of the Office has been uniform from the beginning, and has always
excluded cases like the present from the benefit of the laws relating to
designs." And, again, "The general understanding has always been that
the acts of 1842 and 1861 were intended to cover articles making
pretensions to artistic excellence exclusively."
In thus denying that a new "shape or configuration" of an article,
whereby utility or convenience is promoted, is the proper subject of
a patent under the acts referred to, the Office would seem to have
involved itself in the absurdity that if a design is useless it may be
patented; whereas, if it be useful, it is entitled to no protection.
Fortunately no such "uniform practice" has existed, and the Office is
relieved from so grievous an imputation. The practice seems to have been
taken for granted by the appellate tribunals, and, so far from being
as stated, is, as nearly as possible, the reverse of it. Articles have
been, and are being, constantly patented as designs which possess no
element of the artistic or ornamental, but are valuable solely because,
by a new shape or configuration, they possess more utility than the
prior forms of like articles Of this character are designs for ax heads,
for reflectors, for lamp shades, for the soles of boots and shoes, which
have been heretofore patented as designs, and to this class might be
added, with great propriety, that class of so-called "mechanical"
patents, granted for mere changes of form, such as plowshares, fan
blowers, propeller blades, and others of like character.
When, therefore, my learned predecessor in Crane's case added to this
number a box so designed as to hold with convenience a set of furs, he
did but confirm and not alter the practice of the Office, so far as it
can be gleaned from the patented cases. I am of opinion that the class
of cases named in the act as arising from "new shape or configuration"
includes within it all those mere changes of form which involve increase
of utility. This I take to be the spirit of the decision in Wooster
_vs_. Crane, 2 Fisher 583. The design was of a reel in the shape of a
rhombus. The learned Judge says "In this case, the reel itself, as an
article of manufacture, is conceded to be old and not the subject of
a patent. The shape applied to it by the complainant is also an old,
well-known mathematical figure. Now although it does not appear that
any person ever before applied this particular shape to this particular
article, I cannot think that the act quoted above was intended to secure
to the complainant an exclusive right to use this well known figure in
the manufacture of reels. The act, although it does not require utility
in order to secure the benefit of its provisions, does require that
the shape produced shall be the result of industry, effort genius, or
expense, and must also, I think, be held to require that the shape or
configuration sought to be secured shall, at least, be new and original
as applied to articles of manufacture. But here the shape is a common
one in many articles of manufacture, and its application to a reel
cannot fairly be said to be the result of industry, genius, effort,
and expense. No advantage whatever is pretended to be derived from the
adoption of the form selected by the complainant, except the incidental
one of using it as a trademark. Its selection can hardly be said to be
the result of effort even; it was simply an arbitrary chance selection
of one of many well-known shapes, all equally well adapted to the
purpose. To hold that such an application of a common form can
be secured by letters patent, would be giving the act of 1861 a
construction broader than I am willing to give it"
It would seem from this language that if there had been "advantage,"
that is, utility in the adoption of the form of the rhombus, that it
would have found more favor in the eyes of the Court.
This subject has been well discussed in the opinion of Commissioner
Foote in Crane _ex parte_. I concur in that opinion, except as to
the recital of the former practice of the Office, which a careful
examination has shown to be erroneous.
The third question may be readily disposed of. Modes of operation or
construction, principles of action, combinations to secure novelty or
utility of movement, or compositions of matter, can hardly be said to be
"shapes, configurations, or designs," but where the sole utility of the
new device arises from its new shape or configuration, I think it may
fairly be included among the subjects which the act of 1842 was designed
to protect.
The present case may, in view of the foregoing consideration, be
disposed of without difficulty. Letters patent are asked, by applicant,
for a new design for a rubber eraser, which consists in giving to the
eraser a cylindrical body, with ends beveled to an edge. The claim is
for the "cylindrical rubber eraser provided with a wrapper or case, as
herein shown and described"
In the body of the specification the applicant describes the mode of
making the eraser, and he also enumerates its advantages over erasers of
the ordinary forms.
