Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/874

 EOBEETS V. SCHBEIBER. 867 �îrom this that ail the patentee sought was a sufficient column of water thus to confine the effect of the Mast. The direction to fin up the well, if not already fiUed, was for that purpose only, and that purpose is to be kept in view in the construc- tion of the patent, and in folio wing its directions. �It is not to be inferred from the language used that in ail cases the well is to be filled to the very top. The specifica- tion is intended to inform those who are skilled in the art to which it relates, and it is to be such that the process may be advantageously used by them, and if it be sufficient for their direction it is ail the law requires. As was said in Mory v. Whitney, 14 Wall. 645, "it would be most unreasonable to read the directions of the specification without reference to the object they have in view." Upon this subject we refer at large to what was said in that case, and especially to pages 643, 4, 5, and 6. It has a direct hearing upon the Bubject we are now considering. See, also, Tilghman v. Mitchell, 2 Fisher, 518. �At the time when the Koberts patent was granted oil wells were comparatively shallow — not much, if any, over 500 feet deep. Very many of them were not more than half that depth, and some were not more than from 40 to 70 feet deep. Few of them, if any, had any casing exterior to the tube through which the pumping was done. Later, the depth of the bore has been greatly increased. It now is driven through an upper, what is called a surface, rock, and below through one, two or three oil-bearing rocks. As the casing only extends down to the surface rock there is gener ally a much greater length of bore below than above, There may be, therefore, and such we apprehend is generally the case, a sufficient column of water in the bore below the casing and above the torpedo to answer ail the purposes of fluid tamping contem- plated by the patent. If the wells be, as in many districts they are, 1,500 feet deep, and the casing extends from 300 to 500 feet deep to the surface or upper rock, which is more than it usually does, there will be hundreds of feet below the casing and above the point of the explosion which may be ����