Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/39

 32 FEDERAL REPORTER. �sîze of an old device, so as to make it small enough for a new use, cannot support a claim to a patent. The wagon-thill Btaple is very similar in form to complainant's, the differences, as before remarked, being in the relative length of the lower prong, the angle at which the prongs run from the body of the staple, and thebeveled points. As stated by one of the witnesses, the effect of driving the staple in question into wood would be to incline the points upward, while the thill staple, if pointed straight, would pass perpendicularly through the wood. That the effect of the bevel is to force the beveled point in an oppo- site direction from the bevel, and that this is common knowl- edge in mechanics, cannot be regarded as open to dispute. The principle is constantly illustrated and shown in the use of the chisel. Although witnesses for defendant have, on cross- examination, testified that they have net known of a double- pointed tack or staple eut with the bevel eut on the same side of both points, the evidence clearly shows that double-pointed Staples, with diagonal cuts on different aides of the points, were old when complainant's device was patented. �The principal witness for complainant, who procured jpr Miles the patent in question, says, in his testimony : "In the said letters patent of complainant the second paragraph makes a very broad admission, to the effect that wire staples have been used for fastening the eyes of bails to pails, and that these staples have been driven into the wood, with pen- etrating points, nearly at right angles to the surface. I am also aware, and was aware before preparing the papers for said patent, that the penetrating points of staples had been formed in a variety of manners, among which I name the cut- ting of the wires diagonally, the diagonal eut generally being on the flat side of the staple." �Other testimony and exhibits in evidence show single-looped staples in use anterior to complainant's device, with diagonal cuts on the opposite sides of the two points, so that, in driv- ing them, one point would be forced in one direction and the other in an opposite direction. Ail this shows that the idea of a diagonal eut on the penetrating points of staples was not new with Miles, and that ail that he can claim as new with him ����