Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/37

 30 PEDEKAL REPORTER. �; �paient is for "bail ear and bail, and, as an article of manu- facture, the combined bucket, bail, and ear." A prominent feature of the Miller device is the noteh in the end of the prongs, and it is plain that the patent does not shov/ a sta- ple having the lower sides of the prongs beveled, and so adapted as to give the points, when driven into the wood, an upward inclination. �There is also in evidence the rejected application of one CoUins for a patent for an improved bail and tub ear, which application was filed in 1S68. A drawing of this device shovrs a diagonal eut at the point on the upper side of the upper prong of the ear, and a diagonal eut at the point on the lower side of the lower prong. From the description of this device, given by the inventor in his application for a pat- ent, it is evident that it is intended that the two prongs are to be driven entirely through the stave, and then clinched on the inside of the pail, the diagonal eut of the points, as de- scribed, being evidently made to facilitate such clinching. Collins' application was rejected because it was found that his device was anticipated by the patent of Walton, the prongs of both devices being, as before stated, intended to pass en- tirely through the side of the pail, and clinch on the inner side. �Now, it is probably true that in the particulars in which ail these devices, including complainant's, have features in common, complainant's patent, if valid, is subordinate to one or more of the patents referred to ; but none of these various devices show a construction in formlike that of the complain- ant's, and none show the lower sides of both points of the staple leveled or eut away so as to cause them to bend up- wardly and clinch within the wood when being driven, and this I regard the essence of the Miles invention, if that char- acteristic of his device can be said to be an invention, and this, I take it, is the whole point of complainant's case. The proof is abundant that the use of wire staples to form the fastening eyes for bails is, and was at the time complainant's patent was granted, old. Samples of staples used for various purposes many years have been put in evidence, among whick ����