Steel Wire Brush Patent.
Before Judges McKennan and Acheson of the United States Circuit Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, at Pittsburg, Pa., No. 16 of November term, 1886, a question arose as to whether a steel wire brush for cleaning castings, and a steel wire brush for cleaning boiler flues, was an infringement on what is generally known as the Wright patent, No. 59,733, and the reissue, No. 2,598, owned by Joseph McArthur, of New York city.
The Wright patent consists of a wooden block with a series of pairs of holes. A bundle of wire splints is doubled and the ends inserted in the holes, being held by the wooden bridge between the holes and by a wooden back screwed to the block.
Joseph H. Davis, of Sewickley, Pa., the defendant, under his casting brush patent, No. 232,600, the construction of which consists in the doubling of the wire splints and inserting in one hole of a wooden block, and fastening by means of weaving a wire through the loop, the wire being held in place by a wooden back fastened on by driving wrought iron nails through the block and back and clinching on the back, thus making the block and back practically inseparable.
The Davis flue brush patent, No. 181,416, is made by sticking the wire splints through holes in an iron cylinder, there being no wood about its construction.
Several cases had been tried in other States involving the validity of the Wright patent, which had resulted in Mr. McArthur's favor, but after exhaustive argument in the case at Pittsburg, Pa., the court held the Davis brush not to be an infringement on the Wright patent.