142 ANDREAS KURTZ 



special finding. During Easter term, both 

 parties made applications to the courts, which 

 were argued by Channel and Byles on the one 

 side and by Talfourd on the other ; and on 

 the 6th July, 1846, Justice Coltman delivered 

 the following judgment : 



"This was an action in the case for 

 infringing the plaintiffs patent, granted for 

 improvements in apparatus for the manufac- 

 ture of sulphate of soda, muriatic acid, 

 chlorine and chlorides. 



The defendant pleaded, ist, not guilty ; 

 2nd, that plaintiff was not the first inventor ; 

 3rd, that the alleged invention is not new, and 

 several other pleas which it is not necessary 

 to mention. At the trial, it was shown by 

 the plaintiff, that the apparatus formerly used 

 for making sulphate of soda was a brick 

 reverberatory furnace, consisting of a single 

 chamber with a fire at one end of it, the fire 

 striking against the roof of the chamber 

 reflected down to the floor, and the smoke and 

 gas passed out at the other end of the 

 chamber. It appeared that prior to the date 

 of Gamble's patent, one Lutwyche on the 

 1 3th October, 1836, had obtained a patent 

 " for improvements in the construction of 

 apparatus used in the decomposition of 



