Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/842

 828 S^DEBAL BKPOBTSB. �EOBINSON V. SdTTEE.* �(dreuit Court, If, D. lUinoia. 1881.) �1. Patent No. 216,293— Appakatus fob RBSwBATisa Tobacco— Noveltt—Va- udi^i-^Ini-kisgement. �Letters patent No. 216,293, granted June 10, 1879, to Abraham Robinson, foi apparatus for resweating tobacco, hdd, not void for want of novdty by reason of letters patent No. 152,004, granted June 16, 1874, to Edmund J. Oppelt, for apparatus for coloring tobacco leaves, and letters patent No. 206,156, granted .Tuly 16, 1878, to Emst Wenderoth', for process and apparatus for coloring tobacco leaves, hdd, also, to be valid, and infringed. �a. SAMB— SaMB— "TlGHT'' COIfSTKDEH. �The lerm " tight," used in complainant'g cjaim to qualify the construction of the-inner chamber or tobacco holder, construed to mean sufflciently tigh't to subserve the purposes of the Invention. Blight crevices or openings, arising from defective mechanical coaatruction, if not large encmgh to admit steam in Buch quantity or volume as to wet the tobacco and dei'eat the operation of the apparatus, will not violate such rule of construction, nor relieve such apparatus from the charge of infringement. 8. Same— &AMB— Opfelt and Wbndekoth Devices— Noveltt — Infeingesient. Complainant's invention, consisting of an apparatus for resweating tobacco by packing the leaves closely in a wooden box or tub, made substantially tight, except so far as the pores of the Wood permit vapor or moisture to slowly per- colate through the wood and diffuse itself with the mass of leaves, from a body of warm water and expanded steam contained in an outer tank or chamber sur- rounding such box, the beat being supplied by an external generator, lidd, not invalidated, for want of nobdty, by the pribr Oppelt and Wenderoth devices, consisting of metallic tanks and metallic tobacco holders within them, into which steam is directly admitted, by which the tobacco becomes wet, and, to a limited extent, cooked ; and ««/««^«d by defendant's device, having a similar outer tank, supplied with water heated by a similar external generator, but no specifie, permanent inner chamber or tobacco holder, suflBclently tight to exclude moisture except through its pores; bat using inetead thereof the original case in which the ieal tobacco cornes packed. . �Munday, Evarts e Adcock, for complainant. �Banning e Banning and Adolph Moses, for defendant. �Blodgett, D. J. This is a suit for infringement of letters patent granted by the United States to complainant, Abraham Eobinson, on the tenth of June, 1879, for an improTed apparatus for resweating tobacco. The defenee set up is — First, that defendant does not infringe complainant's patent; second, that complainant's patent is void for want of noyelty. It seems from the proof that, in the ma- . nipulation of tobacco, it is deemed very desirable to obtain a dark nniform color in the leaf, especially of that to be used for cigar wrap- pers ; that in the natural sweating which the leaf undergoes in the ordinarj process of curing, it is left spotted, or some leaves will ba �•Eiiversed. See 7 Sup. Ci. Ktp. 376. ��� �