This folder contains material relating to five Patent Office proceedings. The interferences involve applications filed by Edward L. Aiken, John Oertly, William Platt, Nicholas Power, Eberhard Schneider, and other parties, including William B. Moore and Thomas H. Armstrong of Moore, Bond & Co., successor to the Stereopticon and Film Exchange of Chicago. The documents pertain to automatic shutters, also known as fire shields or protective gates, which were attachments used in film projectors for fire safety. The selected items, which cover the period 1906-1908, include correspondence, agreements, briefs, depositions, and patent specifications. Also included are four undated, rough drawings by Edison, which relate to other drawings by Schneider and Power. The correspondence is primarily by Frank L. Dyer and Herbert H. Dyke of the Legal Department and by other patent attorneys, including Bacon & Milans of Washington, D.C., and Charles T. Brown of Chicago. There are also letters by attorney Baxter Morton, vice president of the Nicholas Power Co. of New York.

Among the items not selected are twenty-five patents covering the years 1869-1908. The earlier patents relate to improvements in steam engine governors; most of the later patents pertain to the use of automatic shutters in projectors for fire safety. The inventors represented include one-time Edison employee James H. White, as well as Leon Bories of San Francisco; August and Louis Chronik and Nicholas Power of New York; Frank McMillan, John J. Pink, and Alvah C. Roebuck of Chicago; and Albert D. Palmer of Pittsburgh.