Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/516

 CAMPBELL V. THE MATOE, ETC., OF NEW YORK. 601 �in public use and on sale in this country for more than two years prior to his application. The anticipations relied upon are steam fire-engines whioh were made by the Amoskeag Manufacturing Com- pany, of Manchester, New Hampshire, the steam fire-engine Philadel- phia, which was made by Eeaney, Neafie & Co., of Philadelphia, and the patent of E. A. Wilder, No. 27,662, dated Mareh 27, 1860. The foreign patents are the English one of Joseph Bramah, No.1,948, dated April 19, 1793, and the French one to Benoit Duportail, No. 19,532, dated June 12, 1857. The facts as to the existence, knowledge of, and use of the devices in these fire-engines are to be found from a comparatively large mass of evidence, eonsisting of documents, drawings, pictures, and the somewhat conflicting testi- mony of numefous witnesses as to varions facts and circumstances. Upon the whole, after mueh examination and consideration, it satis- factorily, and beyond any fair doubt, appears that, prior to the invention of Knibbs, the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company made and put into rotary steam fire-engines manufaotured by them a pas- sage for water leading from the suction to the discharge side of the engines, which could be opened and closed by a valve, for the pui-pose of having water carried through it, and past the pumping apparatus, and discharged through the hose by hydrant pressure, when the pumps were not operating, which was used at places where there was hydrant pressure for that purpose; and that Eeaney, Neafie & Co. made and put into steam piston fire-engines, tubes leading from the suction and discharge parts of the engine toward each other until they met, and in one tube, from the place of meeting to the boiler, which could be opened and closed by valves, one in each branch, for the purpose of taking water from either the suction or discharge side into the boiler, — the two branches leading from the suction and dis- charge sides constituting a passage controlled by two valves, through which water could be taken from the discharge to the suction side to relieve pressure on the discharge side; but it does not appear by that measure of clear proof, beyond any fair and reasonable doubt, which is necessaryto defeat a patent, that either of these devices was ever, before that time,used for the purpose of passing water from the diseharge to the suction side of the engines to relieve undue pressure on the discharge side, caused by reducing the number of discharge openings,or increasing the difficulties of discharge by lengthetiing the hose; nor that the utility of these passage-ways ior that purpose was before that time known ; neither does it at all appear that Knibbs derived any aid from either of these devices. The counsel for the ��� �