Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/139/601/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 22:31:11+00:00

Document:
While the promotion of an old device, such, for instance, as a torsional spring, to a new sphere of action in which it performs a new function involves invention, the transfer or adaptation of the same device to a similar sphere of action, where it performs substantially the same function, does not involve invention.
Winans v. Denmead, 15 How. 330, affirmed and applied.
This was a bill in equity brought by La Rue, plaintiff in the court below, for the infringement of letters patent No. 270,767, issued to Edgar A. Edwards, January 16, 1883, for a new and useful improvement in telegraph keys.
"to telegraph keys or instruments used for transmitting telegraphic signals, and is an improvement on the well known Morse key, being in substituting for the trunnions or pivots upon which the lever vibrates a torsional spring or strip of metal."
movement of the contact lever is not necessary. In ordinary telegraph keys, a retractile spring is always supplied to regulate the force required to depress the lever, as well as pivots or trunnions on which the lever vibrates. In my invention, the torsional spring not only takes the place of the pivots or trunnions, but, when used in connection with the adjusting screws H H', takes the place of the ordinary retractile spring. The construction of the key is thus simplified and cheapened by discarding one of the hitherto necessary features, viz., the retractile springs. I do not limit myself to the application of torsional springs to telegraph keys alone, as it is obvious the torsional strip or spring may be applied to other electrical instruments. Thus, it may replace the pivots or trunnions of the relay and sounder."
"The combination, in a telegraph key, of the lever fulcrumed upon the torsional spring, with the adjusting screws H H', for regulating the amplitude of the lever movement, and the retractile resistance of the torsion spring, substantially as described."
of tapering pivots or gudgeons projecting from the sides of the lever into the bearings. The testimony indicates that the pivots require very exact construction and adjustment; that they are apt to wear loose in their sockets, and that inexperienced operators are apt to turn the screws, which carry these sockets, too far or not far enough, thereby rendering the motion of the lever either too difficult or too easy. For this somewhat objectionable pivotal support the patentee substitutes a flat torsional spring, fastened at either end by ordinary screws to the top of posts or supports. Upon the middle of this spring is riveted the lever of the key, which carries regulating screws for controlling the extent of its vibrations. The specification describes the manner in which, by means of this torsional spring, the lever is enabled to play freely between its points of contact without the use of the ordinary retractile spring.
"to provide convenient means for supporting the armature and armature lever in the proper position relative to the electromagnet and to dispense with the employment of trunnions or a pivoted support,"
spring may be applied to the armature lever of any telegraphic receiving instrument or to the lever of any telegraphic key without departing from the spirit of the invention."
The "torsional spring," or, as he sometimes terms it, the "flat spring," or "flat supporting spring," is made an element in each claim of his patent.
So far as the testimony discloses, La Rue was the first to apply the principle of the torsional spring to telegraphic instruments, although springs of similar description had been previously used in clocks, doors, and perhaps some other articles of domestic furniture. Prior to his invention, telegraph keys were pivoted upon trunnions, and were regulated in their movements either by a coil spring, as shown in the old style of Morse key, or by a flat steel spring to which they were riveted, as in the old style of Western union key, or the key itself was constructed in the form of a flat spring riveted at one end to the bed or plate, as shown in the Warner spring lever key and in the Exhibit Spring Lever Key.
The Pole Changer, which is an instrument used by telephone companies for the purpose of calling up their subscribers, consists of a lever which vibrates back and forth by the aid of a flat spring, to which it is attached in much the same manner as the pendulum of an old-fashioned clock is connected with the spring upon which it swings. There is also a flat piece of metal which is attached to the armature and stands vertically when the instrument lies upon the table, and which has apparently a certain torsional action, but it is evidently not depended upon for anything more than a supporting fulcrum for the armature and lever. It is stated by experts to exert some retractile force, but not enough to make the instrument operate in the way it is designed to.
comparatively large holes in the end supports, and thereby have considerable freedom of movement. The very fact that the holes are larger than the wire indicates that the wire can exert no torsional force. It is a crude and apparently imperfect device, and contains no suggestion of the flat torsional spring peculiar to the patent in suit. Indeed there is nothing in any of these exhibits which shows the use of a torsional spring in a telegraphic instrument, and while the invention does not seem to be one of great importance, we think the adaptation of this somewhat unfamiliar spring to this new use, and its consequent simplification of mechanism, justly entitles the patentee to the rights of an inventor.
