135 



76, I had no idea that any one else had done 

 or was doing anything in this direction. I 

 wi>h to say further that if I had filed my de- 

 scription of a telephone as an application for 

 a patent instead of as a caveat, and had prose- 

 cuted it to a patent, without changing a word 

 in the specification as it stands to-day, I 

 should have been awarded the priority of in- 

 vention by the courts. I am borne out in this 

 ion by the highest legal authority. In 

 law, a caveat (Latin word, meaning " Let him 

 beware") is a warning to other inventors, to 

 protect an incomplete invention; whereas in 

 fact the invention to be protected may be 

 complete. An application for a patent is pre- 

 sumed b:; the law to be for a completed in- 

 vention; but it may be, and very often is, in- 

 complete. It would often make a very great 

 difference if decisions were rendered according 

 t<> the facts in the case rather than according 

 to rules of law and practice, that sometimes 

 work great injustice to individuals. 



A has been said in another chapter, in the 

 summer of 1874 I went to Knrope in the in- 

 of the telephone, taking my apparatus, 

 a- then developed, with me. 1 came home 

 curly in the fall ami resumed my experimen- 

 tal work. Many inter- well as amus- 



ing things occurred during pcrimciiN. 



I p th:it in the f;dl or early winter 



of 1871 I u;t- in Milwaukee with my apparatus 



