Westinghouse v. New York Air-Brake Co.

• Decision Date: 15 October 1894
• Docket Number: 5,315.,4,976,4,977,
• Citation: 63 F. 962
• Parties: WESTINGHOUSE AIR-BRAKE CO. v. NEW YORK AIR-BRAKE CO. et al. WESTINGHOUSE et al. v. SAME.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

63 F. 962

WESTINGHOUSE AIR-BRAKE CO. v. NEW YORK AIR-BRAKE CO. et al.

WESTINGHOUSE et al. v. SAME.

Nos. 4,976, 4,977,, 5,315.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

October 15, 1894

George H. Christy, Frederic H. Betts, and J. Snowden Bell, for complainants.

J. E Maynadier, Fred'k P. Fish, Esek Cowen, and Edward C James, for defendants.

These were suits by the Westinghouse Air-Brake Company against the New York Air-Brake Company and others, and by George Westinghouse, Jr. and the Westinghouse Air-Brake Company against the New York Air-Brake Company and Others, for the infringement of certain patents for improvements in railroad brakes. The bills were dismissed as to some of the patents and decrees granted as to certain specific claims in the rest of the patents. 59 F. 581. Complainants and defendants respectively appeal from these decrees.

Before WALLACE, LACOMBE and SHIPMAN, Circuit Judges.

SHIPMAN Circuit Judge.

The various appeals in these three cases are from decrees of the circuit court for the southern district of New York upon three bills in equity for the alleged infringement of letters patent. No. 4,977 was founded upon letters patent No 376,837, dated January 24, 1888, and letters patent No. 172,064, dated February 11, 1876, each issued to George Westinghouse, Jr. The circuit court decreed that the defendants should be enjoined against their infringement of the first, second, and third claims of No. 376,837, and that the bill should be dismissed as to No. 172,064. No. 5,315 was founded upon letters patent No. 448,827 to George Westinghouse, Jr., dated March 24, 1891. The circuit court decreed that the defendants should be enjoined against the infringement of the first and second claims of this patent. No. 4,976 was founded upon letters patent No. 393,784, dated December 4, 1888, to Harvey S. Park, and No. 222,803, dated December 23, 1879, to George Westinghouse, Jr. The circuit court dismissed the bill as to No. 393,784, and decreed that an injunction should issue against the infringement by the defendants of the second, third, and fourth claims of No. 222,803. The complainants and defendants have respectively appealed from the decrees which were respectively adverse to them.

These patents are for improvements in railroad brakes by fluid pressure, and will be better understood if they are considered in the order of their relation to each other, rather than as they are grouped in the bills in equity; and therefore Nos. 376,837 and 448,827, which was orginally applied for in the application which resulted in No. 376,837, naturally take precedence. It is necessary to give the history of the development by the patentee of the automatic, 'Quick-Action' air-brake system, because the construction of the important claims of the two patents now under consideration, and of the patent to Park (No. 393,784), depends, to a great degree, upon a knowledge of this history, which was accurately condensed by Judge TOWNSEND, as follows:

'The first practical air brake is known as the 'plain brake,' and is described in patent No. 88,929, granted to George Westinghouse, Jr., April 13, 1869. It consisted of a pump operated by steam from the locomotive boiler, which compressed air into a reservoir located under the locomotive cab, which reservoir communicated by a pipe with a cock or valve in said cab, called the 'gengineer's valve,' which was so located as to be readily manipulated by the engineer. From this valve a pipe extended back under the tender, and was connected to a similar pipe under the entire length of the first car by a flexible hose. Each of the succeeding cars had a similar pipe, similarly connected. This pipe was called the 'train Ipe.' From the train pipe of each car a branch pipe communicated with the forward end of a cylinder called the 'brake cylinder.' This cylinder was provided with a piston, the stem of which was connected with the brake levers on the car. When the engineer wished to apply the brakes, he opened the engineer's valve, and the compressed air from the brakes, he opened the engineer's valve, and the compressed air from the main reservoir flowed back through the train pipe and branch pipes into the brake cylinder on each car, pushing the pistons backward, causing the piston stems to operate the brake levers, and force the brake shoes against the wheels. When he wished to release the brakes, he so shifted the valve as to shut off the flow of compressed air from the main reservoir, and to open a port or vent leading from the train pipe to the open air. Thereupon, the compressed air in the brake cylinders escaped into the open air, the pressure of the pistons was removed, and the pistons were forced forward again by means of springs, thus moving the brake shoes away from the wheels. The validity of this patent was sustained in Westinghouse v. Air-Brake Co., 9 O.G. 538, Fed.Cas.No. 17,450. The operation of this plain brake was open to certain objections. It was too slow, and was attended by danger of collision in case one part of the train became detached from the other part.

