John Catron

“ The complainants appealed to this court.
It was argued by Mr. Keller and Mr. G. T. Curtis, for the appellants, and Mr. Whiting for the appellees.
The reporter finds himself unable to give an intelligible explanation of the arguments of counsel, without introducing engravings, which would be out of place in a law book. In fact, models were used in the argument before the court. He is compelled, therefore, to omit all the arguments of counsel. ”

“ The carriage which sustains the plank or board to be operated upon, may be moved forwards by means of a rack and pinion, by an endless chain, or band, by geared friction rollers, or by any of the devices well known to machinists for advancing a carriage, or materials to be acted upon in machines for various purposes. The plank or board is to be moved on towards the cutting edges of the cutters, or knives, on the planing cylinder, so that its knives or cutters, as they revolve, may meet and cut the plank or board, in a direction contrary to that in which it is made to advance. ”

“ The invention relied on is a new combination in the machine of three elements, to produce the result of planing a plank against its motion through the machine; and the claim of monopoly is the employment of rotary planes in combination with the face of a bench, and pressure rollers, to prevent the board from being drawn up by the planes when cutting upwards, or from the reduced or planed to the unplaned surface, as described. ”

“ From the distance the pressure rollers, in Woodworth's machine, have to be separated so as to give the cylinder room to rotate, the board tends to curve upwards, and is cut on a convex surface, thus loosening the knots, and causing them to be thrown out, and causing the surface of the planed board to be eaten in where the wood is cross-grained or coarse, and also to be uneven, and full of small ridges. ”

“ As the board advances on the rotary cutters they will strike it thirty times in a second, and violently tend to lift it into the knives; and to keep it down to the bench, a strong pressure is required. And in the next place, the cutters being over the horizontal bed and stationary, at a fixed distance from it, and the board pressed down to it so forcibly as to crush out the winds in warped lumber, the machine will of necessity reduce the board to an equal thickness throughout.
Norcross's planing machine is an improvement of Hill's, which was is use when Woodworth invented his in 1828. ”

“ To overcome this defect, Norcross made the rest bar, (previously stationary,) the cap of a square frame, on the vertical side pieces of which he fixed the journals of his cutter wheel, the cutters and rest bar being stationary relatively to each other, and always the same distance apart. This frame is supported in a stationary guide frame fastened to the bench, and so made as to allow a free vertical movement up and down of the rest bar, and cutting cylinder. ”

“ Much evidence was taken, and in March, 1852, the cause came on to be heard upon the bill annexed, general replication, and the proofs taken therein, before the Judge of the District Court, Mr. Justice Curtis having been of counsel in the case. ”