Appeal No. 2004-0839 Page 3
Application No. 09/347,695
OPINION
In reaching our decision in this appeal, we have given careful consideration to
the appellant's specification and claim 1 under appeal, to the applied patent to Berquist,
and to the respective positions articulated by the appellant and the examiner. As a
consequence of our review, we make the determinations which follow.
The teachings of Berquist
Berquist's invention relates to a method and apparatus for implanting geophones
into the earth for the detection of seismic waves. In the BACKGROUND OF THE
INVENTION section of the patent (column 1, lines 11-33) Berquist teaches that:
Heretofore, an apparatus has been provided for implanting geophones
into the earth for the detection of seismic waves. For example, U.S. Pat. No.
4,838,379 dated Jun. 13, 1989 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,031 dated Apr. 9, 1991
show manually actuated geophone implanting tools. Normally, as shown in U.S.
Pat. No. 5,007,031 a hole is first dug in the earth to receive the geophone at a
predetermined location. Then, after properly inserting the geophone within the
hole, a spike on the geophone is manually driven into the bottom of the hole for
anchoring the geophone. It is time consuming to first dig the holes for the
geophones and then to position and anchor the geophones within the holes
manually by hammering the geophones into the holes.
It is difficult to obtain manually the precise level and alignment of the
geophone when implanted in the earth in order to obtain accurate measurements
of the seismic activity. It is desirable in most instances that the geophones be
positioned along an accurate vertical axis regardless of the slope of the earth
surface. To obtain such an accurate positioning with manual tools is time
consuming, and such manual tools sometimes result in a possible error in the
desired alignment and positioning.
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007