Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/484

 472 FEDERAL REPORTER. �expression bas heretofore received. There is nothing to show whether this is an open patent or one made secret, except what can be gathered from the copy itself, and the fact of its production. Only public records are provable by copy cer- tified merely, and these departments of the government of France would not have the patent in condition to certify by copy if it was secret, and not public. So the fact that it is cer- tified shows it to be what could be certified, and that the in- vention described by it was, in the sense of the patent law, patented by the original patent of the copy produced. The patent is prior to the orator's invention, and the invention patented by it is to be compared with the orator's, �The orator states in his specification that the nature of his inventions "consists in so attaching an elastie band or strap to the upper end of an outer box, and to the hinged part of the lid of an inner box, sliding in the outer one, that when the inner box is drawn out from the outer one the lid of the former shall, as soon as it bas passed beyond the upper side of the outer box, be elevated by means of the stretching of the elastie band, and thus open the inner box." �The elastie band is further described as attached to the hinged lid of the inner box "a little forward" of the hinge, and a loop or knob on the outer end of the inner box, to take hold of, is shown. The operation is described to be that when the inner box is pulled out the band is stretched, and as soon as pulled out beyond the hinge the lid is raised by the band "acting as it were on a lever near its pivot," and the box is kept open ; and, on pressing down the lid, the ac- tion of the elastie band will draw the inner box back to its position in the outer box. The claim is for "connecting the hinged part of the cover of an inner sliding box with the back of an outer case, by means of an elastie band or strap, sub- stantially as and for the purpose described." �The patent of Caussemilie shows an outer box open at one end, with an inner box fitting and sliding into it, having a hinged lid opening upward, and an elastie band fastened at one end to the backside of the outer box, and at the other end to the hinged lid, and a tonguo at the outer end of the ��� �