"to the application of torsional springs to telegraph keys alone, as it is obvious the torsional strip or spring may be applied to other electrical instruments. Thus, it may replace the pivots or trunnions of the relay and sounder."
"torsion spring may be applied to the armature lever of any telegraphic receiving instrument, or to the lever of any telegraphic key, without departing from the spirit of the invention."
upon a torsional spring, and adjusting screws for regulating the amplitude of the lever movement, and the retractile resistance of the torsional spring. They are used for purposes which differ principally in name. The key transmits the message, the sounder receives it. The material part of the key is a lever which completes and breaks an electric circuit. The sounder consists merely of a lever which completes and breaks a magnetic circuit. In both cases, the lever is riveted to and supported by a flat torsional spring, which is itself supported at its ends upon upright posts, to which it is fastened by screws. The object of the spring in each instance is to allow the lever to play back and forth between the exceedingly narrow limits fixed by the set screws. The employment of this spring in connection with the sounder is such a new or double use as would occur to an ordinary mechanic who had seen the Edwards key in operation. It brought into play no faculty of invention. While the promotion of an old device, such, for instance, as a torsional spring, to a new sphere of action in which it performs a new function involves invention, the transfer or adaptation of the same device to a similar sphere of action, where it performs substantially the same function, does not involve invention.
"the patentee, having described his invention and shown its principles and claimed it in that form which most perfectly embodies it, is, in contemplation of law, deemed to claim every form in which his invention may be copied unless he manifests an intention to disclaim some of these forms."
This is practically restated in different language in subsequent cases, and amounts to a declaration that the application of the patented device to another use, where such new application does not involve the exercise of the inventive faculty, is as much an infringement as though the new machine were an exact copy of the old. Sewall v.
Jones, 91 U. S. 171, 91 U. S. 183; Howe v. Abbott, 2 Story 190; Walter v. Potter, Webster Pat.Cas. 585.
Some stress is laid by the defendant upon the fact that the "circuit-breaking" lever is made an ingredient of the first, second, and fourth claims of the patent, and that, as the sounder has no circuit-breaking lever, but only an armature lever, there is no infringement. Assuming, however, what as a matter of fact seems doubtful -- that the lever of the sounder is not a circuit-breaking lever -- the objection loses all its force in view of the language of the third claim -- the only one found to be infringed -- in which the limitation of the circuit-breaking lever is omitted and a "lever fulcrumed upon a torsional spring" is substituted.
The further objection that in the defendant's sounder a retractile spring is used in aid apparently of the torsional spring suggests, rather than justifies, an argument that the torsional spring is useless, and that the sounder would be inoperative without the retractile spring. If such were the fact, it would be an excellent reason for discontinuing the use of the torsional spring, and thereby avoiding beyond all question the charge of infringing the patent. But notwithstanding the testimony of Mr. Haskins that he found the best results to be obtained when the torsional spring was simply passive, allowing the armature to lie with its own weight upon the magnet, depending wholly upon the retractile spiral spring underneath to produce the upward movement, the fact seems to be that the defendant's sounder will operate about as satisfactorily if only the torsional spring is used. And even if the defendant does use the retractile spring in aid of the torsional spring, it could not thereby escape the charge of infringement. The object of the torsional spring is not only to do away with the necessity of a retractile spring, but to substitute for the ordinary pivotal bearings the torsional support. Giving Haskins' testimony its full weight, it still remains uncontradicted that he does use the torsional spring as a substitute for the trunnions or pivots theretofore used to support the lever.
of by defendant's own expert, who testifies to finding adjusting screws having a relation to the sounder similar to that of the screws H H' to the lever of the key in the patent, but he says that in the sounder they did not appear to have any effect upon the retractile force applied to the lever. It is evident on examination that their functions are practically the same in every particular.
The last defense -- of want of utility -- is also fully met by the fact that Haskins, an employee of the defendant, after the commencement of this suit, took out the patent for a telegraph sounder the main element of which is the torsional spring of the Edwards patent, and that defendant, upon the accounting, stipulated that a decree might be entered for a royalty of ten cents apiece on eleven hundred sounders made and sold by the defendant embodying the Edwards invention. Under such circumstances, it does not lie in the mouth of the defendant to claim that the invention is useless. Walker on Patents § 85; Lehnbeuter v. Holthaus, 105 U. S. 94; Morgan v. Seaward, 1 Webster Pat.Cas. 170.

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