The Edison phonograph monthly (Mar-Dec 1907)

EDISON PHONOGRAPH MONTHLY. (Continued from page i.) constantly being turned down, it being our policy at present to establish no jobbing firms except at such places as the general welfare of the business makes it desirable and not merely to sell goods. The report of the Sales Department on March 2d shows a total of over 10,000 Edison Dealers in the United States and Canada. These are not agents, but bona fide dealers, each with an established store and doing a legitimate business. Nor are they "dead" dealers, as we make every effort to determine who are the "dead ones" and remove them. From 10 to 50 of these firms are removed every week. With such a record for "past performances" and such a "sure thing" for the new year, it follows that every member of the Edison organization is feeling much elated just now. If it is true that nothing succeeds like success, the Edison business for 1906-07 will be a marvelous example of success. AN IMPORTANT EDISON PATENT SUSTAINED. A decision has just been handed down by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York, involving Mr. Edison's patent on the camera used for taking moving pictures. This patent marked the practical beginning of the moving picture art, and was the first example of a camera arranged to take a series of uniformly spaced negatives on a single film, to permit the direct printing of positives therefrom. The original patent was granted August 31, 1897, and a suit for its infringement was brought against the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company of New York. The case was originally heard by Judge Wheeler, in Vermont, who decided that the patent was valid and that it was infringed, but upon appeal, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals at New York, held that the claims were too broad, and that the patent for that reason was invalid. The patent was thereupon re-issued with new claims on September 30, 1902, and a new suit was brought against the same defendant. The new suit was first argued before Judge Ray, United States District Judge in New York City, and it was held that while the new claims were valid they were not infringed. Upon appeal the present decision has just been rendered affirming Judge Ray's opinion on the subject of validity, but reversing him on the question of infringement. This decision practically gives to Mr. Edison a monopoly on all modern moving picture cameras. In considering the question of infringement Judge Ray regarded the patent as being limited to the specific device invented by Mr. Edison for feeding the film, but with this the Court of Appeals did not agree, and said : "Such novelty, however, cannot be predicated solely on the circumstance that the intermittently moving parts operate directly upon the film; the meritorious feature of the device is that they seise hold of the Him firmly, move it positively, regularly, evenly and very rapidly without jarring, jerking or slipping, producing a negative which can be printed from and reproduced as a whole without rearrangement to correct imperfect spacing of the successive pictures." Although the particular device suggested by Mr. Edison in his patent for intermittently moving the film was a sprocket wheel which always engaged the perforations therein, the Court held that defendant's arrangement, consisting of an oscillating fork which only periodically engaged the film to move it intermittently, was an infringement. They said : "But the 'intermediate section' is moved across the lens by the interlocking engagement between a sprocket or pin and a hole in the film, thereby moving it positively, regularly, evenly, and very rapidly, without jarring, jerking or slipping — the parts being arranged so that the movement shall be intermittent. In our opinion the bifurcated fork with studs is a fair equivalent of the wheel with sprockets, and the combination shown in the Warwick camera is an infringement of claims 1, 2 and 3 of the reissued patent." Although this decision comes almost ten years after the original patent was granted, and after many vicissitudes, we are glad to say that Mr. Edison's claim to inventorship in the moving picture art is fully and completely recognized, and we are sure that all of his friends will join with us in congratulations. MR. EDISON AND THE NEWSPAPER MEN. If people thought at all about Thomas A. Edison's age they would have guessed he was older than 60. At the banquet given to him by some of his employees in this city last Monday night he said he meant to play hereafter. Of course, everybody understood that joke. He is a great joker, but never said anything more ridiculous than that he did not mean to work. He knows nothing about playing. The reason many would have supposed him older than 60 is that he has so long been famous. Thirty years ago Newark newspaper men were "writing him up" pretty regularly, and he was very widely known before that. Whenever a Newark reporter needed a story on a dull day he could find one at Edison's little place, in the old Advertiser building, or on Ward street. Newspaper men owe him a big debt. He has furnished them with more salable copy than any living American, including even Theodore Roosevelt. — Newark Sunday Call.