Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/478

 466 FEDERAL REPORTES. �cf the art, andits improvement by the patentee, are thus set out in the specification : "In the manufacture of boots and shoes by machinery, the edges of the hee^s, and portions of the shanks which present concave surfaces, have heretofore been finished by expensively-prepared abrasive wheels, which, requiring frequent renewal, materially increased the expense of the articles to be manufactured. To obviate this difficulty is the design of nay invention, which consists, as a new article of manufacture, in a strip of flexible material coated upon its outer aide with abrasive substance, and having said side made convex, transversely and longitudinally, substantially as and for the purpose hereinafter speeified." �The drawings show a strip of paper, orcloth, which isfirst to be covered with powdered glass, sand, emery, or other abrasive material, "after which said strip is moulded so as to cause said abrasive surface to have a convex form, trans- versely and longitudinally. The strip thus prepared is coiled into a roll, as seen in figure 1, and in such shape is sold to manufacturers of boots and shoes, who enaploy it upoa.the peripheries of wheels, which correspond in width and conves- ity to the like features of said strip, the latter being first eut to the necessary length to enable it to eacircle each wheel, and then secured in place by any desired means." It then shows the advantages of this mode of preparing the surface of the finishing wheels, and daims, "as a new article of man- ufacture, a strip of flexible material coated upon its outer face with abrasive substance, and having sa,id face made con- vex, trainsversely and longitudinally, substantially aS and for the purpose speeified." , �The state of the art was not precisely what the patentee supposed. It is not now disputed that the narrow fitiishing wheels were made of wood or iron, then coated with a iring or tire of f elt, which was trimmed to the exact form desired, and then covered with a strip of cloth, which was secured in any convenient way, and ik&n coated with sand, etc. Such a strip, when on the wheel,- "was substantially, for aught that I tjansee, the patented stiip.; it certainly was if it hadbecome stiii enoiigh to retain its shape ^ and it could be removed and ��� �