Page:Federal Cases, Volume 29.djvu/568

 WEBSTER (Case No. 17,342) [29 Fed. Cas. page 564] [This was a bill in equity t»y the Webster Loom Company against Elias S. Higgins and Nathaniel D. Higgins for alleged infringe- ment of a patent.] Edward N. Didcerson and Clarence A. Seward, for plaintiff. George Gifford and Ebenezer R.Hoar, for defendants. WHEELER, District Judge. This suit is brought for relief against an alleged infringe- ment of letters patent No. 130,961, issued, Au- gust 27th, 1872, to William Webster, and own- ed by the plaintiff, for an improvement in looms for weaving pile fabrics. The defend- ants, in their answer, allege, that, by previous contract with Webster, they are the owners of all such improvements made by him, deny that he was the first inventor of the inven- tion patented, and allege, that, before the time of any invention thereof by him, the same, or substantial and material parts thereof, were described in, among others, let- ters patent of Great Britain to Erastus E. Bigelow, to William Weild, and to Moxon, Clayton and Fearnley, and in letters patent of the United States to Elias S. Higgins, as- signee of William Weild, and to Ezekiel K. Davis, and that the same was known to, and used by, Ezekiel K. Davis and Thomas Crossley, of New York, at New York, that the description of the invention is obscure, and not sufficient to enable one acquainted with the art to which it belongs, to construct and use the loom therein attempted to be described, that there is no description in the patent of the combination specified in the fifth claim thereof, and deny infringement On the hearing, the plaintifE relied solely up- on the fifth claim of the patent, and the de- fendants abandoned all claim of ownership of the invention by virtue of any contract with Webster. In Weaving pile fabrics, such as Brussels carpeting and velvets, wires are woven like filling into them, taking up warp into loops, over the wires, above that part of the cloth made of other warp and filling, constituting the pile of the fabric. Enough wires are woven in, and left there, to make a piece sufficiently large and firm to withstand the beat of the machinery, and then, as the weav- ing proceeds, those put in first are successive- ly withdrawn, carried back and inserted again into open sheds of warp made to re- ceive them, and woven into and carried along with the cloth. Tl* heads of the wires are made much larger than the wires themselves, and square and flat, to fit into a bos beside the cloth, with a narrow opening toward it, that will permit their moving fredy along with the cloth. The looms used are not much dif- ferent from those used in weaving other fab- rics, except that machinery is added for with- drawing, carrying back and inserting the wires, which is called a wire motion, and the rest of the looms must be adapted to the working of that, so as not to interfere with It As the wires are withdrawn, the loops are left to be held in place by the other warp and filling, as woven together, and, conse- quently, there must be a thread of filling woven in between the weaving in of each wire, and there must be two beats of the lay carrying the reed which beats up the fiUing and wires, and corresponding motions of the shuttle cai'rying the filling, to each insertion of a wire. The motions of the parts must all be so timed that the wires will be insert- ed when the lay is swung away from the woven cloth and makes room, and the sheds for them are opened to receive them, and that the lay will beat up the wire, swing back for a thread of filling to be carried through, and beat that up, while the wire motion is after another wire, and be in the proper position to carry the shuttle, with its threads of filling, at the times when they must go in. The wires must be carried past the fell of the cloth, toward the lay swung back, to reach a place in the sheds open sufficiently wide for them to be thrust into; the reed must stand on the edge of the lay away from the cloth, to make room on the lay for the shuttle race, and must be carried by it to the fell of the cloth when it beats up the wires and fiUing; and so the. lay must move past the fell of the cloth toward the wire motion. To prevent collision between the lay with shuttle boxes attached and the wire motion, in making these movements, either the wire motion must be arranged so that it will insert the wires, and move out of the way, before the lay and shuttle box arrive where the wire motion goes, or so much of the lay and shuttle box, on that side of the loom, as would hit the wire motion, must be detached from the rest of the lay while that moves up with the reed, and be kept out of the way of the wire motion. In the Bigelow loom, the wire motion consisted of a forked ai-m and reciprocating lever, extending up- ward through a horizontal rocking shaft, which were so timed as to be together at the wire box when the lay beat up, and that was crooked out of the way for a short distance opposite, so it would move past them when in that position. In the Weild looms, the wkes were withdrawn by a latch on a reciprocating slide, into a horizontal trough, oscillating be- tween the points of withdrawal and insertion, and pushed out of the ti'ough into the sheds by an arm extending from the slide far enough to follow and reach them until in place. A part of the lay was detached, and, with the shuttle box, kept back when the rest beat up, out of the way of the trough and extending arm of the wire motion. In the Moxon, Clayton and Fearnley patent, the wires were to be withdrawn by a latch into a groove in a table, and carried into another groove that would direct them into the sheds. This table would appear to be in the way of a rigid lay and shuttle box. Webster was familiar with such looms, and, in 1865 and 1866, conceived the idea of improving them,