The Examiner does not object to the application because of the utility
of the eraser, although the Board of Examiners in Chief seem to base
their decision upon that point alone, but he pronounces the form already
old in its application to artists' stumps, and he insists that the mode
of composition or construction can form no element, for the claim for a
design patent.
In the latter statement he is undoubtedly right. These patents are
granted solely for new shapes or forms, and the form being new it is
immaterial by what process that form is attained. The composition of
matter or the mode of construction is neither "design," "shape," nor
"configuration," and must be protected, if at all, under a patent of
another kind. I cannot say that the presence of such matter in the
specification would be objectionable if description merely, but it could
in no way be allowed to enter into, or to modify the claim.
As to the first ground of rejection, I think the Examiner is in error.
This purports to be a new form or shape of a distinct article of
manufacture, to wit: rubber erasers. If it be new, as thus applied, it
is immaterial whether pencils, or stumps, or pen holders, or anything
else may or may not have been made cylindrical. If they are not
substantially the same article of manufacture as erasers, the old form
applied to this new article is unquestionably entitled to protection.
The applicant has not defined his invention with entire accuracy. He
should strike from his claim the words "provided with a wrapper or
case," as those relate to construction and not configuration, and he
should insert the words "having the ends beveled to an edge" in lieu
of the phrase erased, or he should adopt the usual form of claim for
designs, viz: "The design for a rubber eraser, as shown and described."
As the claim stands, it ought not to be allowed, and the decision must
be affirmed, but the applicant will be allowed to amend as suggested.
(Signed) S.S. FISHER.
Commissioner of Patents
* * * * *
Inventions Patented In England by Americans.
[Compiled from the "Journal of the Commissioners of Patents."]
PROVISIONAL PROTECTION FOR SIX MONTHS.
3,201.--SEWING MACHINE.--H.A. House, Bridgeport, Conn. November 4, 1869.
3,211.--BORING TOOL.--Alexander Allen, New York city. November 5 1869.
3,215.--MODE OF AND DEVICES FOE SECURING STAIR RODS.--H. Uhry, New York
city. November 6, 1869.
3,229.--TRANSPORTATION OF LETTERS, PARCELS, AND OTHER FREIGHT BY
ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE, AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH.--A. E.
Beach, Stratford, Conn. November 9, 1869.
3,303.--RELOADING CARTRIDGE SHELL.--R.J. Gatling, Indianapolis, Ind.
November 16, 1869.
3,342.--WOODEN PAVEMENT.--I. Hayward and J.F. Paul, Boston, Mass.
November 20, 1869.
3,358.--MACHINERY FOR DISTRIBUTING TYPE.--O.L. Brown, Boston, Mass.
November 20,1869.
3,219.--WEIGHING MACHINE.--M. Kennedy, New York city. November 10, 1869.
3,260.--BRAN DUSTER.--W. Huntley and A. Babcock, Silver Creek, N.Y.
November 12, 1869.
3,339.--RAILWAY CARRIAGE.--E. Robbins, Cincinnati, Ohio. November 19,
1869.
3,341.--REVOLVING BATTERY GUN.--R.J. Gatling, Indianapolis, Ind. Nov.
19, 1869.
3,360.--SASH FASTENER.--S.L. Loomis, South Byron, N.Y. November 20,
1869.
3,363.--MAGNETIC MACHINES AND MAGNETS.--J. Burroughs, Jr., Newark N.J.
November 20, 1869.
* * * * *
Russ' Improved Wood Molding Machine.
A comprehensive description of this excellent machine was given upon
page 230, Vol. XVIII., of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. We now present our
readers with an engraving of it and a summary of its important features,
which doubtless render it equal if not superior to any machine of the
kind in market. The frame in which the feed rollers are arranged is so
hung to the frame-work of the molding machine, that it can be raised or
lowered at pleasure, in order to properly adjust the feed rollers for
action upon the "stuff," and it is also so constructed as to permit the
feed rollers to yield in case of variations in the thickness of the
"stuff" passing under them. The spindle of the side cutter-heads is hung
in a vertical frame arranged to be moved up and down, and laterally, to
adjust the cutter-head for action, and is provided at its upper end with
a box or bearing, whereby the bearing of the box is always kept upon the
spindle instead of at different points of the same as in other machines,
and this without interfering with the adjustability of the side
cutter-head. Thus uneven wear is avoided.
