Stilz v. United States
| Decision Date | 16 November 1925 |
| Docket Number | No. 38,38 |
| Citation | 70 L.Ed. 202,46 S.Ct. 37,269 U.S. 144 |
| Parties | STILZ v. UNITED STATES |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Mr. Harry B. Stilz, pro se.
Mr. John W. Loveland, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., for the United States.
Plaintiff brought this action, under the Act of Congress approved July 1, 1918, c. 114 (40 Stat. 705), to recover compensation for the use and manufacture, by or for the Navy Department, of certain oil burners alleged to infringe patents 945,873 and 1,066,161, granted him January 11, 1910, and July 1, 1913, respectively. The Court of Claims filed findings of fact and conclusion of law (59 Ct. Cl. 21), and adjudged that plaintiff was not entitled to recover.
The substance of the findings in respect of the prior art, the burners covered by plaintiff's patents, and the burners manufactured and used by the United States and alleged to be infringements, may be indicated briefly. Each of these patents was for improvements in oil burners. In order successfully to be used for fuel, oil must be atomized to permit its mixture with the proper amount of air for combustion. In the prior art to which plaintiff's patents relate, there were numerous structures disclosed by patents and publications referred to in the findings, including two types of burners in use, and known, respectively, as mechanical atomizers and steam atomizers. In the former, the oil is atomized by means purely mechanical. It is projected under heavy pressure from the burner into the furnace in a whirling cone-shaped film, which almost immediately develops into fine spray. In the latter, there is a combination with the oil, while yet within the burner proper, of a stream of steam, air, or other gaseous fluid under pressure for the purpose of aiding the atomization. In both, air for combustion is admitted through a surrounding register, and is more or less intimately intermixed with the oil spray.
The burner covered by patent 945,873 provides for the use of steam, air, or other gaseous fluid under pressure to aid in atomization of the oil. The oil, under heavy pres- sure, is discharged tangentially into the annular space of the nozzle between the outer casing and center plug, thus giving the oil a rotary motion in the nozzle. The steam or other fluid, under heavy pressure is also discharged tangentially into this space in the same direction as the oil with which it rotates; and thus aids in atomizing the oil, which issues from the orifice of the nozzle at a high velocity through an air register and into the furnace in a cone-shaped filmand spray. Air for combustion is supplied through the register, and mixes with the oil spray in it and in the furnace.
The burner covered by patent 1,066,161 also provides for the use of steam, air, or other gaseous fluids under pressure as an aid in the atomization of the oil. This device includes an annular space between inner and outer casings of the nozzle. The oil and steam are not brought together until after the oil, under heavy pressure, is forced through a spiral and orifice into the front of this space in a rapidly rotating cone-shaped film. The steam, air, or other fluid passes through a pipe under heavy pressure, and is discharged tangentially into this space, rotating towards the outer orifice in a whirling layer. The oil leaving the inner orifice is struck by the rotating steam before it passes through the outer orifice. Air for combustion is supplied through a circular register attached to the front of the furnace, through the center of which the oil is projected from the nozzle into the furnace in a cone-shaped spray. The air flows around the...
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