ference to the specification? and if the specification is too large, is not the patent so too? Bringing in a current of pure atmospheric air is not

new.

Mr. Attorney-General.—But bringing in the current of atmospheric air and excluding all other air is new.

Mr. Justice LE BLANC.-I think this patent cannot be supported: it is in substance a patent for an improvement in street lamps, and should have been so taken.

Plaintiff nonsuited.

IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS.

Bovill v. Moore and others.

1st March, 1816.

THIS was an action brought by Mr. Bovill, assignee of a patent taken out by Mr. Brown, dated 24th April, 51 Geo. III. for "a machine or machines for the manufacture of bobbin lace or twist net, similar to and resembling the Buckinghamshire lace net and French lace net, as made by the hand with, bobbins or pillows," against Messrs. Moore, Longmire, and Noble, lace manufacturers at Nottingham, for an infringement of the said patent.

Mr. Solicitor-General (Shepherd), on behalf of the plaintiff, stated the questions to be, first, whether the patent of the plaintiff was a good and valid pa

tent in point of law; and secondly, if it be, whether the defendants have pirated that patent.

With respect to both questions there will be very little doubt, when, through the medium of the witnesses, the machinery comes to be understood. They will take the specification and drawings, in their hands they have seen the machinery, and will point out what are the combinations of this machinery; what are the effects that it produces; how it is a new combination, and how the defendants have imitated it.

The patent is taken out for a machine, or machines, for the manufacture of bobbin lace, or twist-net, (which is another phrase by which the commodity is described), similar to, and resembling the Buckinghamshire lace-net, and French lace-net, as made by the hand with pillows. In Buckinghamshire the women make this species of lace called bobbin lace, or twisted net, by the hand, upon the pillows; and the object of this machine is to make that through the medium of machinery which by them is made by the hand: the benefit derived from it is expedition; it also makes it much more perfect and better; but whether it makes it better than that made by hand would be no question in this cause, because the patent is for a machine, of the particular description specified, to produce the commodity which formerly was produced by hand.

The patent being for a machine, it is not necessary that every constituent constituent part of that machine should be new-nay, it may not be necessary that any one of the constituent parts of the machine

taken singly and separately by itself should be new, but it is sufficient if the combination of the different parts and things that are used be new, and applied to a purpose to which it never was applied before; indeed it need not be put in that way, for it will appear that a combination, such as this, producing the effect this does in the manufacture of lace, never was put together for the production of any particular thing; almost all machines are composed of old parts; the beam, the lever, the roller, and so on, operating on a machine, are all old, and are perfectly well known; but if the combination be new and useful also, that will be sufficient, because the machine is composed by the combination of the different parts of it.

There have certainly been machines used in lace-making. There is a certain sort of machine used for point net-lace-there is another sort of machine used for what they call warp net-lace, but those machines are by no means similar, but on the contrary totally dissimilar to the present; nor are they capable of making the species of lace which is the object of this, which is called the bobbin lace or the French net-lace.

There has been before this a machine invented by another person with the object of making even this sort of lace, but it will be proved to you by the witnesses, that the machine of Mr. Brown is not similar to that machine in the combination of its parts, and in the productions and the mode of producing the effect which this produces.

The commodity which is produced by this ma

chine is made either in small widths, or it may be made according as the machine is made larger, and the different parts put together, in different breadths extremely wide, according as the machine is extended, and as the different warps are extended along the beam, and different parts of the machine are in operation or not in operation.

The mode by which this is produced is in the nature of weaving; though in fact the thing produced is what may be called a net mesh; the common netting is produced by a knot, this is not produced by a knot but by a twist: in order to make this mesh, one thread comes round the other, and then instead of being tied in a knot at the top as it is in netting, it is in a twist: one is twisted round the other and pressed down, and then by the tension of all the parts equally, and particularly by the tension of the selvage, the whole is kept together.

The mode of doing that is by twisting or weaving what are called the beam threads and bobbin threads; the bobbin thread is the warp thread, and the weft is what we have called the beam thread; the bobbin thread hangs down perpendicularly, the beam thread is put upon a sort of balloon, at the top, and being put perpendicularly, the bobbin thread passes through two of the beam threads, and when it has passed through the machine is so contrived as that it shall twist round it, and then it is through the medium of our machinery repassed, it changes its position and is repassed through the next thread; the consequence of that would be, that one thread twist

ing round the other, it is then pressed down by the comb to the bottom, and forms a mesh exactly as a mesh would be formed by twisting the th ng round the netting needle; when that operation is performed it passes again, and then in the same way makes another mesh, and as soon as the operation of the first row is performed, then the bobbin comes back again, and then it passes through the threads again, and so ascending higher and higher it makes the different rows of

net.

The object to be produced by the machinery of the present plaintiff's, is that which has been stated, and it is constructed with that degree of accuracy that the bobbins always keep their places each to the other. In the production of a piece, there must be as many bobbins as there are threads, and if you extend a piece, whatever be the number of bobbins fixed on the jack; suppose any number of those put in a row, they all work and operate together backwards and forwards, always keeping their places relatively fixed each to the other.

It has been attempted to be said by certain persons, that this is not accurately described in the specification but a great number of scientific men, mechanics, and lace-makers also, will tell you, that they looking at the specification, and knowing, as every man must have a competent degree of knowledge to make a thing of the same nature, that they, looking at the specification, can with the greatest ease, considering all its combinations and its parts before they begin to do the