13 F. Cas. 199 | D.C. | 1857
Appeal from the decision of the Commissioner of Patents refusing a patent to said George R. Jackson for a new and useful improvement on the divided or many-glass vault.
This application appears to have been rejected on the ground of analogous use or want of novelty.
The Commissioner supposed that there was nothing substantially new in the principles embraced within this specification, and referred to the patent of Thaddeus Hyatt of November 12th, 1845, reissued April 3d, 1855, as covering all that is embraced in the alleged invention. Hyatt’s claim, as stated in his patent, appears to be ‘ ‘ the combining with the covering-plate B B a series of glasses of any suitable form, or of lenses, such as are shown at A A, said combination being effected substantially in the manner described by the aid of laminal wood or of soft metal, as shown at C C, and the glasses or lenses being defended from injury by knobs or protuberances, as herein set forth.” In his application for his reissued patent he very particulaidy describes his inventions, and of the accidental omission in his first application of several other modes of applying his said invention.
The Commissioner’s decision is placed upon two grounds: First. That the application does not sufficiently show the fact that it is at most only an improvement upon an existing patent. Secondly. That the claim now presented seems to be founded on a mere change of form ; that no advantage is likely to accrue from the use of this particular shape to the glasses, instead of those which had before been in use. He proceeds : “ It is said in behalf
The reasons of appeal are, in substance- — •
First. That the character of the invention covered by Hyatt’s patents have been misrepresented (or misunderstood, I suppose, is meant).
Second. That the Commissioner erred in deciding that Jackson’s specification does not sufficiently show the fact that his application was for an improvement upon an existing patent.
Third. That the Commissioner erred in suggesting that the glasses in Hyatt’s vault covers may be readily constructed in such a manner that the point where the converging rays of light meet will be within half an inch of the under surface of the glass, there being no evidence to show that he ever did originate or use anything of the kind.
The Commissioner in his report, among other things, further says : “It is well settled that a mere change of form is not the subject of a patent. I thought the applicant had shown nothing more than a mere change of form of what had been previously used, and decided accordingly.”’ He further says : “Lenses had before been made of various shapes, among which were the planoconvex. It was very clear to my mind that the proposed convexity of the inferior surfaces of these lenses fairly included all the various degrees of convexity, allowing the patentee to fix upon that particular degree which experiment should show best adapted to his purpose. To make these inferior surfaces of a pyramidal form did not seem to me patentable, any more than it
The principal question in the case is whether the peculiar device in the construction and form of the appellant’s glass, and its operation in connection with the flaring sides of the neck of the vault, supposed to cause the rays of light to diverge at a point within the glass, is not an improved invention in illuminating-vault covers.
In his argument before me, the counsel for the appellant supposes the Commissioner to have been deceived in the essential difference between his glass and that of Hyatt’s. He contends that no case can be shown of a glass with a flat outer surface and a pointed, many-faced refracting inner surface, that has been used for any purpose whatever; that an inverted glass pyramid cannot be termed a lens. The rays of light, in passing through an inverted pyramid, (with the exception of the single ray which passes through its centre,) are reflected from the inclined surface against which they first strike to the opposite face of the pyramid, through which they pass obliquely outwards at any desired angle, the angles of said reflection and refraction depending upon the greater or less degree of inclination of the sides of said inverted pyramid. The argument continues : “ Now, a lens must have a curved surface which is the segment of a circle. A hemisphere, therefore, is a lens of the highest power that can be used by Mr. Hyatt. A lens of this proportion will only diverge the rays of light which pass through it near its periphery the distance of eighteen inches from a vertical line passing through its centre in descending the distance of eight feet. Therefore, if Hyatt should use this form of lens in his vault cover, and should taper the opening closed by said cover, you will perceive that the rays of light passing through the same would only be diverged eighteen inches beyond the periphery of the opening in the pavement in descending the distance of eight feet; consequently, the idea that the light can be as perfectly diffused throughout an apartment when it enters through a series of lenses set in a cover which closes an opening in its ceiling as when the light passes through a series of inverted glass pyramids set in said cover, is an egregious fallacy.”
It is, however, certain that the form of the glass, in connection with the flaring sides of the throat-of the vault, are new; and if its operation be to effect a divergency of the rays of light from a point within the glass, as appears from the specification and drawings, whether the mode of its passing out be by reflection or refraction, it would be the means, certainly, of causing greater light in the upper part of the vault; and as the many-sided form of the
The Commissioner very properly says: “We cannot pronounce a priori as to the final result. Experiment may show conclusions different from argument. In such cases it has always seemed to me that the burden of proof was upon the applicant; and there is not a particle of proof presented by him on that head in this case.”
I find among the papers sent up from the Office a number of affidavits taken by the appellant in New York, made by merchants and mechanics upon the subject in this case of experiments made with the appellant’s- glass, compared with that of Hyatt’s, from which it would appear that the result is much superior to Hyatt’s in illuminating the vault.
But these affidavits, not having been taken by the authority of the Commissioner, and acted upon by him in forming his decision in this case, I can of course take -no judicial- notice of. In the absence of such experimental evidence, I think the principles stated as the grounds of his judgment on this point are correct.
I hope, however, it may not be thought improper respectfully to suggest the propriety of the Commissioner’s giving his authority to suffer depositions to be regularly taken and laid before him for his further action as to the practical effect of the appellant’s glass, and to give him notice to that effect. If this should be done, my opinion on the point first mentioned in the opinion of the Commissioner is that the particular invention of the appellant ought to be distinctly stated in his specification, and that he can have a patent only for that; but this, I think, he has already done. I think the decision of the Commissioner must be affirmed.