Appeal No. 97-3754
Application 08/302,504
We do not consider this position to be well taken.
While Barclay’s arrays of rollers 41, 53 might, in some con-
texts, be considered “walls,” they cannot be in the present
case because the claims recite the walls and rollers as sepa-
rate elements. Thus, independent claims 1 and 10 call for a
tunnel having various walls in part (b) and a plurality of
rollers “disposed on and parallel to” each of the walls in
part (c). These limitations are not met by the rollers 41, 53
of Barclay, because Barclay’s rollers clearly cannot at the
same time both constitute the walls and be “disposed on and
parallel to” the walls. The frames 51, 57, 59 on which
Barclay’s rollers are mounted are themselves not “walls.”4
In view of the foregoing, we conclude that Barclay
does not disclose or suggest the apparatus recited in claims 1
4 The American College Dictionary (Random House, 1970)
defines “wall” as:
1. an upright work or structure of stone, brick, or
similar material, serving for enclosure, division,
support, protection, etc., as one of the upright
enclosing sides of a building or a room, or a solid
fence of masonry . . . 3. anything which resembles
or suggests a wall . . . 4. a wall-like enclosing
part, thing, mass, etc.
5
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