Appeal No. 1999-2204 Page 4
Application No. 08/951,003
The appellants’ invention is directed to apparatus for scrubbing with water a
continuous flow of gas charged with solid or semi-solid particles to remove them and to
recycle the cleansing water. Basically, in the appellants’ invention gas charged with solid
or semi-solid particles passes upward through slots in a plate positioned in the bottom of a
scrubbing chamber adjacent to a reservoir of scrubbing water, in such a manner as to
induct the water into the charged gas stream. The mixed stream of gas, particles and
scrubbing water then continues upward through the scrubbing chamber until it impinges
upon a splitter oriented perpendicularly to the flow, which causes most of the water and the
particles to be removed from the stream. The scrubbing water is cleansed of the particles
and recycled. In the manifestation of the invention recited in claim 14, the incoming
charged gas is prewetted by ejecting scrubbing water into the stream while it passes
through the inlet to the apparatus.
The examiner has taken the position that all of the subject matter recited in
independent claims 1 and 14 is found in the Black reference, except for the means for
separating and recycling the scrubbing water that is recited in claim 1 and the means for
ejecting the scrubbing water into the gas steam at the inlet to the apparatus to prewet the
gas, which is recited in claim 14. In the examiner’s view, these two features are taught by
3(...continued)
See, for example, Uniroyal, Inc. v. Rudkin-Wiley Corp., 837 F.2d 1044, 1052, 5 USPQ2d
1434, 1439 (Fed. Cir.), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 825 (1988).
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