Opinion of the Court.

of an operating-wheel (or wheels) for effecting such adjustment, adapted to act as a momentum or fly-wheel, as set forth, whereby the peripheral weight of said wheel is utilized to assist in the adjustment of the blade, substantially as hereinbefore explained."

"10. In a road-machine, the combination of a scraper-blade adapted for upward and downward adjustment at its respective ends, an operating hand-wheel (or wheels) connected therewith for effecting such adjustment, and a brake (or brakes) acting against said wheel to arrest movement thereof and retain the parts, substantially as set forth.

"11. In a wheel road-scraper, the combination of a scraperblade adapted for upward and downward adjustment at its respective ends, an operating-wheel (or wheels) connected therewith for effecting such adjustment and adapted for developing peripheral momentum for throwing the blade up or down, and a brake acting against said wheel to arrest the movement thereof and retain the parts in position, substantially as set forth."

"13. In a road-machine, the combination, with an oblique scraper suspended beneath a carriage or body mounted on front and rear wheels, of means for imparting independent upward and downward adjustment at the respective ends of said scraper provided with hand-wheel and pinion devices for imparting movement thereto, and stops or brake devices acting in connection with said hand-wheels for retaining the parts at positions of adjustment, substantially as described."

Thus it appears that the patentee acquiesced in the ruling of the Patent Office that the application of hand-wheels to a road-grading machine, for imparting motion to the devices for raising and depressing the scraper-blade, was old, and, for the purpose of obtaining his patent, restricted his claims in this particular to momentum or balance wheels.

And it is with reference to the momentum feature, treated as an element in all the claims, that the case must be disposed of. Momentum is the quantity of motion in a moving body, and is proportioned to the quantity of matter multiplied into its velocity.

VOL. CLXIV-3

Opinion of the Court.

All revolving wheels possess momentum, but momentum wheels, so called, as balance or fly-wheels, are wheels whose momentum is utilized in the operation of machinery by a sufficient accumulation of force, through the weight and velocity of the wheel combined, to overcome the effects of temporary loss of power.

The knowledge was common that when a continuous power is applied, but the resistance to be overcome is unequal, a fly or balance-wheel will store some of the power expended during the operation and not needed at one stage, and give it out at another.

This familiar principle is thus expressed in the specification : "The rims of the hand-wheels are made sufficiently heavy to act as a balance against the weight of the blade-lifting devices, so that the momentum of the wheel will greatly assist the operator in the manipulation of the machine."

The momentum wheel of the patent is described in appellant's brief as being "a wheel having such peripheral weight, in relation to the weight of the scraper-blade to be lifted, that it will continue in rotation after the hand of the operator is removed, so as to enable him to secure a new grasp of the wheel to continue the lifting process."

Appellant's expert, Mr. Brevoort, puts it thus: "In the case of the Taft invention, the peripheral momentum was relied upon to continue the blade of a road-scraper in its upward motion so that the operator could again grasp the wheel to give further rotative force thereto without the blades falling and without the necessity of locking the wheel to enable him to get another grip thereon." And the patentee testifies: "The object of making the wheel with the heavy rim was that there might be sufficient momentum generated in the hand-wheel to make a continuous rotary motion of the wheel when it was desired to raise the blade over an obstacle, like a rock or a 'thank-you-ma'am,' or when approaching a cross-walk on a street. This we could not do with levers, if the lever had sufficient leverage to give this operation; and by making the rim of these wheels heavy I secured that ability to cause a continuous motion of the hand-wheel. After giving it one

Opinion of the Court.

impulse from the hand, I could reach forward and give it a second without applying a break or stop to the wheel, thus keeping up a continuous motion of the hand-wheel until I had raised the blade as high as desired."

In short, as the ordinary hand-wheels used for the same or analogous purposes in similar constructions were old, the claim of patentable novelty rests on the proposition that Mr. Taft was the first to increase their weight and apply them as momentum wheels in a common device for regulating roadscrapers to secure the well-known result attendant on the use of such wheels.

Was he the first to do this, and, if so, did such increase of weight involve patentability?

The record contains a number of prior patents of road machines in which the vertical adjustment of the scraper-blade is effected by levers on each side of the machine, with connecting mechanism to each end of the blade, the actuation of either lever raising one end of the blade, and of both, raising the blade as a whole.