[Illustration: RUSS' MONITOR MOLDING MACHINE.]
The bed of the machine is formed with a series of slots or openings
provided with bridge bars so that the cutters may act upon the edges of
the stuff without danger of injury from striking the bed. The presser
shoe is also made adjustable for different thicknesses of the "stuff"
and self-yielding to variations in thickness, by a peculiar method of
hanging the bar, which carries the presser shoe, to the framework of the
machine.
The clamp which holds the press block which acts upon the "stuff" after
it has passed through the cutter, is of novel construction, and the
spindle of the side cutter-heads is so arranged in connection with a
loose pulley and the pulley-drums, that both cutter-heads are driven by
one belt and in the same direction.
The bed plate is provided with springs through which the side
cutter-heads are arranged, to move laterally or transversely with a
bridge-plate or plates, susceptible of adjustment independent of the
cutter-heads, whereby an adjustable support to the "stuff" is given as
it passes over the line of the openings in the bed.
Most machines have weighted pressure feed, but this having steel springs
adjustable by a screw and hand wheel, a heavy or light pressure can be
applied according to the work done or size of molding. The cutter-heads
are square and slotted so that any style of molding can be stuck by
putting cutters on all sides of the head, thus equalizing the cost and
lessening the power. The pressure shoe is arranged to hold the "stuff"
at the very point of contact with the cutters, and, as we have shown, is
readily adjusted to a long or short cutter, so that a small molding can
be made as smooth as a large one, and so as not to require any finishing
with sandpaper or a hand tool.
The machine has also a bevel track very useful for picture frame
molding, and a patent cap of great value for the cutters, and readily
applied to any slotted head or common head. The wrenches that go with
the machine, and the common malleable iron caps for the top cylinder,
are shown in detail. These machines are now running in Worcester,
Boston, and Fitchburg, Mass.; Chicago, Ill.: Philadelphia, Pa.;
Brattleboro, Vt.; Whitesboro, N. Y.; Charleston, S. C., and other
places, and, it is claimed, are capable of doing better work and more of
it than any machine now in use.
This machine is covered by several patents taken through the Scientific
American Patent Agency. It is manufactured by R. Ball & Co., of
Worcester, Mass, to whom write for further information.
* * * * *
A Lost Civilization.
At the last regular meeting of the American Geographical and Statistical
Society at its rooms in the Cooper Institute, Professor Newberry,
of Columbia College, delivered an address on the subject of his
explorations in Utah and Arizona Territories. The speaker commenced
by giving a short history of the circumstances under which the two
government expeditions to which he was attached were organized. He then
confined his remarks to the subject of the latter expedition, no account
of which has yet been published. Its aim was principally to explore the
region embraced by what is known as the old Spanish trail from Santa Fe
to California. After giving an interesting account of the topography of
the region traversed, he proceeded to speak of the traces which were
found on every hand of a former occupancy by a numerous population now
extinct. These were most numerous near the course of the San Juan river.
There were found ruins of immense structures, a view of one of which he
exhibited, built regularly of bricks, a foot in thickness, and about
eighteen inches in length, with the joints properly broken, and as
regularly laid and as smooth as any in a Fifth Avenue mansion. This
structure he said was as large as the Croton reservoir. Inside were
rooms nicely plastered as the walls of a modern house. There were also
traces of extensive canals, which had been constructed to bring water to
these towns, which were received into large cisterns. The lecturer also
exhibited pieces of pottery which he said abounded everywhere, showing
that in a former age all this vast region had been inhabited. He gave it
as his opinion that the depopulation of this region was attributable to
the fact that both to the north and the south were warlike hordes, and
from the incursions of one and the other of these, the peaceable Aztecs,
who had been the former denizens of the country, had been gradually
wiped out. The only people left here now were the Mokies, who lived
in towns inclosed within high, thick walls, and who were almost
inaccessible. These people were visited, and the explorers were received
by them with great hospitality. The speaker concluded by giving a short
account of the manners of the people and their customs, as far as an
opportunity was had to observe them.
