Appeal No. 96-1389
Application No. 07/925,615
Plugge is relied upon by the examiner to teach a screw auger
conveyor means which includes an auger tube having a plurality
of spaced outlet openings 100 for evenly distributing material
over the length of the conveyor means. Based on Plugge, the
examiner contends that it would have been obvious to employ a
conveyor device having a plurality of outlet openings in the
modified primary reference “for the known and expected result
of employing an alternative means recognized in the art to
achieve the same result, the even distribution of material
throughout and within a space of predetermined dimensions”
(answer, page 6). With respect to (5), Cottrell is cited to
teach that it is conventional in the art to convey cotton gin
trash from a cotton gin by means of a forced air stream and
then use cyclones to separate the trash from the forced air
stream for further processing. Based on this teaching, the
examiner contends that it would have been obvious to collect
and convey cotton gin trash to the compost pile of the
modified primary reference in the manner utilized by Cottrell.
No reference is cited for (6). Instead, the examiner contends
that it would have been obvious “to wet the solid material of
the reference of Shelef [Pinckard?] with water which is
-5-
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007