Joseph P. Bradley

“ The patents under consideration expressly declare, for the most part, what the patentee claims; generally referring, it is true, to the specification as embodying the substantial form of the invention. Such a reference is proper if it does not introduce confusion and uncertainty, and is often necessary for restraining the too great generality, or enlarging the literal narrowness of the claim.
These remarks apply to reissue 1038, which we are now considering. We regard it as sufficiently explicit; and we think the patent is valid. ”

“ It is obvious that we may lay out of the question all seed-drills. They were not constructed for the specific purpose for which this machine was constructed, namely, to plant corn in check-rows, and had not the apparatus adapted to such a purpose. The plough-shaped drill of Todd, though it had a cutter under the front part and roller drawn behind for covering the grain, was only a step in the right direction. It was a mere drill, planting in single rows, and not adapted to plant in check-rows; and it was handled and operated in an entirely different manner from Brown's. ”

“ It was contended by the complainant that as no one had ever arranged the several parts of a corn-planter so that a man could sit upon the machine in a position to watch the marks on the ground and at the same time work the valves, the manner of organizing these several parts, by which he could sit there and work the valves, involved invention, and this was not like the mere putting of a driver's seat on a machine in positions where drivers' seats had been accustomed to be placed, for the mere purpose of driving the machine. ”

“ The machines of Joab Brown which are more or less relied on, were all composed of single frames entirely rigid. The machine with one runner, constructed in 1849, was a failure, and is not pretended to have been at all like the appellant's. The machine with two rollers and one large wheel, constructed in 1850, was automatic, could only plant in rows, so as to be worked one way, and failed entirely as a check-row planter. ”

“ The device of connecting and combining it with the two integral parts of the machine, and thus connecting and combining those parts so as to produce a useful effect, is one that may be properly denominated invention, although the hinged-joint itself may have existed in other machines which perhaps suggested its use in this. Indeed, the hinged-joint, in one form or another, is an old device. ”

“ Again, the object and the purpose of constructing the machine of framework in two distinct parts, supported separately, one by the runners and the other by the wheels, is expressed to be 'so that the rollers may rise and fall without disturbing the runners, or so that the runners may yield or move independently of the rollers.' The particular manner of connecting the parts, although described in the specification, is the subject of a separate patent. ”

“ The Patent Office subsequently amended the appellant's patent so as to include a claim for this very thing in question. Under these circumstances, in the absence of conclusive evidence to the contrary, the presumption is in favor of the appellant. The burden of proof is on the party who sets up the objection of 'prior use' against the patent.
The second claim is for a combination, embracing, as one of its elements, the arrangement or seat for the dropper last described; and if that was new, this combination must also be new. ”

“ In the middle of the bed-piece, over the axle of the wheels, is an aperture to allow a seed-roller affixed to the axle to revolve, having alternate ridges and seed-holes. Over this is a hopper, which holds the seed and communicates it to the seed-roller, by whose revolution the seed is dropped into the furrow. A loose flap is hinged to the rear end of the bed-piece, and drags along on the ground, for covering the seed with earth. The keel in this machine bears some resemblance to the runner of the corn-planter. This patent requires no further observation. ”

“ The appellees insist that this patent attempts to secure an old device merely applied to a new use, and that the supposed new use is analogous to that which the same device subserved in the machine of Remy & Kelly. But we have seen that the machine of Remy & Kelly was a mere experiment, abandoned by the inventors. And the device in question is not claimed as an original invention, nor as an improvement; it is only patented in combination with other material elements of the machine to which it is attached as a part. ”

“ The next patent, reissue 1094, is for a matter too frivolous to form the subject of invention. It is simply for a peg or stop to prevent the rear part of the machine from tipping so much as to dump the driver on to the ground. No mechanic of any skill would construct a machine of the character described without providing some such arrangement. ”

“ It is exhibited in the reaches of a common wagon, whose fore wheels and hind wheels, in passing over inequalities and obstructions, rise and fall independently of each other. But in the corn-planting machine it has two specific and useful effects, namely, in securing the freedom of the runner from needless disturbance from the rear part of the machine as it pursues its path along the surface, making a furrow of uniform depth, and in enabling the attendant to raise the part containing the runners out of the ground with ease by means of a lever resting on the other part. ”

