Reporter's Statement of the Case 94 C. CIS. Storage of certain materials was made necessary for a longer time than any of the three periods. A reasonable allowance there for is justified. Plaintiff is entitled to recover the sum of $7,409.64. It is so ordered. MADDEN, Judge; LITTLETON, Judge; and WHALEY, Chief Justice, concur. WHITAKER, Judge, took no part in the decision of this case. WALTER KIDDE & COMPANY, INC., v. THE [No. 42620. Decided October 6, 1941] On the Proofs Patent for stored pressure medium containers; infringement; validity.-Plaintiff, as assignee of the Mapes patent, #1,919,149, granted to Daniel Mapes July 18, 1933, and the Heigis patent, #1,920,127, granted to Henry E. Heigis July 25, 1933, claimed that the defendant infringed said patents when in 1933 the defendant contracted with Air Cruisers, Inc., for the manufacture and delivery of 2,000 gas pressure cartridges to be used for inflating vests to be worn by aviators as life preserver and defendant later accepted delivery of and paid for said cartridges; Held: That neither the Mapes patent nor the Heigis patent was valid as to the element claimed in the instant suit to have been infringed; Plaintiff's combination of elements did not constitute invention; 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. Altoona Theatres v. Tri-Ergon Corps., 294 U. S. 477, 486, cited. The Reporter's statement of the case: Mr. John S. Bradley for the plaintiff. Mr. Titian W. Johnson, with whom was Mr. Assistant Attorney General Francis M. Shea, for the defendant. Mr. T. Hayward Brown was of counsel. 366 Reporter's Statement of the Case The court made special findings of fact as follows: 1. Plaintiff is a corporation duly organized under the laws of the State of New York. 2. Plaintiff is the owner of two United States patents, No. 1,919,149, granted to Daniel Mapes, July 18, 1933, for "Discharge Control Means for Stored Pressure Medium Containers" and No. 1,920,127, granted to Henry E. Heigis for "Stored Pressure Medium Container," on July 25, 1933. On April 7, 1932, Daniel Mapes assigned to plaintiff the inventions and improvements of an application which eventuated in patent No. 1,919,149, recorded in Liber S156, page 405 in the United States Patent Office, and hereinafter referred to as the Mapes patent. On April 28, 1932, Henry Ernest Heigis assigned to plaintiff an application which later issued as patent No. 1,920,127, recorded in Liber U-156, page 203, in the United States Patent Office, and hereinafter referred to as the Heigis patent. Copies of United States patents Nos. 1,919,149 and 1,920,127, plaintiff's exhibits 1 and 2, are by reference made a part of this finding. 3. The defendant is sued for the use of the two patents in suit used in connection with a life-preserver apparatus which is worn by aviators. The patents do not per se relate to life saving apparatus, but only to the means used in the claimed infringement for inflating the life-preservers. THE MAPES PATENT IN SUIT 4. Primarily the Mapes patent relates to fire-extinguishing apparatus of the type in common use wherein a sealed cartridge of compressed air or gas is located within a larger vessel filled with fire extinguishing fluid. When the extinguisher is used, the gas container is punctured and the escaping gas propels the extinguishing liquid through a hose. In the patent Fig. 2 of the drawing (not reproduced herein) represents at 1 a standard shell or container for holding a liquid fire extinguishing medium up to the level indicated at 2. The container 1 is provided with a handle 3 for carrying in an upright position and another handle 4 located in the bottom, an outlet elbow 6 and a hose 7 having Reporter's Statement of the Case 94 C. Cls. a discharge nozzle 8. A cage consisting of a flange 9 and a bottom plate 10 and suspension rods 11 is supported upon a shoulder 12 in the neck of the shell. This cage supports a cartridge 13 containing a pressure medium such as carbon dioxide, for forcing the extinguishing medium through the hose 7 out of the shell. The cartridge 13 has threaded into its neck a closure member 14 which contains means for effecting release of the pressure medium from the cartridge. This is accomplished by inverting the shell 1, whereupon the cartridge 13 slides down guide rods 11 and forcibly encounters a projection 15 which is attached to a cap 16, the projection extending into the shell cavity. See Fig. 3. The cap 16 seals the shell 1 and is attached to the shell by screw threads with a gas-tight gasket 17. Cap 16 also