Weaver Mfg. Co. v. Bear Mfg. Co., 6937.
| Decision Date | 12 January 1940 |
| Docket Number | No. 6937.,6937. |
| Citation | 109 F.2d 112 |
| Parties | WEAVER MFG. CO. et al. v. BEAR MFG. CO. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Wm. M. Walker, of Rock Island, Ill., and Oscar A. Mellin, of Oakland, Cal., for appellant.
Walter M. Fuller, of Chicago, Ill., for appellees.
Before SPARKS, MAJOR, and TREANOR, Circuit Judges.
Appellees charged appellant with infringement of United States Patent to Boyer, No. 1,611,099, of which the appellee company is the exclusive licensee. It relates to means for testing the action of brakes upon vehicle wheels and was issued December 14, 1926, on an application filed September 7, 1923. The defenses were invalidity and non-infringement and the court found the patent valid and infringed. Claims 1, 2 and 4 were in issue.1
The specification suggests the importance of equalizing the braking effect on opposite wheels of a vehicle as generally recognized in the automobile industry. It is further suggested therein that at that time such equalization was accomplished by means of manual adjustment.
The primary object of this patent is the provision of means whereby the difference in the retarding effect of the brakes on the opposite wheels may be automatically indicated, thereby apprising the operator of the exact adjustment necessary. Its further object is to provide means for indicating the braking effect on each wheel by the simple expedient of merely applying both brakes. The device, in effect, is a dynamometer, adapted to measure the degree of braking power applied to each of the wheels of an automobile.
The device, as illustrated, is located in a cavity in the floor but it may be positioned upon the floor with ramps leading thereto. At the base of the cavity, as illustrated, is a rigid foundation, preferably provided with a metallic covering adapted as a track for a plurality of flanged rollers. Mounted upon the rollers is a carrier member, or sill, carrying a roller track upon its lower surface and secured by bolts, or otherwise, to a concrete top member, which is provided with a trough-shaped track on its top surface. The foundation, and the members supported thereby, are spaced from the adjacent faces of the floor to permit of sufficient longitudinal movement of the sill and concrete top member.
The device preferably includes a compression cylinder in operative engagement with each of the sills. The cylinders are positioned in a cavity in the floor, and in a plane parallel with the plane of the sills, but the cylinders may be located in any position adapted for operative connection to the sills.
Each cylinder is equipped with a piston, having a rod extending through the cylinder head and rigidly secured to the sills. Extending into the opposite end of the cylinder is a tube, leading to a gauge, adapted to register on its face the degree of air compression in the cylinder.
The automobile — whose brakes are to be subjected to test — is run upon the trough-shaped tracks, and while in motion, and while the braking wheels are in contact therewith, the brakes are simultaneously applied to each wheel by the foot pedal or the emergency lever. When the wheels contact the concrete top member and the brakes are applied, the concrete top members, under the forward thrust of the wheels, will at once initiate a forward movement over the rollers, which will cause the piston rod attached to each sill to push its piston forward in its cylinder, thereby compressing the air therein and communicating such pressure to the gauge, which in turn causes the dial to indicate the degree of air pressure in its associated cylinder.
If one dial indicates a pressure greater than the other, it follows that there has been a greater forward movement of that concrete top member which is connected to the cylinder associated with the dial indicating the greater pressure. Such excess movement of one of such members over the other indicates that that wheel producing such excess movement is developing a greater braking force, thereby registering the difference upon the dials on the gauges, as well as the degree of manual adjustment necessary to equalize the brake.
The device covered by this parent has become known and is referred to as a "Drive-On-And-Stop" brake-test. As bearing on the question of invalidity, appellant relies on the following prior art patents: Brennan, No. 1,264,770; Bishop, No. 1,452,783; Cowdrey, No. 1,481,123; Isenberg, No. 1,464,763; and Sellers, No. 864,927. It further relies on United States Patent to Donovan, issued December 15, 1925, on an application filed February 19, 1925. However, Boyer's application antedated Donovan's and for that reason it cannot be considered prior art with respect to the patent in suit.
The other patents cited were considered by the examiner in his study of this case. He found nothing anticipatory of the claims here involved. A study of these patents convinces us that his conclusions in this respect were sound and that the patent was properly issued to Boyer.
On December 15, 1925, a patent was issued to Ira A. Weaver on a brake-testing appliance. This application was filed May 16, 1925, and was assigned by the applicant to appellee, Weaver Manufacturing Company. It is claimed by appellant that if it is guilty of any infringement, it is with respect to the Weaver patent and not that of Boyer. We think this contention is without merit. The Weaver Company became the owner of the Weaver patent and it also was the exclusive licensee under the Boyer patent. It is true that the Weaver device covers the disclosures of the Boyer...
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