The patent of Read of November 25, 1873, shows a reversible scraper-blade adjustable up and down at either end; adjustable laterally in respect of side projection of its blade; susceptible of being raised quickly at either end or as an entirety; carried by a four-wheeled frame; and directly controlled by levers through suspending cords or bars, the rear ends of the levers being adapted to be held by catches or uprights projecting up from the frame of the machine.

The McCall, Watkins and Scott patent of March 9, 1875, has a push-bar reversible scraper, with hand-levers and stops for the vertical adjustment of the scraper-blade and handwheels for steering.

The Cook patent of September 22, 1885, has a scraper supported by a wheeled frame and moved by push-bars, and capable of being raised and lowered at either end independently by means of racks connected to the scraper, and pinions, operated by levers, which engage the racks and move them up and down.

These lever machines were all operative, and these and

Opinion of the Court.

other patents were introduced in evidence as showing that wheeled frames; reversible and non-reversible blades; levers of various forms for adjusting either or both ends of the blade; stops for locking the levers in place; stops and various other devices for connecting the levers with the blades; were all well known; but as this is conceded we need spend no time upon them.

It should, however, be observed that broadly considered a hand-wheel and a lever are substantial equivalents in these devices. The wheel is a continuous lever. The rim enables the operator to lay hold at any point desired, and takes the place of a number of levers. But it is denied that momentum hand-wheels are the equivalents of levers.

Other prior patents adduced illustrate the use of handwheels, cranks and momentum wheels.

Dyson's patent of June 2, 1868, for a "street scraper" has a triangular frame, D, having slots in which the bars slip up and down freely, to which the scraper-blades are pivoted. The dirt is gathered up within this triangle and deposited by the operation of the rear part of a frame, E. The triangular frame D is raised by a crank-wheel with a crank connected by cords with two wheels in such manner as to revolve both wheels simultaneously, and the whole scraper is thereby raised and retained by the engagement of the crank with a catch. The experts differ as to whether these wheels can be used as hand-wheels if so desired as well as by means of the cords as described in the patent.

The Carey patent of June 16, 1874, for an improvement in scrapers, has a scraper or dirt scoop; a rack attached to a lever which carries the scraper; a pinion engaging the rack to raise and lower the scraper; a crank handle, as an equivalent for a hand-wheel, to turn the pinion, and a lock to hold the devices in their adjusted position.

The Taft machine seems to embrace the connecting devices of this patent, but it has a shaft with a hand-wheel instead of with a crank.

April 10, 1883, Edwards & Durkee obtained a patent for an improvement in grading and ditching machines, in which

Opinion of the Court.

all the adjustments are made by hand-wheels. This has a plough-beam and a carrying apron or belt, and, “by arranging the several hand-wheels, as shown and described,” the operator "can raise and lower either end of the plow-beam independent of the other, and raise or lower the apron as required."

The

The patent of Elmer H. Smith of April 29, 1884, for a ditching machine, shows a plough "consisting of an inclined flat plate," supported by a wheeled frame, and raised and lowered by means of a hand-wheel and pinion acting upon a rack connected to the lever which carries the blade. blade is operated by a single hand-wheel, in this resembling the fourth, tenth and eleventh claims under consideration, which call for "an operating wheel (or wheels)," although it is testified that "in no case could the adjustments described in the patent be effected by a single wheel."

May 28, 1878, letters patent No. 204,205, for an "improvement in track clearers," were issued to Augustus Day. This was a device "for effectually clearing street railways from snow and ice, so arranged that the snow will not only be cleared away from the face of the rails, but also from between the rails and a suitable distance on each side of the track," it being so spread and packed as not to be left "in ridges or snowbanks along the street."

It has a diagonal scraper suspended beneath a wheel carriage and provided with a lifting mechanism consisting of a chain or rope wound upon the shaft by means of a hand-wheel, there being several hand-wheels for effecting the different adjustments of the scraper-blade, which is raised at either end at the will of the operator.

This concurs with the mechanism thus described in the Taft specification: "In lieu of connecting the hand-wheel and bladelifting bar or lever by means of a toothed pinion and rack, said parts may be connected by a strap or chain, (one or more,) one end whereof connects with the lift-bar or lever, while the other end is arranged to wind onto the pinion or hub on the hand-wheel, or onto a sheave geared to the hand-wheel hub." Day's patent of October 21, 1879, No. 220,812, for "snow