Westinghouse v. New York Air-Brake Co.

• Decision Date: 20 November 1893
• Docket Number: 5,315.,4,977,4,976
• Citation: 59 F. 581
• Parties: WESTINGHOUSE et al. v. NEW YORK AIR-BRAKE CO. et al. WESTINGHOUSE AIR-BRAKE CO. v. SAME.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

59 F. 581

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

WESTINGHOUSE AIR-BRAKE CO. v. SAME.

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

United States Circuit Court, S.D. New York.

November 20, 1893

Kerr &amp Curtis, Geo. H. Christy, Frederic H. Betts, and J. Snowden Bell, for complainants.

John D Kernan, (J. E. Maynadier and Causten Browne, of counsel,) for defendants.

TOWNSEND District Judge.

These are three bills in equity for the alleged infringement of letters patent No. 376,837, granted to George Westinghouse Jr., January 24, 1888; patent No. 393,784, granted to Harvey S. Park, December 4, 1888; patent No. 172,064, granted to said Westinghouse, January 11, 1876; patent No. 222,803 granted to said Westinghouse, December 23, 1879; and patent No. 448,827, granted to said Westinghouse, March 24, 1891. All of these patents are for improvements in railroad brakes. They describe and claim various devices used in the operation of automatic quick-action freight brakes, including the valve on the engine, operated by the engineer, and different forms of emergency valve apparatus on the cars.

The main defenses interposed to the chief patents in suit are noninfringement and lack of patentable novelty, upon the theory that the inventions therein claimed have been already described by said Westinghouse in other patents not in suit. The parties in interest are the same in each case, but a difference in the ownership of the patents sued upon necessitated separate suits in the two earlier cases. The patent sued upon in the third case is for a modification of the invention claimed in one of the other patents which had not been patented when said suits were brought. The three cases will be considered in the order of the relation of the patents to each other.

To understand the scope of the various claims of the patents in suit it will be necessary to examine the state of the prior art. 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 'engineer'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 pipe.' 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 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. The operation of this pain 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, and 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 pipe, 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 to the open air. The effect of this was to reduce the air pressure in 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 70 or 80 pounds, yet where it is desired merely to slow up without stopping, it may be necessary to admit only, say 10 or 20 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 inadequacy of existing systems to protect the lives of railroad employes, and the disastrous results therefrom, had become so evident that in 1885 the Railway 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 in 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 old apparatus, and the introduction of new elements, he succeeded, in the latter part of the year 1887, in constructing a quick-action automatic brake, capable of being successfully applied to a train of 50 freight cars, and operative under all conditions of practical railway service. On October 1, 1887, he applied for a patent for this apparatus, and on January 24, 1888, the patent was granted. Said patent, No. 376,837, is the first of the patents in suit. Before proceeding to consider in detail the claims of this patent, it should be stated that the following were among the requirements for the practical operation of air brakes: (1) The regulation of the force to be applied to the brake shoes so as to secure all necessary graduations from the mere slackening of speed to the service stop, and from the service stop to the emergency stop; (2) the automatic operation of the brakes in case of accident; (3) the practically simultaneous operation of the brakes on each car so that, in long trains of freight cars, shocks might be avoided; (4) the...