Opinion of the Court.

patent granted on February 11th, 1862, to Alba F. Smith, for an improvement in trucks for locomotive engines, the specification annexed to which, except the drawings and the letters referring to them and the formal beginning and conclusion, was as follows:

"Several laterally moving trucks have heretofore been made and applied to railroad cars. My invention does not relate broadly to such laterally moving trucks; but my said invention consists in the employment, in a locomotive engine, of a truck or pilot wheels provided with pendent links, to allow of a lateral movement, so that the driving wheels of the locomotive engine continue to move correctly on a curved track, in consequence of the lateral movement allowed by said pendent links, the forward part of the engine travelling as a tangent to the curve, while the axles of the drivers are parallel, or nearly so, to the radial line of the curve. In the drawing, I have represented my improved truck itself. The mode of applying the same to any ordinary locomotive engine will be apparent to any competent mechanic, as my truck can be fitted in the place of those already constructed, or the same may be altered to include my improvement."

The specification then refers to the drawings, showing the wheels, the axles, and the frame of any ordinary locomotive truck, made in any usual manner, with the centre cross-bearing plate or platform, of two thicknesses of iron plate riveted together, strengthened by cross-bars beneath, and embracing at its ends the upper bars of the frame; a bolster, made of a flanged bar; the king-bolt, passing through the centre of the bolster and also through an elongated opening in the plate, so as to allow of lateral motion to the truck beneath the bolster, and at the same time becoming a connection to hold the truck to the engine; the bolster taking the weight of the engine in the middle, and itself suspended at the ends of bars attached to the moving ends of pendent links attached by bolts at their upper ends to brackets on the frame, and the distance between the bars, transversely of the truck, slightly more than between

Opinion of the Court.

the bolts, so that the pendent links diverge slightly. The specification then proceeds:

"When running upon a straight road, the engine preserves great steadiness, because any change of position transversely of the track, in consequence of the engine moving over the truck, or the truck beneath the engine, is checked by the weight of the engine hanging upon the links, and, in consequence of their divergence, any side movement causes the links on the side towards which the movement occurs to assume a more inclined position, while the other links come vertical, or nearly so; hence the weight of the engine acts with a leverage upon the most inclined links, to bring them into the same angle as the others, greatly promoting the steadiness of the engine in running on a straight line. As the pilot or truck wheels enter a curve, a sidewise movement is given to the truck, in consequence of the engine and drivers continuing to travel as a tangent to the curve of the track. This movement, and the slight turn of the whole truck on the kingbolt, not only causes the wheels to travel correctly on the track, with their axles parallel to the radial line of the curve of track, but also elevates the outer side of the engine, preventing any tendency to run off the track upon the outer side of the curve. Upon entering a straight track, the truck again assumes the central position, and in case of irregularity in the track, or any obstruction, the truck moves laterally, without disturbing the movement of the engine.

"I do not claim laterally moving trucks, nor pendent links, separately considered; but what I claim, and desire to secure by letters patent, is the employment, in a locomotive engine, of a truck or pilot wheels fitted with the pendent links, to allow of lateral motion to the engine, as specified, whereby the drivers of said engine are allowed to remain correctly on the track, in consequence of the lateral motion of the truck, allowed for by said pendent links when running on a curve, as set forth.”

The invention then, as claimed, is for the combination, with a locomotive engine, of a truck, of which the king-bolt, forming the connection to hold the truck to the engine, passes through a bolster, and through an elongated opening in the plate or platform of the truck, so as to allow the truck to have a lateral

Opinion of the Court.

motion beneath the bolster; and the bolster takes the weight of the engine in the middle, and is suspended from the frame of the truck by pendent and slightly divergent links, so that any movement of the engine or truck sidewise, as in entering upon or passing over a curve of the track, causes the links on the side toward which the engine moves to assume a more inclined position, and the other links to become nearly vertical, and the weight of the engine, hanging upon the links, checks its own lateral movement, and tends to bring both sets of links back to their original angle.

In railroad cars, the trucks were allowed to swivel around the king-bolt before 1841; the transverse slot and pendent links, allowing a lateral motion, were used by Davenport and Bridges in 1841; in 1859 Kipple and Bullock made the pendent links divergent; and at the time of Smith's invention the trucks of railroad cars had all the elements of the truck put by him under the front of a locomotive engine.

The question therefore is, whether employing, as the forward truck of a locomotive engine with fixed driving wheels, a truck already in use on railroad cars, has the novelty requisite to sustain a patent.

