United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Garneau v. Dozier, 102 U.S. 230 (1880)

Garneau v. Dozier

102 U.S. 230

Syllabus

1. Ball v. Langles, supra, p. 102 U. S. 128, reaffirmed.

2. Reissued letters patent No. 6397, granted April 20, 1875, to Duncan McKenzie for a new and useful improvement in baker's ovens, must, in view of the state of the art at the time the original letters were granted, be so construed as to limit the element of the combination which relates to the communication between the furnace or fireplace and the interior of the oven, to the peculiar structural arrangement, whereby the products of combustion are admitted into the baking chamber through openings in the arch or top of the furnace, and through the floor of the oven that separates it from the fire chamber along the flues extending rearward from the furnace to the back part of the oven.

3. There is therefore no infringement of the reissued letters where the bottom of the baking chamber is not separated by any partition or diaphragm from the fire chamber or furnace, and there are no flues to conduct the generated heat into the chamber.

Page 102 U. S. 231

Joseph Garneau brought his bill of complaint against James Dozier and others. It is founded upon two letters patent, the first being a reissue granted to Hosea Ball on the fourteenth day of June, 1870, and extended for seven years from Sept. 23, 1870. The original letters were granted to Ball Sept. 23, 1856, for an alleged "new and useful improvement in ovens," and were surrendered and reissued Oct. 12, 1869, and again June 14, 1870. The second letters set forth in the bill were granted to Mary Ann Elizabeth McKenzie May 1, 1860, also "for a new and useful improvement in ovens." They were surrendered and reissued April 19, 1870, reissued again April 20, 1875, numbered 6,397, assigned to Duncan McKenzie March 24, 1874, and extended for seven years from May 1, 1874. By sundry assignments, these extended reissues have become the property of the complainant, and it is for the alleged infringement of them that this suit was brought.

The bill was dismissed on a final hearing upon the pleadings and proofs, and Garneau appealed.

The case was argued by Mr. Robert H. Parkinson for the appellant, and by Mr. Edward Boyd for the appellees.