Opinion of the Court.

ELECTRIC GAS-LIGHTING COMPANY v. BOSTON ELECTRIC COMPANY.

APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS.

No. 232. Argued March 20, 1891.- Decided April 6, 1891.

Claims 2, 4 and 5 of reissued letters patent No. 9743, granted June 7, 1881, to the Franklin Electric Gas-Lighting Company, as assignee of Jacob P. Tirrell, the inventor, for improvements in electrical apparatus for lighting street lamps, etc., (the original letters patent, No. 130,770, having been granted to said Tirrell, August 20, 1872, and the application for the reissue having been filed February 21, 1881,) are invalid, as against the defendant's apparatus, constructed under letters patent No. 281,345, granted July 17, 1883, to the Boston Electric Company, as assignee of Charles H. Crockett, the inventor, on an application filed April 11, 1883, for improvements in electric gas-lighters.

The original patent and the reissue compared, as to the specification and the claims.

The state of the art at the date of the invention described in No. 130,770, set forth.

The history of the application for the reissue, given.

The delay of 8 years in applying for the reissue is not explained; there was no inadvertence, accident or mistake; and the sole object of the reissue was to unlawfully expand the claims.

IN equity for the infringement of letters patent. Decree dismissing the bill. Complainant appealed.

Mr. Edward P. Payson and Mr. Edwin H. Brown for appellant.

Mr. John E. Abbott and Mr. John L. S. Roberts for appellee. MR. JUSTICE BLATCHFORD delivered the opinion of the court.

This is a bill in equity, filed in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Massachusetts, on the 1st of May, 1884, by the Electric Gas-Lighting Company, a Maine

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corporation, against the Boston Electric Company, a Massachusetts corporation, for the alleged infringement of claims 2, 4 and 5 of reissued letters patent No. 9743, granted June 7, 1881, to the Franklin Electric Gas-Lighting Company, as assignee of Jacob P. Tirrell, the inventor, for improvements in electrical apparatus for lighting street lamps, etc., the original letters patent, No. 130,770, having been granted to said Tirrell, August 20, 1872, and the application for the reissue having been filed February 21, 1881. The plaintiff became the owner of the reissued patent by assignment on the 6th of May, 1882. The defences set up in the answer are prior use, want of novelty and patentability, invalidity of the reissue and noninfringement. The Circuit Court dismissed the bill, (29 Fed. Rep. 455,) and the plaintiff has appealed to this court.

The alleged infringing apparatus is constructed under letters patent No. 281,345, granted July 17, 1883, to the defendant, as assignee of Charles H. Crockett, the inventor, on an application filed April 11, 1883, for improvements in electric gaslighters.

The only difference of consequence between the original patent, No. 130,770, and the reissue, No. 9743, is in the claims, the text of the two specifications being almost substantially the same, and the drawings differing only as to scale. The specification is as follows, words in the original which are omitted in the reissue being here enclosed in brackets, and words found in the reissue and not found in the original being printed in italics; small letters, which designate parts of the drawings, being printed in italics in both of the specifications:

"Be it known, that I, Jacob P. Tirrell, a citizen of the United States, [of Charlestown], residing in West Somerville, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful improvements in electrical apparatus for lighting street lamps, etc., and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying plates of drawings. This invention relates to that class of electrical apparatus for lighting street lamps in which the current is successively thrown into the magnet at each burner, one after another; and

Opinion of the Court.

under this invention the circuit-breaker is located at the burner, and, by the direct action of the current through the magnet located at the burner, the circuit-breaker and the valve to let on or turn off the gas are both operated, and the current, after the opening or closing, as the case may be, of the valve to one burner, is completely cut off from the magnet of such burner and thrown into the magnet of [the] next burner, and so on. In the accompanying plates of drawings the present invention is illustrated. In Plates 1 and 2, Figures 1 and 2 are elevations from different sides. In Plate 3, Fig. 3 is a partial plan view and horizontal section; Figs. 4 and 5, [detail] detailed views.

