Seymour v. Osborne

• Citation: 20 L.Ed. 33,11 Wall. 516,78 U.S. 516
• Parties: SEYMOUR v. OSBORNE
• Decision Date: 01 December 1870
• Court: United States Supreme Court

78 U.S. 516

20 L.Ed. 33

11 Wall. 516

SEYMOUR v. OSBORNE.

December Term, 1870

APPEAL from the Circuit Court for the Northern District of New York.

The suit below was on a bill by W. H. Seymour and D. S. Morgan, for the infringement by Osborne of five patents owned by them, for improvement in reaping machinery.

Two of these patents covered the inventions of Seymour—one (No. 72) relating to the shape or construction of the grain platforms, and its special location in reference to the cutting apparatus—the other (No. 1683) involving the gathering-reel as an additional element to the combination just named.¹

The other three patents in controversy were granted to secure inventions made by Palmer and Williams, assignors of the complainants. Two of the latter patents (No. 1682 and No. 4) were for the employment of a discharging sweep-rake in connection with the peculiarly shaped platform, which was conceded to have been the invention of Seymour.²

The third patent of Palmer and Williams (No. 10,459) was for the means of sustaining the reel or grain-gathering device, consisting of a prolonged axle and two supporting posts, placed at one end of the reel only, leaving the other end free.³

The court below was of the opinion that the proofs of the complainants did not show any infringement, and so dismissed the bill. From this decree the complainants took this appeal.

The leading parts or features of a reaping machine are three in number.

First. The part which gathers or presses the standing grain to the cutting apparatus, and this has been called a reel. (Fig. 1.)

Second. The cutting apparatus which severs the stalk; which cutting apparatus usually consisted of a vibrating scalloped sickle, sliding through a series of fingers or guards. (Fig. 2.)

Third. A platform on which the grain is received, after it has been severed from the stalk. (Fig. 3.)

In connection with the platform there is also to be noticed, its shape, and the arrangements for removing the grain therefrom, and depositing it on the ground in gavels or bundles ready for the binder. The latter arrangement usually consisted, in practice, prior to the patents in controversy, of a hand-rake and device for supporting the body of the raker on the machine, as shown in Figure 5, further on.

These several parts in the machine were necessarily so arranged with reference to each other as to co-operate in producing the desired result, viz., that of cutting the grain and depositing it on the ground in bundles, adapted to being readily bound into sheaves.

The reaping machine, when doing its work, passes around the field, the horses being attached in front, and to one side of it, and if, while cutting the first swath, the grain was to pass directly back and fall on the ground in the rear of the sickle, as the horses came around with the machine to cut the second swath, they would walk over and trample upon this grain which had been just cut.

Thus, if S represents the standing grain and P the platform, and if the distinctly-marked horse-tracks, T, in the

cut, represent the path just passed over by the horses, in cutting the first swath, then the dotted horse-tracks, t, show the path the horses will pass over on their next round.

If the grain be thrown from the platform so as to fall on the track just passed over by the horses (i. e., on the distinctly-marked horse-tracks T), it will then be out of the way of the horses on their next round. If, however, the grain be discharged directly backwards, immediately behind the sickle, it will be in the way of the horses on their second round, and, in that case, binders must be employed to follow the machine and bind the grain into sheaves and lay it to one side, before the horses come around with the machine to cut the succeeding swath.

It is evident that the proper place to discharge the grain is in the path just passed over by the horses; and behind the horses, because it will then be out of the way of the horses on their next round.

Perhaps the most usual mode of discharging grain practiced prior to the patent in controversy here, is shown in the accompanying sketch.

The plate represents the arrangements for discharging the grain, and also the relative position of cutter, reel and platform, as well as that of the gavel or sheaf deposited on the ground. The raker is supported upon that machine by a seat or stand which sustains the lower part of his body, leaving the upper part of his body free, to enable him to operate the hand-rake with his arms. From this position he reaches the cut grain on the platform back of the reel, and by a sweep of his arms delivers it on the ground, either diagonally or more or less at right angles to the track in the path passed over by the horses.

