Thepatent Brown v. Guild Same v. Selby
| Decision Date | 01 October 1874 |
| Docket Number | CORN-PLANTER |
| Parties | THEPATENT. BROWN v. GUILD. SAME v. SELBY |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
[Syllabus from pages 181-183 intentionally omitted] APPEALS from the Circuit Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
G. W. Brown filed two separate bills in equity in the court below, against Bergen and Sisson, in the one case, and against Selby and others in the other case, charging them respectively with infringement of certain letters-pa ent granted to him, Brown, for improvements in corn-planting machines, being reissues of previous patents, and praying for an account of profits, for injunctions, and for general relief. The defendant in the first case filed an answer, and two amended answers, setting up, in general, that the complainant was not the original and first inventor of the improvements patented to him, but that the same were previously known and used by various other persons named in the answers, and that the reissued patents of the complainant were fraudulently obtained; and they denied that they infringed the complainant's patents. The pleadings in the other case were substantially the same. Much testimony having been taken, the causes were heard together before the Circuit Court, and the complainant's bills were severally dismissed. The appeals were from the decrees dismissing them. Bergen, one of the original defendants in the first case, having died, the cause was revived in the name of his executor, one Guild, who, with the other defendant, Sisson, were the now appellees in that case.
The invention, as to which the controversy in the cases arose, is one which is called 'a check-row corn-planter;' an invention intended to facilitate the planting of Indian corn (maize) in the best way.
This sort of corn, as most persons have observed, is usually planted in rows; rows from three feet ten inches to four feet apart. It requires to be so planted in order that the spaces between and all around the hillocks in which it is planted may be ploughed, after the corn begins to grow; or (to use the technical term) that the corn may be 'cultivated.' For if weeds are allowed to grow about the corn they impair its strength and diminish its productiveness.
Prior to the time when 'the check-row corn-planter' was devised, and while, of course, all planting was done by hand, farmers used to secure the planting, properly, in rows, with the grain at right distances from each other, in this way. They made a series of transverse scratches or marks across the field, as shown by the black lines a b in the design below.
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Then, when they came to plant, they ploughed transversely, as shown by the dotted lines c d, and at the intersections e e of the furrow c d, with the scratched line a b, they dropped the corn. The corn therefore grew in regular rows, and could be 'cultivated' by means of a plough drawn by a horse who went between the rows in both directions.
But this operation of drawing great numbers of lines and ploughing in two directions across large fields, and of dropping the corn by hand at the intersections, was a slow and laborious one, and one requiring great care in order to be accurately done.
The object of the improvement under consideration in these cases was to do this work—that is to say, to plant the corn in the best way in hills at exact and proper distances apart—dispensing with much of the former labor.
The first and principal question in the causes was, whether the complainant, Brown, was the original and first inventor of the improvements claimed by and patented to him, or whether he was anticipated therein by other persons named in the answers of the defendants.
As set forth in the bill, the first patent obtained by the complainant for one portion of his alleged invention and improvement, was granted to him on the 2d day of August, but antedated the 2d day of February, 1853. This patent was surrendered on the 16th day of February, 1858, and a new patent was issued in lieu thereof, upon a corrected specification. This reissued patent was also surrendered on the 11th day of September, 1860, and in lieu thereof five new patents were issued upon five several corrected specifications, which new patents were numbered respectively reissues 1036, 1037, 1038, 1039, 1040, each one being for a distinct and separate part of the original invention, alleged to have been made by the complainant.
On the 8th of May, 1855, a patent was granted to the complainant for certain mprovements on his corn-planter, which patent was, on the 10th day of November, 1857, surrendered, and a new patent was issued in lieu thereof on a corrected specification. This last patent was also surrendered on the 11th day of December, 1860, and five new patents were issued in lieu thereof on five amended specifications, each being for a distinct and separate part of the improvements intended to be secured by the patent of 1855. The last-mentioned patents were respectively numbered reissues 1091, 1092, 1093, 1094, and 1095. Copies of all the reissued patents of both series were annexed to the bill. Upon the taking of proofs in the cause, copies of the two original patents, and of the first reissues thereof, as well as the reissued patents on which the bill was founded, were put in evidence, together with full and detailed drawings and models of the complainant's original and improved machines.
The defendants, in their answer and the several amendments thereof, referred to many machines, patents, and applications for patents which, as they alleged, embodied all the improvements of the complainant's machine, and antedated the same. These will be more particularly referred to after the features of the complainant's machine have been described.
The original machine, the patent for which was granted to the complainant on the 2d day of August, 1853, and the application for which patent was dated the 27th of September, 1852, is shown in perspective in Figure 2, and consisted of the following parts:
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1. A framework supported on two runners—the latter being used for cutting a gash or furrow in the earth to receive the seed; each runner having a cleft at the rear end for allowing the seed to drop to the ground, and furnished with a hopper above, containing oscillating horizontal valves for dropping the seed at proper intervals into the gash or furrow through a tube in the heel of the runner.
2. Another framework, following the first, and supported on two wheels, or rollers, to follow the runners and press the earth down upon the seed in the gash or furrow.
The relation of the runners A to the covering-wheel W is shown at Figure 3, which is a side view of Brown's machine.
[NOTE: MATERIAL SET AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE (GRAPHIC OR TABULAR MATERIAL)]
3. A free or jointed connection between the two frames, allowing them to rise and fall independently of each other in going over inequalities of surface. This jointed connection was formed by a bolt passing through the arm J, Figure 3, at the point I.
4. A system of levers resting on the axle of the wheels under the rear frame, shown at L, Figure 3, and so applied to the forward frame as to enable the driver to raise the runners out of the ground for turning about or for any other purpose, with a further arrangement for regulating the depth of the furrow or gash made by the runner.
The complainant's machine was a hand-dropping machine, and it was so arranged that a man could be mounted upon it so as to ride sidewise, and observe the lines or furrows which had been made across the field. Whenever the runners passed on these lines the seed was dropped. This was done by means of a connecting-rod between the seed-valves in the two hoppers, one end attached to each, with a lever to move it backward and forward by the hand of the dropper sitting crosswise on the frame, so that he could, by such movement, drop the seed from both hoppers at the same time at the intersection of the cross lines marked on the field.
across the field. The machine was described with substantially these parts in the specifications and drawings attached to the original patent of 1853, as well as the several reissues 1036, 1037, 1038, 1039, and 1040.
The improved machine, as patented in 1855, had two additional features, or improvements:
is near the bottom of the furrow when it is dropped, so that it is immediately deposited in line with the check-row. And the peculiarity of the apparatus is such that it requires but one movement of the levers above to drop for a single hill.
2. Another improvement was a high, long seat for the driver, on the rear frame, located above the wheels lengthwise of the machine, so that by moving backward or forward on the seat, his weight will raise or depress the runners.
The only claims allowed by the Patent Office upon the...
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