"A in the drawings represents a gas-burner, to which B is the feed pipe, provided with two horizontal platforms, C and D, for carrying the apparatus of this invention; E [is] a U magnet horizontally located and secured on the lower platform, C, with the pipe B in and between the legs F of the magnet; G [is] the armature properly located with regard to the magnet E and secured to the lower end of an upright lever, H, turning upon a fulcrum at I of the feed pipe B; J [is] the circuit-breaker, secured [in] to the upper end of the lever H and projecting upwards to the plane of the escape of the gas from the burner; K, a post in upper platform D, and in electrical connection with the earth. At the upper end of the post K is a horizontal platinum arm, b, against which rests the point a of the circuit-breaker J when the lever H is at rest; L [is], a spiral spring applied to lever H to throw back the armature G from the magnet E; O [is] an upright arm. This arm O, at its lower end, is hung upon a fulcrum, d, of an insulator block, e, on platform C, and at its upper end it is in a position to bear against the periphery of a sector-wheel, f, fixed to the spindle g of valve in gas-pipe B; c [is] a bent spring applied to arm O to hold it against the sector-wheel f, and when escaping from the periphery thereof, to swing it on its fulcrum. The arm O at P, between its two ends, is insulated. h is a finger-piece projecting horizontally from lower end of arm O. This finger-piece h, at its outer end, lies in a position between the two pins / and m, projecting horizontally

Opinion of the Court.

one above the other from the block e. The lower pin / extends wholly through the block e, and similarly projects therefrom [upon] from its other side, being there lettered as . The upper pin, m, only enters the block; but on the opposite side of the block thereto a similar pin m2, is located, also only entering the block. Qis an arm similarly constructed, arranged and hung on the block e, to the arm O. This arm Q is in a position to bear upon the periphery of a sector-wheel, n, fixed to the gas-valve spindle g, and for its finger-piece h2 to lie in and between the projecting pins and m2 of the block e. The sector-wheel n is back of the sector-wheel f. The two sector-wheels f and n are of equal diameter, of an equal length of arc that is, a half of a circle. The two together complete the circumference. The relative location of the sectorwheels f and n on the valve-spindle is such that with the arm O on the periphery of [its] the sector-wheel ƒ the arm Q will be off the periphery of its sector-wheel n, and vice versa; and the purpose of the said sector-wheels is to turn their respective arms OQ so as to bring about a bearing between their respective finger-pieces h h2 and the lower pins 7 and also to allow the springs applied to the said arms O Q to react and bring their finger-pieces into contact with the upper pins mm2. R is a ratchet-wheel secured to gas-valve spindle back of inner sectorwheel n; and S a spring pawl hung to lever H and arranged from the movement of such lever to act upon the ratchet-wheel R to turn it in the direction of the arrow, Fig. 1, Plate 1. In lieu of a ratchet-wheel, a friction-wheel and clutch may be employed, such as shown in Fig. 5. M and N are wires leading from the electric battery employed. The wire M is to let on and the wire N to shut off the gas at the burner A. The current is thrown into the one or the other of said wires by means of a double switch such as is employed ordinarily in electrical gas-lighting apparatus [apparatuses], and, therefore, needs no particular description herein. The wire M connects with the arm O and the wire N with the arm Q. T is a wire connecting lower pin 7 with magnet E; and U a wire connecting magnet with circuit-breaker J. V and W are wires respectively connected with upper pins m and m2, from which

Opinion of the Court.

they are to lead to the next burner, and to such burner become the letting-on and turning-off wires, as the wires M and N to the burner A.

"The position of the several parts composing the mechanism hereinabove described is at all times, if at rest, substantially that shown in Fig. 1, Plate 1, and only differs therefrom in any condition of rest, in the relative position of the two arms O Q, according as the one or the other is bearing on its respective sector-wheel for n. By the shown positions of the two arms O and Q, the finger-piece h of arm O is against the lower pin 7, and the finger-piece h2 of arm Q against the upper pin m2 of block e. This relative contact with the pins 712 m m2 of the finger-pieces to the two arms is always maintained, they never being both at the same time in contact with the lower pins 772, or the upper pins m m2, but always the one with a lower pin and the other with an upper pin alternately. [With the arms O and Q in the relative positions described and shown, if now] If, now, with the arms O and Q in the rela tive positions described and shown, a current of electricity be thrown into the wire M, (which, as stated, is the letting-on wire,) it is obvious it will pass into the magnet, (the connection being through arm O, finger-piece h, pin 7 and wire T,) thence to the circuit-breaker J; and then, as the circuit is complete, the armature G will be drawn towards the magnet, turning its lever H on its fulcrum, which carries the circuit-breaker J beyond the end of the platinum arm b, breaking thereby the circuit and emitting an electric spark. This breaking of the circuit destroys the attractive force of the magnet, and leaves the lever H to be pulled backward by the spring L, which backward movement of the lever completes the circuit by bringing the circuit-breaker into contact with the platinum arm b, when another attraction of the armature G occurs, again breaking the circuit, emitting a spark, and so on, as before. By this alternate forward and backward movement of the lever H, the ratchet-wheel R on gas valve-spindle is intermittently rotated, carrying with it the valve-spindle g and sector-wheels fn. If this rotation of the valve-spindle g be continued sufficiently, the periphery of the sector-wheel ƒ will be