* * * * *
GIRARD'S "PALIER GLISSANT."
The term "_palier glissant_," which does not admit of being very happily
translated into an English term of equal brevity, is the name given by
the inventor, Mr. Girard, to a frictionless support, or socket, designed
to sustain the axes of heavy wheels in machinery. Since it is a
contrivance deriving its efficacy from hydraulic pressure, it may,
without impropriety, be considered here. The friction of axles in their
supports is the occasion of a considerable loss of power in every
machine.
[Illustration]
The loss of power itself, though a real disadvantage, is nevertheless a
matter of secondary consequence compared with the attendant elevation
of temperature, which, were not means carefully provided for reducing
friction to the lowest point possible, might soon be so great as to
arrest the operation of the machine itself. It was stated in a public
lecture delivered in May, 1867, before the Scientific Association of
France, that, in a certain instance within the lecturer's knowledge, the
screw shaft of a French naval propeller became absolutely welded to its
support, though surrounded by the water of the sea, in consequence of
the great heat developed by its revolution.
The ordinary means of reducing friction is to apply oil, or some other
unctuous substance, to the parts which move upon each other. Some
disadvantages attend this expedient, but till a better is suggested
they have to be endured. The cost of the oil expended in maintaining in
proper condition the axles of the machinery in a foundery, or of the
rolling stock of a railroad, amounts to a large sum annually; while the
want of neatness which its use makes, to a certain extent, inevitable,
and the labor which must be constantly employed to prevent this want of
neatness from becoming much greater than it is, are serious items to be
set off against its positive usefulness.
The object of Mr. Girard is to get rid of all these drawbacks by the
simple expedient of substituting water for oil. It would not avail to
apply water precisely as oil is applied. Though any one's experience may
tell him that two smooth pieces of metal will slide more smoothly on
each other when they are wet than when they are dry, yet every one knows
also that oil facilitates the movement much more perceptibly than water;
and also, that in the case of oil there is no difficulty in maintaining
the lubricating film, whereas water easily evaporates, and in case of
the accident of even a moderate elevation of temperature, it would be
expelled from the joint entirely. Mr. Girard proposes, therefore, to
employ the water to act, first, by its pressure, to lift the Journal to
be lubricated; and secondly, by its fluidity, to form a liquid bed or
cushion between the journal and its box, on which the journal may rest
in its revolution, without touching the metal of the box at all.
The construction will be understood by referring to the figure. One of
the journals is represented as removed, and in the cylindrical surface
of the socket are seen grooves occupying a considerable part of the area
exposed. These grooves communicate, by an aperture in the middle, with
a tube which is represented externally, and which sends a branch to the
other journal, through which water under a heavy pressure is introduced
into the box beneath the journal. The effect of the hydraulic pressure
is to lift the axle, opening a passage for the escape of the compressed
water, which at the same time, because of its release from compression,
loses the power to sustain the weight. If, therefore, by the first
impulse, the axle is thrown upward to any sensible distance, it will
immediately fall back again, once more confining more or less completely
the water. After one or two oscillations, therefore, the axle will
settle itself at length in a position in which, while the water will
escape, it will escape but as a film of inappreciable thickness. In this
condition the journal turns upon a liquid bed, and the resistance to its
revolution is so excessively small that a slow rotation given by hand
to a wheel sustained by it will be maintained for many minutes without
perceptible retardation. In fact, the most striking illustration which
can be given of the immense superiority of the _palier glissant_ over
a support lubricated in in any other way, is furnished by placing two
precisely similar wheels or disks side by side, weighing five or six
pounds each, with a diameter of seven or eight inches, and journals
of half an inch in diameter; one of them furnished with _paliers
glissants_, and the other with boxes lubricated with fine oil. Give each
of them a velocity of rotation of about one revolution in a second; the
one lubricated with oil will come to rest before the other begins to
give evidence of any sensible retardation; but if at any moment the
stop-cock which supplies the water to the second be turned, this one
will also stop, and its stopping will be instantaneous.
