Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/41

 84 TEDERAL REPORTER. �wnen bent into a staple, produced a particalar and novel efifect. But an ezamiuation of the opinion of the court shows tbat the decision of the case was made to rest upon peculiar and special grouuds. The patentee's staple was formed by compression between dies, and it appeared that bis claim was granted b; the patent-office "as a claim to a staple, the sbanks of wbich were to bave a rounded edge in the direction of tbeir width, a sharpened edge in the direction of their thicknesB, and transverse indentations, when those three quai' itite were produced by eompression betwesn dies, as contradistin- guished from forcing the points a/nd cutiing the barbs by a chisel." And it was this difference, leading to the production of th» article at a cheaper rate by the new method, wbich was re- garded by the patent-office as a patentable difference. and it is evident, from the opinion of Judge Blatohford, that h» Bustained the patent upon that ground, for he says: "Th» evidence shows that the patented staple oould not be made by hand at a prioe which would admit of its profitable manu- facture ; that the sale of it made by dies, by machinery, bas been very great, and that it bas altogether susperseded the non- serrated staple before used for blinda. In view of these facts I think the re-issued patent is valid, and the claim sustaina- ble in law, The words 'oonstructed substantially as above- described,' in the claim, cannot be regarded as having reference solely to the construction of the staple into a staple with transverse corrugations, and so formed as to penetrat» �wood easily and be withdrawn therefrom with difficulty. • �«****»*'• �They mean not only staples of such a shape that they can readily be inserted into wood and with difficulty be withdrawn from it, but staples made into such shape by the action of dies, which form the corrugations by swaging. To this idea of the use of dies, enabling the article to be made by machinery, is to be »t- tributed the utility and success ef the invention. This use of dies to make the corrugations, and not merely the reduction in eize of the spike, forme part of the adaptation of the spike for nse in blinds. and the article, when so made by dies, is a ne^ oommodity or article of manufacture." ����