“ The language of the act of 1836, under which these patents were drawn, is that before any inventor shall receive a patent for his invention or discovery he shall deliver a description thereof, and of the manner and process of making, constructing, using, and compounding the same, in such full, clear, and exact terms as to enable a person skilled in the art to reproduce it ”

“ A vibrating valve, called a flipper-valve, in each seed-dropping tube, which valve is composed of a long slender slip of metal attache to a pivot in the middle, connected by a small attachment to a slide-valve having two openings, so that when the top is moved to one side of the tube the bottom moves to the other side. By one movement the seed drops through the slide-valve into one side, and is detained near the bottom till the next movement, when it is dropped on the ground, and seed is admitted simultaneously through the slide-valve into the other side. ”

“ In the machine as first constructed a seat was rigged in the rear of the platform for the driver, by moving on which, backward and forward, the same tipping process could be produced. This was afterwards abandoned.
It will thus be seen, that Kirkman's machine had some of the prominent features of Brown's. It differed from it in not being a check-row planter, and not planting in hills but in rows, and acting automatically simply as a drill, and having but a single frame. ”

“ Another machine much relied on by the appellees was that of Kirkman, of Peoria County, Illinois, a farmer, but formerly a millwright and engineer. [23] He lived in the same neighborhood as Abbott, and the latter, in his evidence, says that after he had made a drawing of his last machine (above referred to) , Kirkman was at his house and took a rough sketch of the drawing, and soon after made a machine nearly like it, in which he had broad iron wheels. The character of Kirkman's machine is very explicitly shown, exact models of it and one of the actual runners being produced. ”

“ Small rollers with cavities in their surfaces were made to revolve in the bottom of the seed-boxes, and thus carried out and deposited the seed in the drill-teeth in the usual manner of drills. [20] The drill-teeth were followed by a transverse row of upright harrow-teeth for covering the grain. These harrow-teeth were inserted in a cross-bar framed into two long levers which were attached to the forepart of the front frame by a loose joint. This apparatus constituted the middle frame. ”

“ The appellees endeavored to show that this apparatus was anticipated by the inventions of Charles Finn and Jarvis Case, before mentioned. [27] Finn says that he invented his machine in the summer or fall of 1851. The seed-dropping apparatus consisted of a vibrating side or back to the seed-tube, which required two movements, one backward and the other forward, for dropping each hill of corn, alternately opening and closing the tube. ”

“ But each hill or check-row required one movement of the lever to let the seed into the tube, and a reverse movement to let it out. And this double movement was repeated at every check-row. Whereas, by Brown's apparatus both results were accomplished by a single movement; a forward movement effecting a dropping for one check-row and a backward movement effecting it for the next. ”

“ That, if we can find it without difficulty or embarrassment, is what he claims as new; the rest he impliedly, if he does not expressly, disclaims as old. No particular form of words is necessary if the meaning is clear. ”

“ They do not come within the literal terms of his claim which refers the improvement only to machines operated by hand, and on which the operator is carried. Kirkman and Farley had no operator, and, of course, had none on their machines. Was this difference material? The device was not altered by Brown substantially, in form, operation, or purpose. The only difference was the presence of the dropper on the machine, making a greater weight to be raised than existed before, and applying it to a check-row corn-planter. ”

“ This, we think, is the fair meaning of his language when taken in connection with the whole specification. A literal construction is not to be adopted where it would be repugnant to the manifest sense and reason of the instrument.
The machine of Selby, which is the subject of the suit of Brown v. Selby and others, in the second case, has all the material features above specified as contained in Bergen's. [26] We have no hesitation in saying that both machines are infringements of the appellant's patent. ”

“ The devices used for effecting this purpose, both automatically and by hand, are described in the specification, but they are claimed in separate patents, and only affect the one in question as they modify and affect the general structure of the machine. ”

“ Hale was the only witness examined on the subject of this machine. He says he helped Todd make six of them, and that they were used, and worked satisfactorily, in or about 1844. This being all that is heard of this machine in the cause, it is probable that its use was discontinued, and that it shared the fate of a thousand other devices which approach the point of final perfection and success, but do not reach it. ”

“ John Kirkman's unpatented machine. This was much relied on by the defendants; but the complainant contended that it was materially different from his corn-planter, in having but a single frame, in which were both runners and wheels, instead of two independent frames with runner and wheels like his. ”

“ The second claim is for the relative location of the seats for the driver and operator, such that one of them may overbalance the weight of the other, and thus more readily raise or lower the seeding apparatus. ”