536
FEDERAL REPORTER.
the only novelty pretended consists in the arranging the fare box, lamp, and reflector in such a manner that light from the lamp will be thrown into the fare box. No invention was required to so arrange these parts. It would not fail to be accomplished by any person of ordinary intelligence and experience who should attempt it. This patent, therefore, must be held to be void. The result is that the bill is dismissed, with costs.
AMERICAN WHIP Co. v. HAMPDEN WHIP Co. and others. (Circuit Court, D. Ma8SaMusetts. --,1880.)
In Equity. Patent No. 132,909 was granted David C. Hull, November 12, 1872, on an application said to have been filed March 9, 1871, for an improvement in modes of constructing whipstocks. In his specification he said: "In the common way heretofore practiced for making a whip-stock of pieces of rattan and a metallic load, the pieces of wood were arranged around the load-piece, with their butts even, or about so, with each other, in consequence of which the part at the butt of the stock held or grasped by the ch.uck of the turning machine could not be turned thereby, but had to be subsequently reduced by other means." He then described the mode of making his improved whip-stock, showing, with the assistance of his drawings, substantially this: that he inserted a plug or backing of wood in the butt of the whip-stock, at the part which is grasped by the chuck of the lathe, in place of the metallic load-piece, so that when the stock is taken out of the machine this part can be sawed off without obstruction from the iron or leaden load-piece, instead of being planed or wnittled down to suit the taper of the whip. He adds: "I
AMERICAN WHIP CO. 'D. HAMPDEN WHIP 00.
537
am aware that in turning an article it has been customary to use a blank longer than the article, and after,wards to xemove the surplus at each or either end of the article. Such, however, constitutes no part of my invention, but is only incident to it in the of reduction of it or [? to] the whip-stock. I therefore make no claim to such a process of turning an article ffom a blank longer than the article, and subsequently removing the surplus at either or each end of the article:" The claim was "the method of constructing a whip-stock by making a stump-shod on the end of the stock by the insertion of a backing or plug within the surrounding rattans, for the purpose of allowing the butt of the whip to be entirely finished by turning, and the superfluous material to be removed by the saw, all in the manner described." Re-issue No. 5,651 was granted the patentee, November 11, 1873, in which the description of the manufacture was like that in the original patent, but a statement and a claim were added. The former is: "The extension of the rattan strips, D, rearward beyond the load-piece, with or without the plug or is a matter of my invention. Although the extension alone, without the load-piece, makes a stump-shod which can be used in holding the stock in the chuck of the. turning machine, the addition of the plug makes the stump-shod stronger, and not liable to cripple or give way under the action of the machine." The additional claim, which was the first of the re-issue, was for a Whip-stock with the parts arranged. as described, showing the rattan strips surrounding the piece, and extended rearward beyond it, substantially as described. The second claim, like the single claim of the original patent, though somewhat differently expressed, was for the arrangement when the plug was used. There was evidence tending to show that the invention claimed first in the re-issue was made in 1865, when about one gross of whips were made and sold; and the second part, where the plug is used, was made in 1870, within two years before the application for the original patent. There was much conflicting evidence upon the state of the art before 1865 and before 1870.
