Star Can Opener Co. v. Owen Dyneto Co.

• Decision Date: 24 December 1926
• Docket Number: No. 211.,211.
• Citation: 16 F.2d 353
• Parties: STAR CAN OPENER CO. v. OWEN DYNETO CO.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

16 F.2d 353 (1926)

STAR CAN OPENER CO. v. OWEN DYNETO CO.

No. 211.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

December 24, 1926.

Ramsay Hoguet and Thomas J. Byrne, both of New York City, for appellant.

Stephen J. Cox, of New York City, for appellee.

Before HOUGH, HAND, and MACK, Circuit Judges.

HOUGH, Circuit Judge.

This can opener is a means of getting at the contents of the usual tin can, commonly containing articles of food, and commonly cylindrically formed of a sheet of tinned metal soldered at the line of juncture and terminating at top and bottom in a "flange," viz. the meeting of the bottom or top and the cylindrical wall of the can. The opener is a manually operated tool, which grasps the flange of the can and provides means, while the can is thus firmly held, to apply the cutting edge of a circular disc, also manually actuated just below the flange and sever the side completely, so that at the end of the cut around the can the cover or top part, still firmly held by the flange, is lifted clear.

Plaintiff's commercial embodiment of these patents has, without the meretricious aid of advertising, achieved in an extremely short time marked commercial success. It is a true tool — i. e., manually operable without the expenditure of much physical strength — strong, light, cheap, and apparently durable. That upon the ordinary food tin, composed of light sheet metal, it makes a cleaner job, with far less risk of personal injury to the operator, than does any other can-opening tool brought to our attention, is we think admitted.

The earlier patent states that the object of invention is to provide for "opening cans by cutting the ends from the body portions by a circumferential cut through the can wall." This is to be done by providing the opener with "an advancing and a cutting roller, which are adapted to be clamped in opposed relation against opposite sides of the flange or seam of a can, in such manner that the cutting disc or roller will sever the can wall and the can will be revolved against the cutter by revolving the advancing roller."

The disclosure shows a set of levers arranged pincer- or scissor-wise, one lever terminating in a knurled disc manually revoluble, the other terminating in a roller which is the cutting disc. When the scissor handles are open, the can flange is grasped between the knurled and cutting discs or rollers, the knurled one being on top of the can, and when that is revolved its roughened edge advances the flange between the two rollers — the cutting one severing the can wall as it progresses.

It is apparent, says the disclosure, that "such a can opener is simple in construction and in operation, and can be applied to cans of different sizes without adjustment, and will sever the wall in a clean-cut edge." Of the claims in suit (1 and 2) the second is more specific, and is as follows:

"A can opener of the character described comprising a pair of pivotally connected handles, an advancing roller revolubly mounted at the end of one of said handles, a cutting disc revolubly mounted at the end of the opposite handle in opposed relation to the roller; said roller and disc being adapted to be clamped by the handles against opposite sides of an edge can flange to press the cutter through the can wall, a peripheral shoulder on the cutting disc for limiting the depth of the cut made thereby and a crank for revolving the advancing roller for the purpose set forth."

The second and later patent elaborates the concept of the first, in that, instead of grasping the can flange between the knurled or advancing and manually operated roller and the knife or cutting edge, two rollers are provided, one in each lever. The lever bearing the roller that is placed on top of the can is recessed, so as to permit (when the scissor-form levers are closed) the roller at the end of the other lever to come into such close juxtaposition with the roller placed on top of the can that the flange thereof is firmly grasped between the two rollers, while the cutting is done by the edge of a disc integral and concentric with the lower roller, but of slightly larger circumference. Thus the can flange is grasped by and between the rollers, and upon the revolution...