Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/234

 THE COIiLIIfS CO. V. COES. 227 �ors of the plaintiffs knew of this form of wrench, which had been superseded by the Coea tool long before their original patent was granted. �Nor does it appear that the "Dixie" wrench, with a recessed nut, was well known to ail competent mechanics. This "was not a Coes wrench. It had no rod parallel to the bar ; but the movable jaw was worked upon the bar itself, a form of tool which no one bas been willing to use since Coes' invention was made public. Therefore, the plaintiffs' wrench is not, or was not, when made, such a mere obvious appropriation of the Dixie nut, for the use of the Coes wrench, as to be an alternative fairly within the knowledge of a constructor. �The first claim of the plaintiffs' patent is: "The step, com- bined with the wrench bar and supported by the nut, F, or its equivalent, at the place where the step is connected with the bar, in such manner that the step can be removed from the bar without cutting or abrasion of parts." �The last clause of this claim refers to a statement in the specification that steps (that is step plates) bave before been made solid with the bar, and that others had been riveted to reaeh a similar resuit. This narrative of what was olà ap- pears to bave been inserted by order of the patent office; and it is doubtful whether such solid or riveted step plates had, in fact, been used, though they had been described in rejected applications for patents. The courts bave no right to disregard such a diselaimer, without which the patent might never have been granted; and the fact that some such wrenches had been made is taken for granted by me ; but I still think the movable nut a patentable improvement. �The defendants have used the old Coes recessed step plate with the addition of a small nut inserted in the recess. This is plainly an infringement of the first claim, because the nut performs the usual office of a nut, and the recess in the step plate, though old, was not before combined with a nut at this point ; and it makes no difference in the combination of the step plate and nut whether you put the recess into the one or the other. The old nut at the end of the handle is not the equivalent of this nut, because it does not do ail the work ; it ����