Harlan F. Stone

“ So universal is its use for that purpose in every type of machinery that standard treatises on mechanics, long before the application for the present patent, gave the mathematical formulae for ascertaining the appropriate weight and dimensions of a flywheel, moving at a given speed, required to overcome known variations in force resistance, and prescribed the standard procedure for locating the flywheel in as direct association as possible with that part of the mechanism at which the intermittent resistance occurs. ”

“ There is no serious contention, nor could there well be, that the combination apparatus, for moving the linear record past the translation point at which the sound is recorded or reproduced involves invention without the flywheel. Mechanisms for moving linear strips or ribbons, by passing the strip over a revolving drum or cylinder, are a familiar type in the arts. They have long been used in the motion picture industry when it was desired to employ the linear strips at an intermediate point for sound and picture reproduction, and the like. ”

“ These flywheels produce a high degree of 'speed constancy.' An application for a patent by Edison in 1879 on a claim for a combination 'with the phonograph cylinder and its shaft, of a flywheel,' was rejected by the Examiner April 7, 1879, as covering the 'use of a fly wheel as ordinarily used with machinery for the purpose of securing uniformity of motion.' Upon reconsideration, the claim was again rejected on the ground that the adaptation of the flywheel required only the exercise of 'ordinary good judgment' and not the inventive faculty. ”

“ This is attained by the arrangement that the record carrier (a film strip or the like) is firmly pressed against one or more rollers connecting with a heavy rotating mass, so that the record moves in exact conformity with the rollers and the rotating mass.'
The references to a 'weighty mass' or 'a heavy rotating mass' used to secure uniformity of motion are to the familiar flywheel. The specified 'property' of a rotating heavy mass is inertia, the tendency of matter in motion to continue in motion, the force of which is increased by the mass of the moving body. ”

“ The flywheel set upon a revolving shaft is an ancient mechanical device for securing continuity and uniformity of motion when brought into association with any form of machinery moved by intermittent force or meeting with irregular or intermittent resistence. ”

“ That of Holst, already noted, shows in detail an apparatus exhibiting every element of claim 5 except that its use is for reproducing motion pictures instead of sound from film. The toothed cylinder is located adjacent to the intermediate point which is the point of translation. The flywheel is associated with the cylinder by being attached to the rotary shaft carrying the cylinder.
An improvement to an apparatus or method, to be patentable, must be the result of invention, and not the mere exercise of the skill of the calling or an advance plainly indicated by the prior art. ”

“ The disclaimer is a representation, as open as the patent itself, on which the public is entitled to rely, that the original claim is one which the patentee does not, in the language of the statute, 'choose to claim or to hold by virtue of the patent.' Upon the filing of the disclaimers, the original claims were withdrawn from the protection of the patent laws, and the public was entitled to manufacture and use the device originally claimed as freely as though it had been abandoned. ”

“ The specifications state:
'The recording and the reproduction of sound waves by the use of linear phonogram carriers such as film strips, steel wires, and so forth, can only be effected in absolutely satisfactory manner, even after the removal of all other occurring difficulties, when the speed of the record carrier is uniform both for the receiving and the reproduction, and when in both cases no variations of any kind occur. ”

“ If respondent could thus, by disclaimer, add the flywheel to the arcuate flexing claim and to the optical claim, he would in effect secure a new patent operating retroactively in a manner not permitted by the reissue statute and without subjecting the new claims to revision or restriction by the customary Patent Office procedure required in the case of an original or reissued patent. ”

“ American Tri-Ergon Corporation, supra. There was no public demand for sound motion pictures before 1926, when the disc system of the Western Electric Company was first publicly used in conjunction with moving pictures. ”