train of drawing-room or sleeping-cars is traveling at a high speed there is induced in each car a tendency to sway or oscillate laterally. The force which induces this tendency may be relatively a slight matter; but its continued repetition results in an aggregation of impulses which accelerate the oscillations and cause unpleasant effects upon the passengers especially when the road-bed has reverse curves, even of great radius. Especially is this experienced in trains of sleeping-cars which are provided with upper sleeping berths, constituting, when occupied, a weight elevated high above the center of gravity. The effect of my improvement is to provide a resistance to this tendency to oscillation by checking the same at the outset before the impulses which produce it have accumulated. The surfaces of the spring-backed frame-plates in contact are capable of resisting all ordinary impulses to oscillation induced by the movement of the train. Moreover, as the cars of a train do not generally sway in unison, but oscillate according to the effect of particular accidents or influences, the effect of combining the cars of a train by the aid of frictional surfaces in contact under considerable pressure, such as I have shown, is to dissipate all the lateral movements of each car throughout all the other cars so connected, and thus give steadiness to the whole train. ' The value of the Sessions device as a means of making collisions less injurious, and of diminishing the oscillation of cars in motion, and thereby promoting the safety and convenience of the traveling public, is abundantly established by the evidence in the record. Its prompt adoption by the leading railroads of the country, especially the Baltimore & Ohio, with its numerous sharp curves, attests its merits, and the large number of intelligent witnesses, many of them disinterested, who have testified from experience and observation of its steadying effect, leave no room for doubt upon this branch of the case. Persons, traveling on cars equipped with the improvement, are less affected by swaying movements than when traveling on cars not so equipped. Persons troubled with nausea experience less discomfort on trains operated with the improvement attached than when traveling on cars not so operated. Persons occupying upper berths of cars operated with the improvement attached experience less discomfort than previously, and trains operated with the improvement have sustained less injury in collision than trains colliding without it. These results are attributable to the Sessions device. On the evidence they can be accounted for in no other way.

Before discussing the patents, machines, and publications, which are relied on as anticipations of the Sessions improvement, we will briefly advert to the marked difference between English and American railway cars. American cars of the Pullman and Wagner class are from 50 to 80 feet long, 10 feet or more high, and rest at either end upon six and eight wheel trucks. The cars and trucks are connected by means of swiveling...