Stirrat v. Excelsior Mfg. Co.

• Decision Date: 20 January 1893
• Docket Number: 3,255.
• Citation: 60 F. 607
• Parties: STIRRAT et al. v. EXCELSIOR MANUF'G CO.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Missouri

60 F. 607

STIRRAT et al. v. EXCELSIOR MANUF'G CO.

No. 3,255.

United States Circuit Court, E.D. Missouri, Eastern Division.

January 20, 1893

Fowler & Fowler, for complainants.

Paul Bakewell, for defendant.

THAYER District Judge.

The file wrapper and contents of letters patent No. 357,874 show that when the application was filed the patentee (Robert J Stirrat) supposed himself to be the inventor of the hollow long center for stoves and ranges. His sole claim was for 'the long center of a stove or range, formed with a water passage or passages therein, communicating with induction and eduction pipes, substantially as and for the purpose set forth;' and in his specification he stated that his improvement consisted 'in forming a water passage in the long center or centers connected with the water tank by suitable pipes;' and that the main purpose of thus casting the top plate or long center was to protect it from the action of heat, and to prevent it from becoming warped. In the first communication from the patent office the patentee was advised that the supposed new method of molding and using the long center of a stove as a water pipe, to render it more durable, was not new; that both the top plates and long centers of stoves and ranges had previously been molded with water channels, for the express purpose of distributing the heat, and preventing them from becoming warped. Vide U.S. letters patent No 277,009, lines 40 to 45, inclusive. It would seem as though this first communication from the patent office ought to have satisfied the patentee that his claims as an inventor rested upon a doubtful foundation, and that very little scope could be given to any claim which he might eventually succeed in having allowed. Other inventors had already suggested the idea of casting the top plates of a stove hollow, and of permitting water to circulate therein, for the purpose of protecting the plates, in a measure, from the destructive action of heat. But, as usually happens in such cases, the patentee persisted in his efforts to obtain a patent on something, although his main idea had been anticipated. Having modified his specification by the additional statement that his invention related 'to those water-heating devices in which the water to be heated is caused to pass through the long center and a water-back,' and that his improvement consisted 'in features of construction' merely, he subsequently laid claim to 'a combined long center and water-back consisting of a top plate, C, having the chamber C', horizontal pipe section, F' F"',...