Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/788

 776 FEDERAL REPORTER. �Nixon, D. J. This is a suit for the infringement of extended and re-isBued letters patent numbered 6,609, and dated Au- giist 24:, 1875. The original letters patent, granted to Sam- uel W. Tyler, one of the complainants, are numbered 30,651, and dated November 13, 1860. �The bill alleges that the defendant has infringed the third and fourth claims of the complainants' patent, which are as follows: "(3.) In a two-wheel harvesting machine, having an axle Connecting the wheels, a support for thedrivingmechan- ism of the cutters, made in one piece, the weight of which, and that of the driving mechanism, being arranged between the main wheels and sustained by the axle thereof, substan- tiaily as described and for the purposes set forth. (4.) The piebe, D, which supports the intermediate shaJEts and gear- wheels, constructed substantially as described, to form a shield from the under side to the crank-shaft, e, substantially as spe&iiied." �The answer of the defendant admits that he has made sale within the jurisdiction of the court of divers harvesters, which were manufactured and consigned to him for sale by the Sprague Mowing Machine Company, a foreign corporation, but claims that the said machines were lawfully constructed under divers letters patent owned by the Company, or under which the said company was licensed. �The defences relied upon at the hearing were two : (1) That complainants' patent was void for want of novelty; (2) that the defendant's machine did not infringe. �. 1. What is the complainants' invention, or at least that por- tion of it which it is claimed the defendant infringes ? �It relates to improvements in harvesters. The evils or defects of the existing machines, that he endeavored to guard against and remedy, arose from the wooden frames, and the liability of the "gears and their shaft journals to become eramped and bound in their action by springing, warping, or wringing of theframe." To prevent this, he provides that all the gearing and shafts which communicate motion from the main gear-wheels or driving-wheels and axle thereof to the cutter, shall be borne on a rigid common support or frame, cast or formed in one piece, which consisted of a cast-iron ��� �