Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/874

 86B FBDEBAL BBFOBTKB. �base, taken !n connection with its form, causes !t to return again of itself to its pcoper upright position, as sopn as the disturbing cause is removed. I have shown the interior as formed with an oSset, below which is mate- rially thicker than above, and prefer to so cast it The upper portions may be formed with some success by spinning suitable thin brass. The junctions of the several parts may be further secured by causing one part to cling upon a bead in addition to the soldering. In some cascj rivets, or the like ordinary or suitable fastenings, may be employed. I claim a metallic cuspidor having a heavy base, A, and a light upper portion, B, O, formed and combined substantially as and for the purposes herein set forth." �It is plain that the invention claimed is a metallic cuspi- dor, formed of three metallic parts, the lower part being heav- ier than in ordinary then-existing cuspidors, and extending up to the largest diameter of the spheroid, the middle part and the upper part being lighter than in ordinary then-exist- ing cuspidors, the middle part being of a dome shape, and being joined below to the lower part, and above to the upper part, and the upper part being an inverted cone in shape, fla,ring outwards, and forming a mouth; the whole structure not being liable to fracture, and having the capacity of returning to an upright position, of itself, from a position not upright, when left free, and being essentially of the form shown in the drawings of the patent. That form is a sphe- roidal body, with a conical mouth, flaring outwards. �Mr. Henry B. Eenwiok, the plaintifs expert, says in his affidavit : �"A cuspidor is a vessel of peculiar shape, which may be deflned as spheroidal, with a conical mouth, and such vessels were flrst seen by depo- nent some 25 years since. These, and all other cuspidors seen by deponent until the last few years, were made of china or porcelain, and came into use in houses of the better class, where the old-fashioned spit- toons were considered vulgar and consequeutly inadmissible. These china cuspidors were costly and fragile, and, moreover, easily upset, as the base was small as compared with the whole diameter, and as the form of the vessel was flaring outwards and upwards from its base. In this lat- ter respect, that is, want of stability, so far as real utility was concerned, the cuspidor was much inferior to the old-fashioned spittoon, which is so flat and wide based that it is really unupsettible or non-upsettible by accident, the only way of upsetting it being by taking it by hand and turn- ing it over, or by some other way deliberately contrived for the purpose of upsetting it. * * * Prier to the date of Heath's invention vessels ��� �