Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/418

 DOWNTON W. IABGBB MILLIN 00. 40S �monopoly or rights granted by that patent. The issues have been made up, and proofs have been taken. We ordered an argument on the question of assignment and estoppel, since that question, if decided in one way, would end the case against the complainant and obviate the neccssity of the court going into the proofs on the merits. Some time about the year 1872 — that, perhaps, is common knowl- edge in this country now — ^there was brought into successful opera- tion and practice the manufacture of flour of a superior quality or grade, from what is known to millers as the "middlings." Before that time, in America, at all events, — although it tn^as shown by the proofs in another case that they had much more intelligent concep- tions on this subject abroad, and especially in France, — in America, however, prior to that time, what is known as the middlinga, which constitute the most nutritious portion of the grain, by reason of a greater relative portion of gluten, — a nitrogenous substance which is more nutritions than the other parts of the wheat, — by what is known as the "new process," were shown to be susceptible of making flour, as I said before, of a superior quality, and had the effeot of revolu- tionizing the process of manufaeturing flour vory largely, and, at all events, to bring the spring wheat of the country, for economical pur- poses, in more favorable competition, if not on a par, with the winter wheats of the country. Now, when that improvement was practiced oir brought into successful operation a year or two afterwards, the United States granted tp Mr. Downton, the complainant in this case, what is known as a process patent, as distinguished from a patent for a mechanical device, which sufficiently appeara from the claim which he made. After describing the state of the art, as required, he proceeds to state in the claim what he insists is covered by his invention, and for what he wants a monopoly or patent. Now, that claim is this: "The hereinafter-described process of manufaeturing middlings flour by passing the middlings through or between rolls." The middlings are a comparatively coarse product, and instead of regrinding them at once, as had been theretofore practiced, Mr. Downton claims a patent, and proeured one, for passing them be- tween rolls, (instead of comminuting or triturating them and redneing them to an impalpable powder,) which bas the effect of liattening cer- tain impurities, and they are enabled by a sifting process to eliminate said impurities before the middlings are reground; that is the pro- cess, viz.,.by the use of rolls as an intermediate step or process in the art of manufaeturing flour. So he says : ��� �