Opinion of the Court. impulse from the hand, I could reach forward and give it a second without applying a break or stop to the wheel, thus keeping up a continuous motion of the hand-wheel until I had raised the blade as high as desired." In short, as the ordinary hand-wheels used for the same or analogous purposes in similar constructions were old, the claim of patentable novelty rests on the proposition that Mr. Taft was the first to increase their weight and apply them as momentum wheels in a common device for regulating roadscrapers to secure the well-known result attendant on the use of such wheels. Was he the first to do this, and, if so, did such increase of weight involve patentability? The record contains a number of prior patents of road machines in which the vertical adjustment of the scraper-blade is effected by levers on each side of the machine, with connecting mechanism to each end of the blade, the actuation of either lever raising one end of the blade, and of both, raising the blade as a whole. The patent of Read of November 25, 1873, shows a reversible scraper-blade adjustable up and down at either end; adjustable laterally in respect of side projection of its blade; susceptible of being raised quickly at either end or as an entirety; carried by a four-wheeled frame; and directly controlled by levers through suspending cords or bars, the rear ends of the levers being adapted to be held by catches or uprights projecting up from the frame of the machine. The McCall, Watkins and Scott patent of March 9, 1875, has a push-bar reversible scraper, with hand-levers and stops for the vertical adjustment of the scraper-blade and handwheels for steering. The Cook patent of September 22, 1885, has a scraper supported by a wheeled frame and moved by push-bars, and capable of being raised and lowered at either end independently by means of racks connected to the scraper, and pinions, operated by levers, which engage the racks and move them up and down. These lever machines were all operative, and these and Opinion of the Court. other patents were introduced in evidence as showing that wheeled frames; reversible and non-reversible blades; levers of various forms for adjusting either or both ends of the blade; stops for locking the levers in place; stops and various other devices for connecting the levers with the blades; were all well known; but as this is conceded we need spend no time upon them. It should, however, be observed that broadly considered a hand-wheel and a lever are substantial equivalents in these devices. The wheel is a continuous lever. The rim enables the operator to lay hold at any point desired, and takes the place of a number of levers. But it is denied that momentum hand-wheels are the equivalents of levers. Other prior patents adduced illustrate the use of handwheels, cranks and momentum wheels. Dyson's patent of June 2, 1868, for a "street scraper" has a triangular frame, D, having slots in which the bars slip up and down freely, to which the scraper-blades are pivoted. The dirt is gathered up within this triangle and deposited by the operation of the rear part of a frame, E. The triangular frame D is raised by a crank-wheel with a crank connected by cords with two wheels in such manner as to revolve both wheels simultaneously, and the whole scraper is thereby raised and retained by the engagement of the crank with a catch. The experts differ as to whether these wheels can be used as hand-wheels if so desired as well as by means of the cords as described in the patent. The Carey patent of June 16, 1874, for an improvement in scrapers, has a scraper or dirt scoop; a rack attached to a lever which carries the scraper; a pinion engaging the rack to raise and lower the scraper; a crank handle, as an equivalent for a hand-wheel, to turn the pinion, and a lock to hold the devices in their adjusted position. The Taft machine seems to embrace the connecting devices of this patent, but it has a shaft with a hand-wheel instead of with a crank. April 10, 1883, Edwards & Durkee obtained a patent for an improvement in grading and ditching machines, in which Opinion of the Court. all the adjustments are made by hand-wheels. This has a plough-beam and a carrying apron or beit, and, "by arranging the several hand-wheels, as shown and described," the operator "can raise and lower either end of the plow-beam independent of the other, and raise or lower the apron as required." The The patent of Elmer H. Smith of April 29, 1884, for a ditching machine, shows a plough "consisting of an inclined flat plate," supported by a wheeled frame, and raised and lowered by means of a hand-wheel and pinion acting upon a rack connected to the lever which carries the blade. blade is operated by a single hand-wheel, in this resembling the fourth, tenth and eleventh claims under consideration, which call for "an operating wheel (or wheels)," although it is testified that "in no case could the adjustments described in the patent be effected by a single wheel.” May 28, 1878, letters patent No. 204,205, for an "improvement in track clearers," were issued to Augustus Day. This was a device "for effectually clearing street railways from snow and ice, so arranged that the snow will not