Standard Plunger Elevator Co. v. Stokes

• Decision Date: 10 February 1914
• Docket Number: 126.
• Citation: 212 F. 941
• Parties: STANDARD PLUNGER ELEVATOR CO. v. STOKES et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

212 F. 941

STANDARD PLUNGER ELEVATOR CO. v. STOKES et al.

No. 126.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

February 10, 1914

C. V Edwards, of New York City, for appellant.

L. W Southgate, of New York City, for appellees.

The specifications state that:

'The mechanism of the patent consists in providing a guiding mechanism which cannot escape through the stuffing box and in so arranging the parts that when the plunger exceeds its normal upward travel the working part of the plunger will move out of the stuffing box and allow the water to escape to stop the upward movement of the plunger, whereby a relief is obtained without allowing the plunger to escape from the control of its guiding mechanism or to jump laterally off of the stuffing box.'

The claims in controversy are:

See also, 200 F. 770, 119 C.C.A. 292.

Before LACOMBE, COXE, and ROGERS, Circuit Judges.

LACOMBE Circuit Judge (after stating the facts as above).

Although these defendants may not be heard to contend that the patent is void for lack of invention, they are entitled, as any one else would be, to whatever narrow construction the language of the claims may warrant and the condition of the prior art may require. The elements are functionally old, the art was a crowded one, and patentee's contribution was no broad advance.

The plungers of elevators of this type are hollow cylinders themselves, moving up and down in other cylinders. They are therefore closed at the bottom, so that there will be something against which the water can exercise its lifting force, and which will expel the water below it when valves are reversed. Sometimes this closure was not at the very bottom of the plunging cylinder, but inside of it and some distance above the bottom, the water being freely admitted into the space between the bottom and the closure. When thus closed, the plunger proper, the plunger which rose and fell because its base rested on the surface of water, extended from the car down to the closure. All below was an addition to the operative plunger; it would be fairly described as a connection between the open bottom where the water could flow in and out of the plunger and the bottom surface (the closure) of the operative plunger. In the prior art there were such plungers, with the closure some distance above the bottom. The cylinder of metal which (with the bottom closure) constituted the plunger was extended beyond the...