After carefully considering the evidence and arguments in this case, and the reasons assigned for sustaining Smith's patent, in the opinion of the court below, reported in 1 Banning & Arden, 470, and in the opinion rendered by the Circuit Court in the Second Circuit in Locomotive Engine Safety Truck Co. v. Erie Railway Co., reported in 6 Fisher Pat. Cas. 187, and in 10 Blatchford, 292, this court finds itself unable to escape from the conclusion that the application of the old truck to a locomotive engine neither is a new use, nor does it produce a new result.

In both engine and car, the increased friction against the rails and the danger of being thrown off the track, in entering upon or passing along a curve, are due to the impulse of forward motion in a direction tangential to the curve, and to the influence of centrifugal force. In the engine, as in the car, the object and the effect of the transverse slot, allowing a slight lateral motion, and of the divergent pendent links, by means of

Opinion of the Court.

which the weight of the engine or car itself helps to keep it upon the track, are to secure steadiness and safety by lessening the friction against the rails and the danger of being thrown off the track. The only difference is, that by reason of the fixed position of the driving wheels of the engine, the truck, which has before been applied at each end of a car, can only be applied at the forward end of the engine, and therefore the accommodation of the movement of the engine to the curve of the track may be less complete than in the case of the car. The effect of the invention upon the engine, as compared with its effect upon the car, is the same in kind, though perhaps less in degree.

It is settled by many decisions of this court, which it is unnecessary to quote from or refer to in detail, that the application of an old process or machine to a similar or analogous subject, with no change in the manner of application, and no result substantially distinct in its nature, will not sustain a patent, even if the new form of result has not before been contemplated. Hotchkiss v. Greenwood, 11 How. 248; Phillips v. Page, 24 How. 164, 167; Jones v. Morehead, 1 Wall. 155, overruling S. C. nom. Livingston v. Jones, 1 Fisher Pat. Cas. 521; Hicks v. Kelsey, 18 Wall. 670; Smith v. Nichols, 21 Wall. 112; Brown v. Piper, 91 U. S. 37; Roberts v. Ryer, 91 U. S. 150; Keystone Bridge Company v. Phoenix Iron Company, 95 U. S. 274, 276; Planing Machine Company v. Keith, 101 U. S. 479, 491; Pearce v. Mulford, 102 U. S. 112; Heald v. Rice, 104 U. S. 737, 754–756; Atlantic Works v. Brady, 107 U. S. 192.

In the well known case of Crane v. Price, in which the English Court of Common Pleas upheld a patent for using anthracite, instead of bituminous coal, with the hot blast in smelting iron ore, the evidence, as Chief Justice Tindal remarked, proved beyond doubt that, in the result of the combination of the hot air blast with the anthracite, not only was the yield of the fur nace more, and the expense of making the iron less, but "the nature, properties and quality of the iron were better," than under the former process by means of the combination of the hot air blast with bituminous coal. 4 Man. & Gr. 580, 604; 5

Opinion of the Court.

And the

Scott N. R. 338, 389; 1 Webster Pat. Cas. 393, 410. decision rests, as was pointed out by Chief Baron Pollock and Baron Parke in Dobbs v. Penn, 3 Exch. 427, 432, 433, and by Mr. Justice Bradley in Hicks v. Kelsey, above cited, upon the ground that a new metal or composition of matter was produced. As observed by Mr. Justice Bradley, "in compositions of matter a different ingredient changes the nature of the compound, whereas an iron bar in place of a wooden one, and subserving the same purpose, does not change the identity of a machine." 18 Wall. 674.

So in Smith v. Goodyear Dental Vulcanite Company, in this court, as was observed by Mr. Justice Strong, in delivering its judgment, “A new product was the result, differing from all that had preceded it, not merely in degree of usefulness and excellence, but differing in kind, having new uses and properties." 93 U. S. 486, 494. See also Goodyear Dental Vulcanite Company v. Davis, 102 U. S. 222.

Upon the principles which must govern this case, the decisions of this court and of the highest courts of England are in full accord, as will appear by referring to three cases, fully argued and considered, all of which were carried to the Exchequer Chamber, and two of which were finally decided in the House of Lords.

In Bush v. Fox, a patent for constructing the interior of a caisson or cylinder with successive chambers to work in, "in such manner that the work-people may be supplied with compressed air, and be able to raise the material excavated, and to make or construct foundations and buildings," under water, when a similar apparatus had already been used for working underground on land, was held by Chief Baron Pollock, by the Court of Exchequer Chamber, and by the House of Lords, to be void for want of novelty, after able arguments in support of the patent by Sir Alexander Cockburn, then Attorney-General, and by Mr. Webster, the accomplished patent counsel, at the successive stages of the case. Macrory Pat. Cas. 152, 167, 179; 9 Exch. 651; 5 H. L. Cas. 707.

So the Court of Queen's Bench held that the finishing of yarns of wool or hair by a process previously applied to yarns of cot