Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/721

 714 TEDEBAIi BEFOBTES. �New V. Lawbence. �{Cireuit Court, E. D. New York. September 16, 1880.) �1. Re-isstjed Patent, No. 7,920, for an improvement in constructîns: water-proof cellars, clsterns, etc., held void for want of novelty, �Erastus New, for complainant. �E. H. Brown, for defendant. �Benedict, D. J. This action is brought for an injunction, and to recover damages for the infringement by the defend- ant of a patent for an improvement in constructing water- proof cellars, cisterns, etc., re-issued to the plaintieE October 23, 1871, and numbered 7,920. �Among other defonces is that of want of novelty, and one of the questions presented under this defence is whether the plaintiff'fl patent is anticipated by a certain cistem made by W. H. Eankin, at Wilkesbarre, Pensylvania, in 1865, some five or six years before the date of the plaintiiï's patent. �On the part of the plaintiff the contention is that the cis- tem built by Eankin does not anticipate the patent sued on, because, as it is said, "it wasnot a cellar; it was a cistern. It was a contrivance not to keep water out, but to hold water in." �As my conclusion upon this question is decisive of the case, I confine my observations to these features of the case, and proceed to caU attention to the language of the patent sued on, for the purpose of showing ita scope. The specifi- cations of the patent first state that "the invention relates to a new and usef ul improvement in the construction of san- itary and water-proof cellars, cisterns, vaults, reservoirs, and ail under-ground apartments, f or whatever purpose," whereby the bottom and walls of such cellars and other places, above mentioned, are kept in a sanitary condition, and are made per- fectly impervious to water. This statement of the subject- matter of the patent, it will be at once observed, referring as it does to cisterns and reservoirs by name, covers not only structures intended to keep water out of under-ground apart- ments, but also structures intended to contain water. ����