'The next brake to be considered is known as the 'automatic brake,' which appears to have been patented by George Westinghouse, Jr., about 1872 or 1873. It embodied the addition of an auxiliary reservoir and a triple-valve device to each car. Each reservoir was of sufficient capacity to operate its brakes once, thus to provide for automatic action in case of accident. The triple-valve device was located at the junction of connections between pipes leading to the train pipes, the brake cylinder, and the auxiliary reservoir. In addition to these three ports, there was a fourth port leading to the open air. The operation of this brake was radically different from that of the plain brake. In the former, the compressed air was stored in the main reservoir until required for the application of brakes; in the latter, the main and auxiliary reservoirs and train pipe were always charged with compressed air at working pressure, to prevent the application of the brakes. When the engineer wished to apply the automatic brake, he shifted the engineer's valve so as to cut off the flow of compressed air from the main reservoir, and open a port from the train pipe, and cause a back pressure from each auxiliary reservoir through the triple valve, which shifted it so as to close the port from the branch pipe to the train pipe, and stop the escape of air from the auxiliary reservoir, to close the port leading from the brake cylinder to the open air, and to open the port leading from the auxiliary reservoir, and connect it with the port leading to the brake cylinder. Thereupon, the compressed air in the auxiliary reservoir flowed into the brake cylinder, and applied the brakes. It will thus be seen that, while the former system was operated by pressure from the main reservoir, the latter was operated by withdrawal of pressure. The result was automatic action in case of accidents, whereby air was caused to escape from the train pipe, as by bursting of hose, or the train breaking in two. In such cases the release of pressure operated the triple valve, and automatically applied the brakes. It is necessary here to consider 'train-brake graduation' or 'service stops,' as distinguished from 'emergency stops.' While, for the latter, it may be necessary to admit to the brake cylinder the full pressure of compressed air, say seventy or eighty pounds, yet, where it is desired merely to slow up without stopping, it may be necessary to admit only, say, ten or twenty pounds, graduating the amount of flow according to the character of service desired. It is important to bear this distinction in mind, because the appliances hereafter to be considered have been so devised as to provide therefor, and that such graduation shall be under the control of the engineer.

'The chief objection to this automatic brake lay in the fact that it was not capable of successful operation on long trains of freight cars. The time consumed by the progressive operation of the brakes between the grip on the first and last car allowed of so much slack motion between them as to cause violent shocks. This automatic brake was publicly tested near Burlington, Iowa, in 1886. The growing importance of the subject of automatic freight graduation, the disastrous results therefrom, had become so evident that in 1885 the Railway Master Car-Builders' Association arranged for a series of experiments known as the 'Burlington trials.' The Westinghouse Company, and several other companies engaged in the manufacture of brake apparatus, competed at these trials. None of the competitors succeeded in stopping long trains of freight cars without violent and disastrous shocks. In 1887 the trials were renewed. There were five competing parties, including one of the leading experts for the defendants and the complainant company. The latter then presented an improved apparatus covered by patent No. 360,070, granted to George Westinghouse, Jr., March 29, 1887. The report of the committee of the Car-Builders' Association shows that they considered 'the field for improvement open as wide as in 1886,' and concluded that air brakes actuated by electricity were the only ones likely to be capable of successful operation on long trains of freight cars. The improved Westinghouse apparatus, while it reduced the length of time between the application of the first and last brakes, produced greater shocks than did the automatic apparatus of the preceding year. In this condition of affairs, George Westinghouse, Jr., set himself to work to obviate these difficulties. Upon the conclusion of the 1887 trials, he renewed his investigations and experiments, and by certain changes and improvements in the

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