Clark v. Beecher Manufacturing Co.

Citations

• 115 U.S. 79
• 5 S. Ct. 1190
• 29 L. Ed. 352
• 1885 U.S. LEXIS 1819

Syllabus

<p>Letters patent No. 66,130, granted to James B. Clark, June 25, 1867, for an “improvement in the manufacture of blanks for carriage tbill shackles,” are not infringed by the manufacture of blanks for shackles in accordance with letters patent No. 108,225, granted to Willis B. Smith, August 9,1870.</p> <p>The features of the Clark patent are, that, by dies, the arms of the blank are bent into an oblique direction, and the body into a curved form, so that the parts where the arms join the body are rounded on the outside as well as the inside ; and that when, subsequently, the curved body is straightened, there will be in it sufficient metal to form sharp outside corners, by being pushed out into them.</p> <p>The arms of the Smith blank are not bent in an oblique direction, its body is not curved, the parts where the arms join the body are not rounded, either on the inside or on the outside, and, in afterwards straightening the. back, surplus metal is not pushed towards or into the corners, to form them, but the existing corners, already formed, are forced further apart, by driving ' surplus metal into the back, between the corners.</p> <p>In view of the state of the art, and the terms of the Clark patent, it must be confined, at least, to a shape which, for practical use, in subsequent manipulation, has a disposition of metal which causes a sharp corner to be formed in substantially the same way as by the use of his blank.</p>