Defendant's case. explained the manner in which he proposed to procure a supply of gas for his machine, without its being known to what purpose that gas was applied. It was likewise proved, that both in the premises spoken of by the last witness, and in others occupied by the two defendants at a subsequent period, alterations had been made in the position of the gas burners quite inconsistent with the purpose of lighting the premises; that the gas fittings had been tampered with; and that, on the last-mentioned premises at least, a quantity of gas had been consumed quite beyond what could be accounted for by any consumption for the purpose of lighting; and that on J. Boot's being spoken to on this last head, he had either refused to give any explanation at all, saying it was nothing to the company how much he burned so long as he paid for it, or had given one that was quite insufficient and unsatisfactory. It was also proved, that on this defendant's premises, both those occupied by him at first, and those in which he was afterwards, part of the room had been partitioned off, and its windows blocked up, so as to exclude the view. The gas fittings were altered so as to introduce the gas into this apartment. A witness had looked through the key-hole, and others through an opening in the roof, made for that purpose, and had seen machinery precisely similar to that of the plaintiff. It was proved, that lace left with the defendants to be dressed had been returned in the state to which it would have been brought by the application of the plaintiff's process; and that similar lace had been offered for sale by F. Boot, and that he had paid for the gas consumed. The lease of the premises, to which the principal part of the above evidence of infringement applied, was executed by him, and he paid the rates and taxes. Some of the alterations in the position of the gas fittings had been made by his direction. Gurney (Gaselee and F. Pollock), for the defendants: The process is not new-fire, and even flame, having been applied to similar purposes before the plaintiff's invention; the mere doing that with the flame of gas, which had long before been done by means of other kinds of flame, cannot be the subject-matter of a patent. It will be proved that the fibres can be destroyed as well by spermaceti oil and alcohol, without a chimney, as by gas with a chimney. It had also (as appears from the evidence) been attempted to force the flame of charcoal through the interstices of the lace by a pair of bellows; but it must be admitted that flame has not been used in combination with a chimney above, so as to produce a current of air. [Abbott, C. J. The proving that will not affect the question.] If flame has been employed before and has effected the purpose, Mr. Hall cannot be entitled to this patent, because he is employing an agent not invented by him; the gas he employs has been in common use, it has been known a considerable time. He cannot be entitled A. D. 1822. to the monopoly of the use of flame gas (c), because any man who has the use of that may use it as he pleases, nor can the plaintiff be entitled to the patent for having produced a current of air which is not new, because that is the principle by which the Argand lamp is constructed, by means of which the smoke is consumed (d). Further, there is no evidence to connect the defendants in any joint act, or to show that the lace sold was gassed in conjunction. The witnesses for the defendants proved that the flame of Evidence for decharcoal, of waste paper, wood, shavings, or common pit coal, fence. had been used for many years to singe the fibres from silk, cotton or lace sleeves, but the articles for this purpose had been placed on a wooden leg or a sleeve board. That bellows had. been used to force the flame against the article, which it was said would produce the effect of burning the interstices. The jury intimated that they did not require any observations in reply. ABBOTT, C. J.: There can be no doubt, gentlemen, your verdict must pass against both the defendants; one of them has the pipe laid into the house. Verdict for the plaintiff (e). CLEGG'S PATENT Letters Patent to Samuel Clegg, 9th Dec., 56 G. 3, A. D. 1815, Title. for "An improved Gas Apparatus.” I, the said Samuel Clegg, do hereby declare, that my said Specification. invention of "An improved Gas Apparatus" is ascertained and described by these presents, and the drawings hereunto annexed, and herein referred to by way of illustration and example. My improved gas apparatus is for the purposes of extracting inflammable gas by heat, from pit coal, or tar, or any other substance from which gas or gases capable of being employed for illumination can be extracted by heat; for purifying the gas so obtained; (c) It is not the monopoly of the flame of gas which the patentee claims, but the monopoly of using that flame to clear lace; that is, in substance, he claims the sole working or making of the new manufacture of lace called gassed lace. (d) The specification does not claim this; it describes it as part of the means by which the flame of gas may be applied so as to produce the intended result. The concluding part of the specification is very important. Ante, 99. (e) The court refused to disturb the verdict, and the patentee enjoyed the benefit of his patent during the whole of the term. The fact of a patentee maintaining his patent against so large and extensive a combination as the lace trade, whose interest it would be to upset it, is the best evidence which can be afforded of its validity. and for measuring out and distributing it to lamps, lights, or burners, where light or heat is to be produced by the combustion of the said gas. One part of my invention is, a horizontal flat retort, in which coals or other materials capable of producing inflammable gas are heated, and the gas extracted by distillation. * * * (a) Another part of my invention is an improvement in the purifying apparatus to be placed in the vessels into which the gas from the retort is conveyed for the purpose of being purified by exposing it to the action of lime-water. * (a) * * Another part of my invention is a Gauge or rotative Gasmeter, for measuring out and registering the quantity of gas which passes through a pipe or opening, so as to ascertain the quantity consumed by any certain number of lights or burners. This gauge consists of a hollow wheel or drum, capable of revolving vertically upon pivots, in the manner of a water wheel: the hollow rim of the wheel is made close on all sides, to form a circular channel, which is divided by partitions into certain compartments or chambers to contain the gas, which is introduced into the wheel through one end of its axis, and carried off from the wheel through the other end. By certain contrivances, it is so arranged, that each of these boxes or chambers will be filled with gas from the entrance pipe, and emptied of the same into the exit