The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-07-28
From the Philadelphia Press.

From the Philadelphia Press.
New York. July 2G-Information
came last evening from the United
states circuit court at Pttsburg that
Judge Burlington had handed down an
opinion to the effect that the Carly
Bridging Bell patent is valid and or
dering that an injunction issue to re-
strain certain persons from making
further use OF this apparatus.
This opinion is regarded as of the
highest Importance by capitalists who
nave been thinking of investing money
In certain so-called Independent tele-
phone corporations, and, of course, is
OF the utmost consequence to the tele-
phone company which has been almost
invariably successful in all Of its suits
brought to defend patents for tee-
phone apparatus from the first one
invented by Alexander Graham Bell
down to the latest appliance.
Although the particular suit upon
which the decision of Judge Burlington
was based was apparently so unim-
portant in the character of some of the
| persons identified with it as to seem
| almost humorous, yet ii has long been
| known in telephone circles that this
| suit was but a test case designed to
| cover interests and patents of import
| ance equal only to the patent covering
| Bells original invention and his later
| apparatus, the Berliner apparatus and
the double or multiple switchboards
which are absolutely essential to the
conduct of a telephone business in pop
ulous communities.
1t is something Of q coincidence that
| the courts have now within a little
while established the validity of the
| much-disputed and long-litigated Ber-
liner patent and also the validity of the
Firman patent for a multiple switch
board for telephone exchanges. The
| decision in the Firman case was hand
ed down a few weeks ago by the Cir
cult court OF the United States sitting
| in the Northern district of California
Now comes the decision of Judge Buf-
finSton which, taken in connection with
| these two earlier decisions, would seem
| to put the great telephone monopoly
| of the United States into an inpreg-
nable position, at least until all of
these patents have expired.
Therefore, the case just decided by
| Judge Burlington, which was upon it's
| face nothing more than q two penny
| litigation, nevertheless appears seri-
| ously to threaten the existence, or at
| least to impair the prosperity and suf-
| ficiency of all of the telephone corpor-
ations Of which so many have been es-
tablished in the past year or two in
the certainty that the lapse of the or
| iginal Bell patent and some others
would make it possible to build up
powerful and commercially successful
telephone companies competing with
the original company of the United
| States.
AN IMPORTANT SUIT.
So, this little suit which in the rec
ord appears to be nothing more than
a suit of the Western Electric COM
| pany of Chicago against the Milheim
| Electric Telephone company of Penn
sylvania, was really a litigation
brought by the powerful and success
full Telephone Company of the United
States against every other corporation
or partnership which is trying to
conduct a telephone business indepen-
IDENTIFY of the Bell Company.
The Millheim company as it appear
ed in the evidence was nothing more
|
small Pennsylvania city. 1t had only
twenty-five subscribers and appears to
have been carried on more for the
sake of mutual convenience than with
any idea of earning dividends, for a
telephone company with only twenty
five subscribers could not earn enough
to pay dividends sufficient to attract
any amount of capital. The Chicago
| CnmnanV hOWaVpr 4, ic
little Pennsylvania company, choos-
ing it as a type of all other telephone
| associations which it was claimed was
infringing the Carly bridging bell pat
| ent.
As 1t was also claimed, and in fact
seems to have been admitted that it is
impossible 10 satisfactorily carry on
a telephone business in q country dis
trict without using the apparatus
known as the Carty bridging bell sys-
TEN, it is easy to see that if the courts
were to hold that this PENNSYLVANIA
company was infringing upon the Car
ty patent, then every other company
not authorized by the Bell people
which used this apparatus was also
infringing. Since it is claimed that
alrnost all, if not all of the independent
telephone companies, have been en-
ployng this apparatus, it Is easy to
see that a decision against the Penn
sylvania company is practically a de-
cision against the great majority of
independent telephone organizations.
THE CARTY PATENT.
Mr.. Carty is one of the best known
of electrical engineers in the United
States. His expert authority is very
high. He is one of the young men who
at the time the great commercial util-
ity of the telephone began to be per.
fectly demonstrated entered into the
study of electricity. especially as it is
applied to electrical development, with
great zeal, He had his hand upon the
door pf Harvard college, and it had
half opened when he turned aside tc
make a special study in this field OF
science.
Every one remembers how long 6
time the telephone seemed to many
persons nothing more than a curiou.
and mysterious toy and how annoying