Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/403

 388 FEDERAL REPORTER. �Dickerson e Diclccrson, for complainant. �Chas. H. Winfield, for defendants. �Nixon, D. J. This bill is filed against ihe defendants for the infringement of letters patent No. 197,314, dated November 20, 1877, for "improvement in processes for preserving meats during transpor- tation and storage." �The answer of the defendants sets up varions defences to the com- plaint: (1) It denies the novelty of the complainant's patent; (2) it denies infringement; (3) it alleges a prior use for more than two years; (4) that the claim is too broad, embracing more than the patentee's invention; and (5) that the alleged improvement consista of a mere aggregation of operations, producing no new resuit. But the testimony largely turns upon the question of novelty. �The patent is for a process, and has reference to the transporta- tion and storage of meats in large pieces, either by railway or steamer. The patentee states in his specifications that the object of the inven- tion is to prevent the discoloration of the surface of the meat and the taint to its external portions, which, by the methods hitherto adopted for preserving the same during transportation, frequently occurs. The patent is a combination, comprising two elements or constituents : (1) Enveloping the meats in a covering of fibrous or woven material ; and (2) subjecting the same to the action of a continuons current of air of suitably low or regulated temperature. Neither was new. Meats had long before been covered to keep them from dirt or dust in transportation; aod refrigerators had been used to subject them to the action of currents of chilled air, and thus hindering decay. But the patentee claims that a new and useful resuit was found to proceed from the combination, to-wit : preserving the natural color or complexion of the meat during transportation, and thus having, at the end of the trip, a more merchantable article. �The theory on which the patent rests is that fibrous or woven mate- rial has the power of absorbing from the atmosphere the germs which provoke incipient decay on the surface of the meat. It acts as a filter, straining from the air the animalcula or microscopic par- ticles that tend to discolor the meat or cause putrefaction. The air is supposed to be full of these spores, so minute that they have never besn seen or detected with the microscope, and yet so numerous that 3,200,000,000 are capable of being generated on a single square inch of the surface of decaying meat. �Whether these speculations of the scientists be true or not ; whether the preservation of the bloom or natural color of the meat arises ��� �