Henry Billings Brown

“ As a train moving at the rate of 50 miles an hour makes over 70 feet per second, a train of 50 cars would run half a mile before the brakes could be applied to the rear car. So, too, if the rear end of the train became detached from the forward end by the rupture of the train pipe or couplings, the brakes could not be applied at all, since the compressed air admitted to the train pipe by opening the engineer's valve would escape into the atmosphere without operating the brakes, or, if the brakes were already applied, they would be instantly released when such rupture occurred. ”

“ The fact that this invention was first in the line of those which resulted in placing it within the power of an engineer, running a long train, to stop in about half the time and half the distance within which any similar train had stopped, is certainly deserving of recognition, and entitles the patent to a liberality of construction which would not be accorded to an ordinary improvement upon prior devices. ”

“ From the train pipe of each car a branch pipe connected with the forward end of a cylinder called the 'brake cylinder,' which contained a piston, the stem of which was connected with the brake levers of the car. This piston was moved and the brakes applied by means of compressed air admitted, through the train pipe and its branches, into the forward end of the brake cylinder. When the brakes were to be applied, the engineer opened his valve, and admitted the compressed air into the train pipes and brake cylinders, whereby the levers were operated and the brakes applied. ”

“ Where the process is simply the function or operative effect of a machine, the above cases are conclusive against its patentability; but where it is one which, though ordinarily and most successfully performed by machinery, may also be performed by simple manipulation,-such, for instance, as the folding of a paper in a peculiar way for the manufacture of paper bags, or a new method of weaving a hammock,-there are cases to the effect that such a process is patentable, though none of the powers of nature be invoked to aid in producing the result. ”

“ That, if it be interpreted simply as a claim for the function of admitting air to the brake cylinder directly from the train pipe, it is open to the objection (held in several cases to be fatal) that the mere function of a machine cannot be patented. ”

“ A machine is a concrete thin, consisting of parts, or of certain devices and combination of devices. The principle of a machine is properly defined to be its mode of operation, or that peculiar combination of devices which distinguish it from other machines. A machine is not a principle or an idea. ”

“ While the speed of the foremost car would be checked at once, those in the rear would proceed at unabated speed, and, in their sudden contact with the forward cars, would produce such shocks as to often cause damage. ”

“ Upon a long train of this kind, composed of 30 to 50 cars, a demand was made for quicker action in cases of emergency than had yet been contemplated, although, for ordinary work, such as checking the speed of a train while running, holding it at a slow speed on a down grade, and also for making the ordinary station stops, the automatic brake was still sufficient, and produced satisfactory results, even in the equipment of long and heavy trains. ”

“ While the automatic brake had thus obviated the most important defects of the old or straight air brake, and came into general use upon passenger trains throughout the country, it was found, in practice, upon long freight trains, that the air from the auxiliary reservoirs did not act with sufficient promptness upon the brakes of the rear cars, whee a particularly speedy action was required, and that it would be necessary to devise some other means for cases of special emergency. ”

“ The converse is equally true. The patentee may bring the defendant within the letter of his claims, but if the latter has so far changed the principle of the device that the claims of the patent, literally construed, have ceased to represent his actual invention, he is as little subject to be adjudged an infringer as one who has violated the letter of a statute has to be convicted, when he has done nothing in conflict with its spirit and intent. 'An infringement,' says Mr. Justice Grier in Burr v. ”

“ But, even if it be conceded that the Boyden device corresponds with the letter of the Westinghouse claims, that does not settle conclusively the question of infringement. We have repeatedly held that a charge of infringement is sometimes made out, though the letter of the claims be avoided. Machine Co. ”