740 



PATENTS. 



such new use (Supreme Court decision), Gardner 

 vs. Herz, xxxv, 8. 



Secret Process. One who invents or discovers and 

 keeps secret a process of manufacture, whether patent- 

 able or not, has a property therein which the court 

 will protect against one who, in violation of contract, 

 or with breach of confidence, undertakes to apply it 

 to his own use or disclose it to a third person (N. J. 

 State Court of Chancery decision), Salomon vs. Herz, 

 xxxv, 9. 



Public Use, The fact that a person claiming to have 

 invented a device in 1874 or 1875, knew that another 

 had put it into public use in 1878, is sufficient to de- 

 feat his claims to take out a patent in 1883, even if 

 he had been the inventor. Hutchinson vs. Everett, 

 xxxv, 9. 



Excuse for Delay in applying for a Reissue. The excuse 

 that patentee was ignorant of the Jaws pertaining to 

 letters patent is wholly insufficient. Haines vs. Feck, 

 xxxv, 10. 



Partial Infringement. In selling a compound which 

 he knows can not be practically applied without mak- 

 ing the user an infringer, the defendant becomes an 

 accessory to the infringement. Alabastine Company 

 vs. Payne, xxxv, 12. 



Extent of Novelty required to constitute Invention, 

 Where an old device or machine in general use, with 

 acknowledged serious defects which have been long 

 endured because no one has previously discovered a 

 means of obviating them, is taken in hand, and, by 

 changing its former structure, they are removed and 

 a different and greatly improved result obtained, it 

 may safely be affirmed that the change required in- 

 vention. Asmus vs. Freeman, xxxvi, 2. 



Construction of Claims. The several claims of a pat- 

 ent should be so construed if possible that each may 

 represent distinct inventions. Cohansey Glass Manu- 

 facturing Company vs. Whurton, xxxvi, 3. 



Infringement oy a Part of a Device. Where the com- 

 bination patented is only a part of the machine, it is 

 infringed by the use of the same combination in an- 

 other machine. 



Exploitation and Use. A patentee is bound either 

 to use the patent himself or allow others to use it 

 on reasonable and equitable terms. Hoe vs. Knap, 

 xxxvi, 11. 



Construction of Patents. As a patent is read by per- 

 sons skilled in the arts, so should it be read 6y the 

 court. Tondeur vs. Stewart, Estep & Co., xxxvii, 7. 



Invention and Mechanical Skill, Where the distinc- 

 tion between invention and mechanical skill is very 

 doubtful, the doubt should be resolved in favor of in- 

 vention. Butler vs. Bainbridge, xxxvii, 10. 



Inventions. The great inventions and dis- 

 coveries of the year will be found under their 

 respective heads. The following descriptions 

 embrace a few of the thousands of minor in- 

 ventions, patented and unpatented, that were 

 made during the year 1886. The list is by no 

 means exhaustive. The intention has been to 

 select such devices as are of the most general 

 interest. 



Electrical Metronome. Great difficulty has been 

 experienced, by the conductors of operatic mu- 

 sic, in maintaining relations with the leaders 

 of the side choruses, who are frequently out of 

 sight, and can only keep time by guess-work. 

 A French electrician, Carpentier by name, has 

 done away with the difficulty by arranging a 

 small blackboard so that time is apparently 

 marked upon it by the oscillations of a white 

 band. The movement is in reality an optical 

 delusion. The figure shows the board, with a 

 white band (G) pointing toward the upper, and 

 a dark one (H) toward the lower corner. A 



simple electrical mechanism causes the white 

 band to become black at the same instant that 

 the black one becomes white, and so in alter- 

 nation, corresponding with the strokes of the 

 leader's baton. The effect upon the eye is pre- 

 cisely the same as if a white rod were moved 

 back and forth across the space marked D. 



ELECTRICAL METRONOME. 



The connecting wires (0) are led to a pedal on 

 which the foot of the conductor rests and upon 

 which he presses in time with the motion of 

 his hand. The seeming rod moving across the 

 blackboard can be seen by the performers 

 without being directly looked at, and answers 

 the same purpose as the movement of a lead- 

 er's bdton. This apparatus has been intro- 

 duced with manifest advantage in the Paris 

 Opera. It is not apparent why the same effect 

 could not be produced without mechanism by 

 simply flashing an electric light behind slits 

 in the blackboard, filled perhaps with ground 

 glass. In this way the mechanical arrange- 

 ments could be considerably simplified. 



i 1 I 1 



PERFORATED GLASS. 



Glass, Perforated. Prof, tiinil Trelat, of the 

 French Conservatory of Arts and Trades, has 