This mode of delivering the grain, however, was fatiguing to the raker, and frequently the grain was deposited in a straggling manner upon the ground, and more or less obliquely to the track or path of the machine.

Obed Hussey, one of the earliest inventors of reaping machines, constructed his machines without a reel, and with a square platform, and discharged the grain when cut immediately in the rear of the platform, as shown in the drawing, Figure 6.

In this machine, the grain was discharged directly into the path to be passed over by the horses in their next round, and had therefore to be gathered up immediately as fast as cut. Some machines were also constructed by Hussey with a straight guideboard on the platform, which was adjustable within certain limits, and which, to a certain extent, caused the cut grain to be pressed to one side sufficiently for a single horse or tandem team to pass on the next round without trampling on the cut grain. Hussey also made machines with two platforms—one platform attached to the rear of the other—and employed two men, one to rake the grain back, and the other to discharge it to one side. He likewise made a reaping machine with a square platform, to the rear of which was bolted an angular addition, giving to the whole where the addition was attached an angular form. This machine was made in 1848, and after being made, it was removed in the latter part of the summer of 1848, from Hussey's shop in Baltimore, of which place he was at the time a resident, to the railroad depot and (as the witnesses understood) to be shipped for trial, but they did not know where it was to go, or whether, in fact, it was ever so shipped or tried. Some time in 1849, or later, this machine reappeared at the shop of Hussey, and had the appearance of having been used some little. On its return to the shop it was set aside, and nothing more was done to it, or with it until it was looked up in connection with this suit.

An important question arose upon this state of facts as to whether that last machine, even if conceded to be the same in principle with that of the complainants, amounted in view of law to an anticipation of their invention.

The invention of Seymour consisted in constructing the platform upon which was received the grain in the shape of a quadrant or sector of a circle, and placing it just behind the cutting apparatus, and in such relation to the main frame that the cut grain could be swept around on the are of a circle, and dropped on to the ground behind the horses, so as to be so far removed from the standing grain as to leave room for the horses and frame to pass between the standing grain and the gavels, thereby obviating the necessity of taking up the cut grain as fast as cut, and at the same time doing the work more perfectly. It is here shown.

Such being Seymour's invention, he obtained an original patent dated July 8, 1851, and by successive reissues and divers divisions thereon, among other things, two claims were allowed to him, one in reissue No. 72, as follows, viz.:

'A quadrant-shaped platform, arranged relatively to the cutting apparatus substantially as herein described, for the purpose set forth.'

The other claim allowed to him was in reissue No. 1683, on the basis of the same original patent, as follows, viz.:

'The combination in a harvesting machine of the cutting apparatus (to sever the stalks) with a reel, and with a quadrant-shaped platform located in the rear of the cutting apparatus, these three members being and operating as set forth.'

In Figure 8 is shown a quadrant platform cutting apparatus, and the operation of discharging the grain by handby by sweeping it in the arc of a circle. The relative position of the parts also to the reel is shown, the discharging hand-rake striking the cut grain immediately after it is deposited by the reel on the platform.

The complainants alleged that the defendants infringed these two claims by the use of a machine such as is shown in the following sketch.

This machine was used with a hand-rake. The defendants contended that the complainants' claim was for a quadrant-shaped platform only, and that their own platform was composed of two straight side pieces placed together at an angle.

The court below decided that although this form of the platform made it in effect a quadrant-shaped platform; yet that in view of Hussey's, and of Nelson Platt's platform, the complainants were only legally entitled to hold under their claim the precise shape of platform invented and described by Seymour, and that as so limited, it had not been infringed by the defendants, and that the doctrine of equivalents could not be invoked in such a case on behalf of plaintiff's patent, relying on Burr v. Duryee. The position thus assumed by the court below was pressed upon this court by the counsel of the defendants, the now appellees.

The machine of Hussey last above referred to, with the angular piece bolted to the platform, was urged as having been a full and complete anticipation of Seymour's invention.

The complainants, or now appellants, on the other hand, contended that Seymour's invention of the quadrant platform was complete in or before the harvest of...