Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/563

 548 PBDEBAIi BEPOBTEE. �1875, for a new and improved process for preserving meats, altiiough set forth in the pleadings, is not relied on in the argument, and need not be f urther considered as an independant ground of relief. These patents were before us in 1879, in the case of VFilson Packing Co. v. Pratt, 11 Ohi. Leg. News, 353. �The most important questions in the case grow eut of the patent of William J. Wilson. In his original patent he stated that, in carrying eut his invention, the meat was to be first cooked thoroughly, at a temperature of 212 deg. Fahrenheit, so that all the bone and gristle could be removed and the meat yet retain its natural grain and integrity; that a measured quantity of this cooked meat was then, while yet warm with cooking, pressed by any suitable apparatus into a previously prepared box or case, with sufificient force to remove the air and all superfluous moisture, and make the meat form a solid cake, and that then the box or case was closed air-tight upon the meat. It will be observed that he did not distinctly set forth in this original patent in what manner the meat was to be first cooked. There is in the reissue no change in the description of carrying out the invention, except he declares it is a "preferable" mode of pi;itting the meat cooked into a box or case while yet warm with cooking. The implication, of course, is that it was not an indispensable part of his description of the invention that it should be thus put in warm. There were two claims in the original, as there are in the reissue, and the only difference between them is, that in the original, the first claim states that the cooked meat is to be pressed into an air- tight package "while heated with cooking," these last words being omitted in the first claim of the reissue. While these suits have been pending the plaintifs have filed a disclaimer of the use of the word "preferably" of the reissue, thus eliminating it from the description therein contained, and leaving the patent in this respect as it was in its original form. They have also disclaimed the use of the following words of the description in the reissued patent: "The meat is first cooked thoroughly at a temperature of 212 deg. Fahrenheit, so that all the bone and gristle can be removed and the meat yet retain its natural grain and integrity;" and instead thereof insert the follow- ing words, viz. : "The meat is first cooked thoroughly by boiling it in water so that all the bone and gristle can be removed and the meat yet retain its natural grain and integrity." �Waiving the objections which have been made to the validity of these disclaimers, we may now state what the invention of the Will- iam J. Wilson patent is. The meat is to be first thoroughly cooked ��� �