Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/146

 13e FEDEBaL befobteb. �"To avoid the labor of excavating the usual groove part way around the under rira, and to avoid the weakening of the structure thereby occasioned, I hold thewater upand cause it to whirl around with proper force bya different construction. I also provide raeans for getting one or more small streanis into the space near the center of the bowl, for the purpose of more rapidly welting down the paper or other material there." �I think there is much force in the word "also," above quoted, as indi- cating that the inventer had on his mind, not only the combination of the first claim, which in itself produced the more perfect wash, but also an additional contrivance that could be embodied in a second claim as auxiliary and helpful, although not necessary, to the effi- ciency of the first. �Thus construing the patent, the inquiry at once presents itself, in view of the prior state of the art, is such a combination novel or pat- entable? Its constituents are old, and the combination does not involve the exercise of much invention. But the fact that the de- fendant incurs the hazard and expense of a patent suit rather than give up using it, shows that, in his judgment, it is an improvement upon any one of the other basins now in use. �It is always difScult to determine what degree of improvement takes a case out of the mere exercise of mechanical judgment and puts it in the domain of invention or discovery. The general rule upon the subject is that any change in the position of old elements, whereby new and better results are accomplished, is a sufficient exercise of the inventive faculty to warrant the issuing of letters patent. Bous- cay, Jr's., Appecd, 9 0. G. 743. �After some doubt I think the evidence in this case warrants me in holding that the patentee has succeeded in so combining the old ele- ments that he gets a better wash to a water-closet basin, with a moderate supply of water, than could be obtained by the use of the cireular Prench basin, the oval Jennings basin, or any other basin known to the trade at the date of his^ patent, and that he is entitled to the protection of the court in the exclusive use of the combination set forth in the first claim. �As the defendant has clearly infringed the same, under the forego- ing construction, there must be a deoree for the compiainant, and a reference and an account. ��� �