Appeal No. 1998-1885
Application No. 07/914,359
to ground. See, for example, Figure 1. As explained by
appellants on page 17 of the specification, with this
arrangement, when the switch is in the off position, if the
heater is accidentally short-circuited for some reason, no
power is supplied from the power supply means to the heater
and wasteful power consumption is prevented. In furtherance
of this objective, independent claim 1 expressly calls for a
first switch connected between the power supply means and the
heating means for selectively switching on and off the power
supply from said power supply means to said heating means.2
Follmer, the starting point for each of the examiner’s
rejections, is directed to a electric quick heater system for
an automobile. Follmer’s Figure 2 system, in pertinent part,
includes an alternator (2) connected to a storage battery (3-
1). A relay (K-1) and a heat element (R ) are connected in
H
parallel between the alternator and the storage battery. When
the relay is open current flows through the heat element to
2Claim 11, the only other independent claim on appeal,
contains similar language.
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