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the combustion chamber, in which floor the glory holes are placed, so that a glass article may be vertically raised or lowered, in presenting it to them and withdrawing it therefrom. To make the floor of the combustion chamber in a glass-heating furnace accessible from below, was the problem to be solved, and such a floor, in combination with the mechanism for vertically raising the ware to be heated to, and withdrawing it from, the glory holes, constitutes the apparatus described in the patent and set forth in the claim quoted.

The specific reheating furnace described and set forth in claim I (which is the claim declared to be infringed by the court below) is the patented device with which we are here concerned. It embodies, as was stated by the court below, the "substance of the patent." The improvement claimed is appurtenant to a glass-heating furnace. Something that may properly be called "a furnace," is predicated by the description of the improvement. The prominent indispensable concept of such a structure, is some sort of inclosed combustion chamber, with top, sides and bottom, or floor. Indeed, the improvement described could not be applicable to a structure without a floor, as it consists in a floor made laterally projecting beyond the combustion flue, so as to be accessible from below. So, too, a combustion chamber necessarily implies an inclosed space, within which the gases of combustion may be confined. The terms "furnace," "combustion chamber," and "laterally projecting floor," in which glory holes accessible from below are situated, necessarily imply the definite structure presented to an ordinarily intelligent mind by such a description. These terms have a well-understood meaning in the vocabulary of the industrial arts. It is hardly necessary to refer to the definitions of the word "furnace," taken from standard authorities, as quoted by appellants. To the well-understood general structure of a glass furnace, the alleged improvement of the patent related, and consisted in the lateral projection of the floor of such a structure.

The other patent held to be infringed by the court below, conjointly with the one just described, is the so-called Caldwell patent, being No. 442,855. The patentee says in his specifications:

"My invention is directed to improvements in glory-hole furnaces, particularly designed for reheating glassware, for melting the edges and fire polishing the surface of such articles as tumblers, goblets, and other ware pressed or blown."

Claims 5 and 6 of the patent are those which are claimed to have been infringed. They are as follows:

"(5) In a glass reheating or melting furnace, a fire chamber having vertical wall openings and coincident bottom openings extending through the fire chamber and connecting two of said wall openings, in combination with a table arranged beneath the bottom of the fire chamber, having vertical ware carrying supports arranged in the line of said openings, and means for rotating said table for carrying the ware into the fire chamber through one wall opening and out at the other.

“(6) In a furnace for reheating and finishing glassware, the combination, with the furnace having vertical wall openings, and segmental bottom slotformed openings extending through the fire chamber and connecting two of said wall openings, of a table arranged beneath the said bottom openings and having several revoluble vertical ware carrying supports arranged to travel through said bottom slots, and means for rotating said table."

A glance at the diagram taken from Fig. 1 of the patent, will show the essential character of the improvement claimed:

PATENT 442,855.

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It will be seen that there is described and shown a glass furnace and combustion chamber, having the essential characteristic of that patented in No. 411,131, to wit, the laterally projecting floor, with the glory holes therein, and thus accessible from below. So far, the requirements of the two patents are identical. Both require a glassheating furnace, and both require that that furnace should be so constructed as to have a laterally projecting floor that would admit of a glory hole therein and be accessible from below. Instead, however, of a simple glory hole, into which glassware could be introduced or withdrawn vertically, we have a segmental slot through the floor of the furnace, connecting the wall openings therein, in combination with the table revolving on a center outside the furnace, and a little below the floor thereof. This table is so centered, that an arc of its circumference always coincides with the slot in the floor of the furnace, so that glass articles can be placed upon carriers situated on the circumference, in such manner as to reach up through the slot into the combustion chamber. Thus arranged, by the revolution of the table they can be carried successively and continuously through the heat of said chamber, an independent mechanism rotating the glass articles as they are carried through.

The validity of these patents is not directly attacked, but the contention is made by the defendant, that the inventions are not of a pioneer or primary character, and that therefore they must be confined

and limited to the precise device, as described in the specifications and claims of the patent. In this contention, we agree. The patents are not for methods, but for particular mechanisms. As such, like all machine patents, they are entitled to a fair construction, and to one that will fully secure to the inventor the monopoly of his real invention. Any device or combination which accomplishes the same result, by substantially the same means, will be held an invasion of that monopoly. Care must be taken, however, in all cases, that we do not, by an uncalled for application of the doctrine of equivalents, practically give to the patentee a monopoly of the function of his mechanism. This, of course, we are not permitted to do, directly or indirectly.

Mechanism for presenting glass articles at the glory hole of a furnace, and withdrawing them therefrom and rotating them thereat, while supported in a vertical position, was not new at the date of the application for either patent. The Lyon and Anderson patent, No. 263,051, August 22, 1882, and the Ripley patent, No. 336,666, February 23, 1886, both show and describe mechanism for presenting glass articles in a vertical position at a glory hole in the side of a furnace. The other element of both patents is, broadly stated, a reheating furnace. This, of course, was not new at the date mentioned, nor was the combination of these elements, in an apparatus for mechanically fire-finishing glassware, new at said date, for it is found in the patents just referred to. So also, the combination of a glass reheating and melting furnace, and a revolving table, or "merrygo-round," as it has been nicknamed, carrying a plurality of glass articles, is shown in the Schulze-Berge patent, No. 421,621, February 18, 1890. This patent, which antedated the Caldwell patent, No. 442,855, was one of the patents owned by complainants below, of which infringement was charged in this suit, but which was afterwards withdrawn from the consideration of the court. The furnace of the Caldwell patent, No. 442,855, is characterized by the same essential structural feature as that of the earlier Schulze-Berge patent, No. 411,131; that is, "the floor of the combustion chamber extends out laterally beyond the eye of the furnace, so as to form projecting ledges which are accessible from below." The segmental slot openings are formed in this laterally projecting floor, just as the glory holes were in the earlier patent. Though they are accessible from below, the combination of the patent provides for a revolving table, on which the glass articles are placed, and they enter the segmental slot through the side and bottom of the furnace instead of being pushed up from below through the floor. The end, however, accomplished by the device of both patents, is the same; i. e. the glass articles are introduced into a combustion chamber, and subjected to its heat. In the Caldwell patent, as many as can occupy the segmental slot are brought into the chamber and subjected to its heat at the same time. What is called the "fire chamber" in the Caldwell patent, is called the "combustion chamber" in the Schulze-Berge patent. Both patents, therefore, are predicated upon a furnace having the necessary component parts of top, sides and floor, which inclose a fire or combustion chamber, filled with the gases of combustion, and in every part of which the melting heat is distributed.