only be cleared away from the face of the rails, but also from between the rails and a suitable distance on each side of the track," it being so spread and packed as not to be left "in ridges or snowbanks along the street." It has a diagonal scraper suspended beneath a wheel carriage. and provided with a lifting mechanism consisting of a chain or rope wound upon the shaft by means of a hand-wheel, there being several hand-wheels for effecting the different adjustments of the scraper-blade, which is raised at either end at the will of the operator. This concurs with the mechanism thus described in the Taft specification: "In lieu of connecting the hand-wheel and bladelifting bar or lever by means of a toothed pinion and rack, said parts may be connected by a strap or chain, (one or more,) one end whereof connects with the lift-bar or lever, while the other end is arranged to wind onto the pinion or hub on the hand-wheel, or onto a sheave geared to the hand-wheel hub." Day's patent of October 21, 1879, No. 220,812, for "snow Opinion of the Court. plows," has a diagonal scraper suspended beneath a wheeled carriage and capable of being raised and lowered by a chain or cord wound upon a shaft turned by a hand-wheel, the shaft having a locking device consisting of a ratchet-wheel and a dog. There is but one hand-wheel which raises and lowers both ends of the scraper together, while the previous Day patent had two hand-wheels and chains for raising and lowering the two ends of the scraper independently. The substance to be dealt with was snow, and rails and their bed, with some distance on each side, the surface to be cleared, but so as not to encumber the circumjacent highway. In view of the work to be done, light hand-wheels might be sufficient, yet if momentum as a positive aid were found necessary, their weight could be increased. The Boone patent of October 21, 1851, shows a windlass with drums for winding up cords to raise weights, with a wheel and pinion and suitable gearing for turning the drums, and a brake stop. The Lyon patent of August 6, 1878, for improvement "in combined ship's pump and windlass" has very heavy momentum hand-wheels for operating either pumps or a winding drum. Apparently these wheels are heavier for the same diameter than the Taft hand-wheels. The Tyler patent of February 14, 1882, for "friction brake for steering wheels" shows a momentum hand-wheel for operating the rudder of a vessel, and a pedal brake for holding the wheel in any desired position. The wheel is not described in the specifications as a momentum wheel, but, as it is such in fact, this is not material. Appellee's expert Bates testifies that such wheels "are commonly used as momentum wheels and have been as long ago as 1871. The operator gives them an impulse and their momentum carries them on." It is not controverted that a heavy wheel with a crank pin at the side, such as shown, was a common and very wellknown form of construction for the specific purpose of applying momentum to a crank. The wheels employed in landing ferry-boats and the ancient Opinion of the Court. spinning-wheels, instanced by the District Judge, readily recur as illustrations of the use of momentum in the continuance of motion. Indeed, it is admitted that all wheels for raising, winding up and hoisting, if the load is light enough, "are capable of performing some movement after the hand of the operator has left them," and the principle does not depend upon the extent of the aid thus given to propulsion. We find then that hand-wheels in the regulation of scraperblades for ditching, grading, street and road clearing were old, and that this was true of the utilization of momentum when required by the exigencies of the case, as in capstanwheels, crank-shaft wheels, rudder-regulating wheels, pumpoperating wheels, and so on. Every one knew that momentum propelled the capstan-wheel, the rudder-wheel, the pumpwheel, the spinning-wheel, after the hand of the operator was withdrawn. The law of nature was familiarly understood that any moving body tends to continue in motion with a force proportionate to its speed and weight; and it was well known that the function of fly-wheels and balance-wheels was, in the language of Mr. Brevoort, "to absorb energy when the machine is moving at greater speed with the least resistance, and to give it out again when the parts meet with greater resistance." The Circuit Court was of opinion that the use in roadmachines of wheels made heavier in the adjustment of momentum to resistance was not a new use of momentum wheels in working machinery, and that the difference in weight in handwheels performing the service of rotary levers was a difference in degree and not in kind. And the contention as to infringement confirms this view. Mr. Bates describes appellee's machine as "composed of a wheeled frame or carriage, beneath which is suspended a turn-table and to this turn-table the scraper-blade is attached. The turn-table is suspended by rods from the ends of a bar which extends across the machine and is capable of vertical motion between uprights. The bar is supported by being pivoted near each end to the lower end of a rack-bar. The rack-bars are moved up and down by pinions on horizontal |