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Show GOODYEAR TIRE WINS BITTER PATENT SUIT United States District Court Votes Goodyear's Claim of Priority to Be Valid. All American tiredom is interested in F. A. Seiberling's victory this week over the Firestone Tire & Rubber company com-pany in the United States district court, in a suit charging infringement on the Sei ber ling-Goody ear tire-making1 machine patents. The interest of tire manufacturers in tho outcome of this suit .brought by F. A. Sciberling, president of the Goodyear Good-year company, was unusually heightened height-ened because of the fact that while a large majority of tire manufacturers, both large and small, have been for some years building their tires upon machines licensed from Mr. Seiberling, a small handful of other manufacturers have refused to concede the validity of the patents on tho Goodyear machines. The Goodyear company contended that tho Sciberling-Steveus machine of ; 1902-3 was a pioneer invention and , that it paved the way for the present-day present-day semi-automatic tire-niaking machine; ma-chine; that the Soiberling-Stevens machine ma-chine wns the first ever produced to make automobile tires; that the Goodyear Good-year company developed the first practical prac-tical machine for making automobile tires mechanically that is now in use. This Goodyear position is now con-finned con-finned in no uncertain terms by this late decision of Judge Killits of the United States district court. Prior to 1902 auto tire casings were made by hand. A diminishing few are stil mado that way. The rubber in a tire casing does little of the hard work of sustaining the load and stresses incident inci-dent to forming a cushion between the automobile and the road. The hard work is done liv ihi Iavpm rf Hnn fabric that confine 'tho air and form tho real structure of the casing. Casings Cas-ings are built of rubber-impregnated fabric, a layer at a time. It is important im-portant that ovefy part of each laver be stretched to the same tension," so each part of each layer will bear an equal part of each shuck. Loose layers shirk their duty; layers stretched ' too tight do too much work -and a tire is no stronger than its weakest point. In the day of hand-made tires the tire-maker depended entirely upon the strength of his arms for stretching his fabric layers. In the morning, when he was comparatively fresh and strong,1 he stretched the fabric tightly; in tlie afternoon his weariness 'was expressed in fabric laid more loosely. Xo two men s strength is ever exactly equal. Strong men made better tires than weaker men, and there was much to be eHticised in the old, hand-made method. Realizing the uncertainty and inefficiency in-efficiency of tho old wav and the desirability desir-ability of n mechfinical apparatus for laying up the fabric, F. A. Seiberling, then and now tho president of the Goodvcar Tire & Rubber company, and W. (J. Stevens constructed and in 1904 patented a tire-making machine. Like other pioneer inventions, it lacked some mechanical refinements, but Goodyear tires were made on it and the machine was found to be practical. Later improvements were made upon the original machine and by J903 almost al-most all Goodycpr tire casings were machine-made. This is true todav. Moreover, moro than one-half the tires: made in the United States are now the product of Goodyear patent tire ma- . chines, and new licenses are still being' issued the latest less than two weeks! ago. |