Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1891-06-12
Fighting For a Patent.


remarkable instance in which the in
vention of valuable patent is claimed by
several people is case now in course OF
litigation in tie United States circuit court
in Pittsburg In 1850, J. B. Ford, the Pre-
sent head of the we'll known Ford plate glass
company operated.a small plateglass factory
at Jeffersonville. Ind. just across the nyer
from Louisville. Ky. Captain James Hariin
was superintendent of the factory. The
allegations in the case are that at that time
there were only two known methods OF
polishing glass. The one was by pohsher
working on beam in a stralghtllne. rms
developed line OF heat transYersely scross
the plate under the operation and the result
was that many plates were broken The
second method was BY q polisher on beam
having a peculiar oval oscillation. This
overcome the trouble with the break age OF
glass by the Development of line OF heat,
but no automatic way could be devised TO
prevent the plates of glass from beng
knocked off the machine and broken by
each of these methods man was required
to he present at each machine and it took
from seventeen to twenty hours to polish
plate and sometimes longer. Because OF
these slow and costly methods OF polishing
and the price Of labor, Mr.. Ford was not
able to compete with imported plate glass
and the factory was closed In loo3 Gap
tain Harlin took out a patent on machine
for polishing glass which overeame the diff
cultles OF the former methods. In captain
Harlin's machine the oval oscillatlng mo
ton is preserved, but instead OF one beam
and polisher there are Two beams and two
polishers. These work at the same time IN
opposite directions. This arrangement pre-
vents the plates from being knocked off the
rotary table and does in tour hours the work
to do which seventeen to twenty hours
were required. Besides this. the machine
works automatically and fifty men can do
as much work as 500 could by the old meth
ods 1t is alleged that this patent reyoiu-
tionized the plate glass industry and made
it possible tea make plate glass at proht
in this country while competing IN the
omen ms, ket vith the imported articles.
j. b. Ford Immediately saw the value of
the invention and took hold of it. 1t is
alleged that this machine made it posi-
Bile for the Fords to build and operate sue
cessfullv their large factory at Creighton
and Tarentum, and that had It not been
for his machine these factories would new
er have been built. Strange to say Cap
tain Harlin claims 10 have received no
profit from his patent though other people
have made several fortunes out of Two
years ago he employed the Attorneys Schoy-
er, who entered suit LOT MIN against tHe
Pittsburg plate glass eopany, which Is
operated by the Fords and the Standard
plate glass company of Butler Pa, for dam
ages for infringement of his patents Re
Gently commissioner was appointed by
the United States court to take testimony
in the case Both the defendents are
fighting bitterly against Captain Harlen's
claim. In the testimony thus far taken
Edward Ford, man named Sweeney and
another named Sleeper claim to have in
vented the improved polisher. 1t is also
claimed that the machine is not patentable,
because the oval oscillation motion was
used for along time, and that all Captain
Harlin did was to put two beams on the
machine instead of one. IF Captain Harlem
is successful in his suit, and he appears to
have the whip handle of the case, he will
collect about half million from the two
defendant companies. This suit is a test
one, and if it proves successful similar
suits will be entered against other firms
that have been using the patents, so that
the ownership of probably over million of
money depends on the result of Captain
Harlen's suit.-Er.