Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/529

 PALMER V. GATLING GCN CO. 515 �British patents, and other foreign patents accessible at the United States patent-office — ■ �"Did not develop the existence, prior to Gatling's patent of 1862, of any gun having a continuously revolving barrel, nor of any gun which couM be loaded while the barrels were in revolution, or fired while the barrels were in revolu- tion, or the shells reraoved while the barrels were in revolution. And prior to the Palmer patent mentioned, and aside from Kichard J. Gatling's inven- tion, this search did not develop the existence of any gun with revolving bar- rels having a device for presenting cartridges to the barrels, consisting of a combination of a carrier case, for the cartridges, with a- grooved rotatihg cylinder, such as is shown in the Gatling gun, nor the existence of a thrust- ing-in device, consisting of a longitudinarily moving plunger revolving at the satne time with a cylinder carrying the plunger, nor the existence of a con- flning device, consisting of the combination of revolving barrels with a longi- tudinally moving plunger, at the same time revolving with the cylinder which carries such plunger, nor the existence of a discharging device consist- ing of a longitudinarily moving flring pin at the same time revolving syn- chronously with the barrel, to which it is appurtenantj nor the existence of an extracting device consisting of a longitudinarily moving hook revolving syn- chronously with the barrel to which it is appurtenant." �The gun made under the patent to Eichard J. Gatling, of Novem- ber 4, 1862, was, in general terms, like the gun of 1865, except that cartridge cases or cartridge chambers were fed against the rear of the revolving barrels, and the powder waa discharged in the car- tridge chamber without being inserted into any other barrel, so that prior to the plaintiff's invention a machine gun was in use so con- struoted that the cartridges were presented and thrust against the rear of a revolving barrel during one part of its circuit, were confined and discharged during another part of the circuit, and were removed at another part of the circuit. �It was claimed by the plaintiff, and was admitted by Mr. Knight to be true, that prior to the Palmer patent there was no machine gun which contained a device for thrusting the cartridge or charge into the rear end of a continuous revolving barrel as distinguished from a chamber to be brought in Une with the barrels. It was insisted by the defendant that the operation of the loading, firing, and clearing mechanism, and the mechanism, are the same whether a continuous or a chambered barrel is used. �The Gatling gun of 1865 discarded cartridge chambers, and thrust the copper cartridge into the rear of the barrel. �It is not claimed by the counsel for the plaintiff that the respective devices in the Gatling gun for loading, confining, and discharging the cartridges are equivalents for the loading and firing mechanism of the ��� �