Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/492

 480, rBPEBAIi BEPOETBB. �Whbelee, D. J. This suit involves the construction and validity of letters patent No. 81,132, dated August 18, 1868, and granted to William A. Brickill for an improvement in feed water heaters for steam fire-engines. The novelty and pat- entability of the invention, and iafringement of the patent by the defendant, are denied, and a license by operation of law to practice the invention is claimed. �The specification describes a heating apparatus for heating water, circulating through coils of pipe, to be connected, by two readily detachable tubes, with the boiler of a steam fire- engine, and also with a tank, so that when the engine is not on duty the hot water will circulate through the boiler, and keep the engine ready for immediate use, and through the tank, keeping the heating apparatus in order when the engine is away. The claim is for "the combination, with a steam fire- engine, of a heating apparatus, constructed substantially as described, for the purposes fully set forth. " �There were, before Brickill's invention, contrivanoes for heating water in coils of pipe connected by tubes with the boiler of a steam fire-engine, so that water would circulate through the boiler and aid in preparing the engine for imme- diate use, Bometimes detachable when the engine was wanted, and soinetimes going with' the engine ; but none of them were very effective. Those not detachable could not be effectively heated at all; and if those which were detachable were heated sufficiently to keep the water in the boiler hot wheu the engine was there, the beat, not having water to counter- act it, would injure the apparatus when the engine was gone. Brickill overcame these difficulties, and, upon the evidence, he appeared to have been the first to do this. It is argued for the defendants that the patent is for the combination of a heating apparatus, generally, with a steam fire-engine, and that these prior devices show the combination for which the patent was granted, whatever Brickill may have invented, and that the invention described in the patent was antici- pated. �The claim is for the combination of a heating apparatus ��� �