secures flange 9 of the cage in a fixed position. Fig. 3 illustrates the fire extinguisher in inverted or operative position, the cartridge 13 having slid down inside the guide rods 11 and forcibly contacted projection 15 which sets in motion the mechanism of the closure member 14 and liberates the carbon dioxide. The foregoing description shows the setting of the mechanism controlling the release and operation of the gas from the cartridge 13 into the shell of the fire extinguisher. THE CLOSURE MEMBER 5. In Fig. 1 of the Mapes patent a closure member 14 with an extension 19 is threaded into the neck of cartridge 13. Carried on the end of extension 19 is a strainer 20 designed to prevent particles of dirt, etc., from entering the bore 22 of extension 19 from the cartridge 13. This bore 22 communicates with a passage 23 which extends through the closure and terminates in chamber 24. A thimble 25 with a central passage 27 is threaded into the closure member 14, and is provided with a frangible disc 28 at its lower end which rests upon a washer 29 and seals the passage 27 off from the compressed gas from the cartridge 13 which but for this disc would flow up into passage 27. Projecting into passage 27 is a hollow puncturing element 32 which the patentee calls a "metering element." This puncturing means has a chamfered cutting edge at its lowest extremity and is hollow and closely fitted into the passage 27. The passage 33 of the puncturing element is of a predetermined diameter and controls the flow of gas, after the disc 28 is punctured, from the cartridge 13 to the interior of the shell of the fire extinguisher. Simply stated, the hollow puncturing device 32, through which the compressed gas must flow, determines by its diameter the amount of gas that is delivered into the surrounding shell of the extinguisher, once the flow of gas is effected. It is a "metering element" be cause of its control over the rate at which the gas can pass through its bore. The puncturing element 32, at its top has a flange 34 against which a spring 35 presses which holds the pointed end of element 32 above and away from the frangible disc 28, and holds the top against a stop ring 36. A disc 39 of thin bakelite or other frangible material is located on top of stop ring 36, with a watertight seal to protect the puncturing element from corrosion. Reporter's Statement of the Case 94 C. Cls. The disc 39 also serves, if it is fractured, and when it is visible, as an indication that the disc 28 has been ruptured or broken and that the apparatus is not ready for use. The patentee states in regard to the operation of the extinguisher, lines 74 to 85, page 2, of the specification: With the extinguisher in its erect position as shown in Figure 2, operation of the extinguisher involves overturning it, grasping it by the handle 4, and jarring the extinguisher as by striking it on the floor or ground, so as to cause the disc 39 (Figure 1) to be fractured by forcible contact with the projection 15 on the inner side of the cap 16 and the frangible disc 28 to be punctured by the element 32, in connection with which it should be noted that Figure 3 illustrates the inverted operated position of the extinguisher. 6. The patentee stresses the importance of the fact that the size of the passage 33 in the puncturing element 32 controls and is vital to the operation of the device, saying, page 2, lines 97 to 105 of the specification of the patent: In view of the fact that the diameter of the passage 33 can be accurately controlled at the time of manufacture, and in fact, subject to a discharge rate test, it will be apparent that the desired rate of discharge can be obtained whenever an extinguisher is used so that a stream of liquid fire extinguishing medium of uniform range can be maintained over a desired predetermined period of time. In addition to the apparatus shown in Fig. 1, for the predetermination and control of the gas flow, the patentee describes and illustrates two other forms for the same purpose, shown in Figs. 4 and 5 of the drawings. In Fig. 4 the metering of the gas is accomplished by the provision of a disc 44 in which "an accurately proportioned orifice" 43, through which the gas flows, is substituted for the bore 33 of the puncturing element 32 shown in Fig. 1. The patentee speaks of this as follows, lines 113 to 119, page 2 of the specification: With this construction the same advantages are had as are obtained with the construction shown in Figure 1 but in the present embodiment of the invention the |