pipe, every time the wheel makes a revolution (b), by which means the number of turns the wheel makes (when registered by suitable wheel work) becomes a record of the quantity or number of boxes full of gas which has passed through the gauge. The gas is conducted from the place whence it is supplied, and enters into the gauge through one of its axes, and is conveyed into the chambers of the rim by certain hollow arms. The gas returns from the said chambers by certain other hollow arms, and is conveyed away through the opposite end of the axis of the wheel by the pipe which leads to the burners or place where the gas is consumed. No gas can pass from the pipe of entrance, at one end of the axis, and get to the pipe of exit at the other end of the axis, without entering into and filling the said chambers. A sufficient quantity of water is put into the hollow rim of the wheel, to fill a segment of the rim, rather larger in its capacity than one of the compartments into which it is divided; and there are passages of communication between the chambers through which this water can pass from one chamber into the next, but the gas cannot pass. It is evident, that the water from its gravity will always fill a segment in the lowest (a) Here follows a general description of this part of the invention, and of the method of using it; a more detailed account being contained in the subsequent explanation of the drawings. (b) The motion of the wheel, as is explained in a subsequent part of the specification, is occasioned by the elastic force of the gas acting between a partition of the wheel and the surface of the water. Various other particulars are fully explained in the detailed explanation of the annexed drawings. part of the wheel; and when the same turns round, the water A. D. 1815. will occupy each of the chambers in succession, as they arrive at, and during the time each one continues at the lowest part of the wheel; the pipes or hollow arms which convey the gas to the chambers are so contrived, that when the entrance pipe to any one chamber is open to admit the gas, the exit pipe from the same chamber will be shut or sealed up, and vice versá; and this opening and shutting of the passages into and out of any one chamber, takes place at that period of the revolution of the wheel when the water in the lower part thereof is on the point of entering into or going out from the said chambers: that is to say, when the water at the lower part of the wheel is on the point of quitting any chamber, the pipe of entry shall be open to admit gas into the said chamber, which gas expels the water from it through the passage of communication into the adjacent chamber, until the first mentioned chamber becomes filled with gas, and the second mentioned chamber becomes filled with water; at the same time the pipe of exit from the second mentioned chamber is opened, and the water which enters from the first mentioned chamber displaces the gas, and it passes off through the exit pipe. The machinery for counting and registering the number of revolutions made by the wheel, may be constructed in any of the ways usually employed for similar purposes. It is not essential to this gauge, that the exit pipe from the chambers be conveyed through the axis, the same effects may be obtained by enclosing the whole wheel within a close vessel or case, in which it can revolve freely, and allowing the gas to escape into the case from the chambers, when the same are to be discharged; from this case the gas can be carried off by the exit pipe. The means of opening or shutting the passages of communication may be varied; it may be done either by valves, or by sealing the pipes with water or other fluid (c). Another part of my invention is "a self-acting Governor," for regulating the efflux or discharge of gas through any opening or openings, or burners, with an uniform velocity, or nearly so, notwithstanding any variations which may take place in the pressure which urges the gas to pass through the pipes of supply. (d) Having now ascertained my invention of an improved gas apparatus, and defined in what it consists, I shall proceed to describe the same, and to show, by the assistance of the drawings, in what manner it is to be performed; first observing, that the said drawings represent the apparatus in its most complete state, but that the arrangements of the parts, and the construc (e) See a further and general description of this part of the invention, by Brougham, on moving for a nonsuit, post, 112. Р (d) Here follows a general description of the method of using this part of the invention. tion of many of the minor parts, may be varied and modified * In witness, &c. Evidence for plaintiff. CROSSLEY (f) v. BEVERLEY. In the K. B., Mich. Vac. A. D. 1829. Cor. Ld. Tenterden, C.J. Sir J. Scarlett (F. Pollock, Alderson, and Godson, were with him), for the plaintiff, described generally the introduction of gas, and the nature of the invention which was the subject of the preceding patent, and particularly the progress of invention in respect of the gas-meter, of which alone an infringement was complained. Soon after the patent was taken out, Mr. Clegg made a considerable improvement on the original invention, by contriving the chambers at the centre, whereby a valve, previously necessary, was dispensed with; the gas-meters made according to this improvement entirely superseded the others, and the infringement complained of is the making of these by the defendant. The question will be, whether this is an infringement of the patent. Now, if the invention consists in the serpentine tubes, or the particular modes described in the specification of supplying the gas through the axis, there is no infringement, but these are only the mechanical means, and the plaintiff claims any mode in which the hollow drum or enclosed cylinder may revolve round its own axis, such motion being produced by the filling the chambers alternately with gas and with water. The idea of measuring gas by causing the wheel to revolve, is entirely Mr. Clegg's own; that is stated in the patent; the contrivance may assume various shapes, and the patent, in fact, is for the discovery of the application of this method to practice, by whatever mode the result is produced. The following facts appeared in evidence:-The gas must be made from the coal, purified, measured, and regulated in its supply to the burners. The apparatus is correctly called a gas apparatus, since it attains the four preceding objects, and was a complete apparatus at the time. The lime-water, under the old system, was extremely offensive, and difficult to be got rid of. The improvement in respect of that consists in using the lime in a more concentrated state, with less water, and therefore it (e) Here follow the references to the annexed drawings, with the various details of description incident to complete working drawings. (ƒ) Crossley was the assignee of the preceding patent. |