Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/323

 PAGE V. HOIiUSS BUBOIiAB ALABM TELEaSAFE CO. 'àl5 �thîs invention. But ît does not appear that the particular invention now in question was described in the application to congress, or indicated by any title sufficient td identify it. That application, therefore, cannot be taken as a notification to the public of your intention to reserve to yourselE the right to this invention. Neither could it be considered equivalent to an application filed according to law in the patent office, where a description of the thing is required. It can only be entertained as showing what effort was made to remove the disability which would prevent you from obtaining a patent while holding the office of examiner of patents. If it was proved that the effort thus made had reference to the procur- ing the patent now applied for, it is allowed it would be worthy of much consideration; and, as it is, the refusai of congress to grant the petition that was made, may be regarded as enforcing the fact of disability. But, then, in either case, the disability must be considered as self-imposed, inasmuch as the applicant had it in his power at any time to remove it, by resigning his office. The fact that he retained his office for many years, and declined to take the only course open to him for obtaining a patent, while his invention was going into extensive public use, without any public reclamation by him, must be considered proof of consent and allowance. This inf erence, that the public sale and use were with the applioant's consent and allowance is, also, much strengthened by the fact that nearly five years elapsed, after the first publication in Silliman's Journal, before the legal disability commenced, without any steps being taken to secure a patent, and by the further fact that, after the disability ended, and notwithstand- ing the great length of time the invention had been before the public, nearly 20 months more were allowed to pass before the filing his application, making, in ail, a period of nearly 17 years from the time of the first announcement of the inven- tion to the public. For these reasons the patent is refused." On the twenty-eighth of July, 1854, Dr. Page addressedthe office as follows: "To the Commissioner of Patents — Sir: I hereby withdraw my application for a patent for machine for administering electrieity as a remediai agent, now in your ��� �