Appeal No. 96-3062
Application 08/239,029
positioned downstream of the first venturi. According to Bloch,
“only one portion of the stream of fluid that is actually used
passes through the rotor” (translation, page 1), that is, through
the alpha venturi tube. The remaining portions of the stream of
fluid, which pass through the other venturi tubes and the
deflector, influence the area downstream of the alpha tube in
such a manner as to recompress the fluid exhausting therefrom,
allowing it to flow more freely.
Jourdain describes the prior art pertinent to his invention
as comprising a turbine in a main cone, with a plurality of
guiding cones arranged around the main cone to improve the power
efficiency of the turbine. He characterizes his invention as an
improvement in which a series of turbines is substituted for the
series of guiding cones arranged around the main cone of the
prior art devices. See translation, page 1. As shown in the
drawing, a turbine is located in the constricted portion of each
of a series of “cones” which, in our view, would have been
recognized by one of ordinary skill in the art as being, in
actuality, venturi tubes.3
3A short tube with a tapering constriction in the middle
that causes an increase in the velocity of the flow of fluid and
a corresponding decrease in fluid pressure. See, for example,
Mirriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, 1996,
page 1311.
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