Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/340

 Oû'i FEDERAL REPORTER. �strong restraint, burn on the application of fire, without explosion, but may be exploded by detonation, From these references it is contendcd that the word "inexplosive" was used in the original patent, No. 78,317, not in the sense of a substance that would not explode by accidentai concussion, but in the sense of a substance absolutely inexplosive. It is not perceived that the conclusion sought to be drawn from the premises is a sound one, as applied to the real subject- matter of the invention of Nobel, as to be gathered from the description in the patent, No. 78,317. The views of this court on the subject were fully set forth in its decision in the Eand case, being the same views contained in the decision of Judge Sfaepley in the Goodyear case, quoted with approval in the Eand case, and it is not necessary to restate them. They are not affected by anything now presented, nor by what is con- tained in the affidavit of Mr. Parker, or the circular of the plaintilï's agents, or the scientific books adduced, as to the technicalmeaningof the words "explosive" and "inexplosive." The principal defence in this case is made on the alleged ground that Dittmar invented what is claimed in reissue No. 5,799, and that Nobel obtained the knowledge of it from Ditt- mar. Letters patent of Great Britain, dated May 7, 1867, and sealed October 15, 1867, were granted to one Newton, for "improvements in explosive compounds and in the means of igniting the same," being a communication from abroad by Alfred Nobel, of Eue St. Sebastien, Paris, in the empire of France. " The proyisional specification was filed on the seventh of May, 1867. It read thus: "This invention re- lates to a method of modifying the nature of nitro -glycerine in a manner which renders it much safer for use thanhere- tofore. Nitro-glyeerine, if mixed with porous, inexplosive substances, such, for instance, as charcoal or silica, becomes very much altered in its properties. Thus, for instance, nitro- glycerine alone is not inflammable by a spark, but may be got to explode by submitting' it to a very rapid shower of sparks. Nitro-glycerine absorbed in porous substances, on the other hand, easily catches fire from a spark, and burns away slowly and without explosion, except under very close ��� �