If patentable at all, then, the invention covered by these two patents must be confined to the particular device and mechanisms described and claimed, which, in each case, is a glass-heating furnace, so constructed as to admit a glory hole in its floor, accessible for vertically presented articles from below, in combination with mechanism that will present the articles to be fire-finished in the combustion chamber of the furnace, and withdraw them therefrom.

Let us now see in what respect, if at all, appellants' structure can be claimed to have infringed upon the devices set forth in the two patents here under consideration.

It will be best understood by a reference to complainants' exhibit drawing of defendants' apparatus. This apparatus differs essentially from the structure of each of the patents in suit, in not employing a furnace of any description whatever, its source of heat being a compound blowpipe burner, in the operation of which the work is done by the direct impingement of the flame upon the article to be treated. One of appellants' experts thus explains the construction and manner of operation of appellants' apparatus:

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"The defendants' apparatus clearly belongs to what I have designated as type (b) 'Blowpipe Flame Apparatus,' and briefly stated may be said to comprise a compound blowpipe to which has been added mechanism for rotating the ware so that the several articles to be treated may be, in turn, subjected to the direct action of the blowpipe flame.

"Referring to the drawing showing defendants' structure, it will be seen that the nozzle of the blowpipe is marked I, and that this is supplied with air and gas through two separate pipes, marked I1, and that, as a means for causing the articles to be treated to be moved along until each in turn comes in contact with the blowpipe flame, there are provided a series of vertical rods C, cup-shaped at the top, and supported upon the outer rim of a horizontal disk which is carried by a vertical shaft A, and arranged to be driven by the belt wheel A7.

"In order to insure the stoppage of each article in turn, directly in con118 F.-13

tact with the flame, a latch or stop, y, is provided, designed to act against each rod in turn until such time as the operator releases it and permits the horizontal disk to move around until the next article of ware to be treated comes in contact with the flame.

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"In the drawing of defendants' device referred to, there is shown a hood or shield, D, open at the bottom and designed to cover the major portion of the blowpipe flame, in such a way as to protect the operator to some extent from the heat. This hood or shield, D, is arranged with a hole or opening, J, into or through which the compound burner, I, projects, and whereby the hood is prevented from interfering with the contact of the flame against the articles being treated. The ware could be fire-finished in the flame without the employment of the hood or shield, and the essential features of defendants' structure may, therefore, I think. be fairly said to be the compound blowpipe, and the mechanism by which the ware is caused to travel around so as to be treated by the flame in turn."

This segmental hood, covering a small arc of the circular path of the vertical cup-bearing rods, is, what it is called, a hood or shield, and is not the combustion chamber of a furnace, or any other part thereof. Although the mechanism for holding the glass articles revolves through it, it has no analogy, either in construction or function, to the combustion fire chamber of the patents in suit. It has no bottom or floor, through which or in which glory holes or segmental slots could be placed. As testified to by appellants' witnesses, it is generally composed of sheet iron or copper, sometimes lined with refractory material and sometimes not lined at all, and there is evidence tending to show that it can be dispensed with entirely, as the articles to be treated are not melted by the heat held within it, or under it, but by the direct impingement of the blowpipe flame. As a matter of fact, the appellees, the complainants below, are not consistent in their testimony, as adduced, nor in their argument, in calling the space covered by the hood, a combustion chamber or furnace. It is repeatedly alleged by appellees that the lateral hole, J, of appellants' apparatus, is its combustion chamber. In so alleging, they admit what we have just asserted to be true, that the hood, D, is not a combustion or fire chamber. One of the expert witnesses of appellees, complainants below, alleges that, as to patent No. 411,131, the lateral hole, J, of appellants' apparatus is the "combustion chamber," and as to patent No. 442,855, the hood, d, is the "fire chamber." But we have already pointed out, what we think very obvious, that the "combustion chamber" of patent No. 411,131, and the "fire chamber" of patent No. 442,855, are identical in construction and function. In the former patent, the glass article is thrust vertically from below through the floor of the combustion chamber, and withdrawn by reversing the movement. In the latter, a number of these articles, on the circumference of a revolving table or "merry-go-round," are swept through the segmental slot made in the side and floor of the fire chamber. In the apparatus described in both the patents in suit, a furnace, as generally understood, is essential, and the glass articles to be treated are thrust into, or carried through, the heat which pervades every part of the combustion chamber of the furnace. In defendants' apparatus, however, the articles to be treated are not subjected to effective heat, merely by being carried under the hood described. They must, in order to be fire-polished, be subjected to the direct impingement of the

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