It might be supposed that a journal supported in the manner above
described would be unsteady and liable to injurious vibrations. This is
not the case, and it is easy to see why not. When the journal is truly
in the middle of the socket, that is to say when there is an equal
distance between it and the wall of the socket on either side, it will
be equally pressed from both sides. But if it is in the least displaced
laterally, the pressure on the side toward which it moves will instantly
increase, while that on the other side will correspondingly diminish:
both causes transpiring to resist the displacement, and to maintain the
journal in the position of true equilibrium.
The water pressure by which these "slippery supports" are supplied must
be created by a force pump worked by the machine itself. The reservoir
need not be large as the expenditure of water is very minute in volume.
To the objection which may naturally be made, that the working of the
pump must be a tax on the motive power without return, a reply at once
simple and satisfactory is found in the experience of Mr. Girard, that
the working of the pump does not consume so much as half, and sometimes
not more than one one quarter, of the power which is lost in friction
when the ordinary modes of lubrication are employed; so that by the
adoption of this expedient the available power of the machine is
very sensibly increased after deducting all that is expended in the
performance of this additional work.
* * * * *
BEES BENEFICIAL TO FRUIT.--Dr. A. Packard, editor of the _American
Naturalist_, replies to a query in regard to the effects produced upon
fruit by the agency of honey bees, that all the evidence given by
botanists and zoologists who have specially studied the subject, shows
that bees improve the quality and tend to increase the quantity of
fruit. They aid in the fertilization of flowers, thus preventing the
occurrence of sterile flowers, and, by more thoroughly fertilizing
flowers already perfect, render the production of sound and well
developed fruit more sure. Many botanists think if it were not for bees,
and other insects, many plants would not bear fruit at all.
* * * * *
Steamboats on the American plan are to be introduced on Lake Geneva,
Switzerland. This will add very greatly to the comfort and pleasure of
tourists on that beautiful lake.
* * * * *
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN
MUNN & COMPANY, Editors and Proprietors.
PUBLISHED WEEKLY AT NO. 37 PARK ROW (PARK BUILDING), NEW YORK.
O.D. MUNN. S.H. WALES. A.E. BEACH.
* * * * *
"The American News Company," Agents, 121 Nassau street, New York
"The New York News Company," 8 Spruce street
* * * * *
VOL. XVII., No. 1....[NEW SERIES.]...._Twenty-fifth Year_.
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY, 1, 1870.
* * * * *
A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Is the heartfelt wish conveyed in this beautiful and unusually large
number, to each and all of our friends and readers This holiday number
is worthy of note not only on account of its size, its rich table of
contents, and profuse illustrations, but because we publish this week
the largest edition ever sent out from this office.
Our readers may be surprised at our publishing the title page of the
volume again this week but they will please observe it is the title page
of Vol XXII, which we are now commencing The title pages will hereafter
be published with the first instead of the last number of each volume,
so as to bring it in its proper place for binding.
Subscriptions are pouring in from all parts of the country in the most
encouraging manner. Many have already secured the prize engraving, by
sending in the requisite number of names-but we feel obliged to confess
that there is now a considerable want of vitality in the competition
for the cash prizes. We expect however, that as soon as the new year's
greetings are fairly exchanged, that this opportunity to receive some
purse money will attract the attention of our enterprising readers The
times may be a little close just now, but we are confident that the
spring will open joyously, and we are quite sure that the people will
still want to know what is going on in the GREAT WORLD OF INDUSTRY,
which, it will be our duty to chronicle.
All lists intended to compete for the cash premium must be marked "Cash
prize list."
Once more we say a "Happy New Year" to all.
* * * * *
THE SUEZ CANAL NOT YET A FAILURE.