Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/786

 EAGLETON MANUf'g 00. V. WEST, ETC., MANDP'd 00. 779 �Purther, upon these facts, the law, both at the time wten the original application was made and at the time of the amendments, reqiiired the applicant to make oath thaï he verily believed that he was the original and first inventer or discoverer of the art, machine, composition or improveraent for which he solicited a patent, (Act of 1836, 5 St. at Large, 117, § 6; Kev. St. § 4892;) and that, if the appli- cation was by executors or administrators, the oath should be varied so as to be applicable to them. Act of 1836, § 10 ; Eev. St. § 4896. The invention which Eagleton made appli- cation for, and to which his oath was applicable, was japan- ning steel furniture springs merely. He authorized his attorneys to amend the application. At his death their authority ended. Bac. Abr. Authority, E; Hunt v. Rous- maniere, 8 Wheat. 174. �They made the amendments in his name without any authority in fact, whatever authority they may have supposed they had. The amendments were not mere amplifications of what had been in the application before, but carried into it the pith and substance of the whole invention for which the patent was granted. The patent was granted upon this with- out any new oath by the administratrix. Probably a patent may well be taken out by an administrator upon the application and oath of the intestate to that invention for which the patent issues; but that is not this case — this invention is entirely different. �This application, as to the invention for which the patent issued, was made and acted upon as upon the application and oath of a living person, when there was no such person and could not be any such application and oath. �The proceedings of the patent ofSce are presumed to be regular, and founded upon proper proceedings, but they must necessarily be founded upon the applications of living per- sons or their personal representatives, such as the law recognizes, and not upon those of persons who are merely supposed to exist; and should be founded upon the oath of the inventer or his personal representative, in accordance ����