This is a bill in equity brought by the complainants to recover damages for an alleged infringement of certain letters patent belonging to them, and praying for an account and for an injunction. Letters patent were duly granted to the said Bollin White April 3, 1855, for certain new and useful improvements in repeating fire arms, and the complainants allege that prior to the granting of those letters patent, he was the original and first inventor of the improvements therein described, and that the other two complainants, on November 17, 185C, by virtue of a certain contract or assignment of that date, became, and are, the owners of the sole and exclusive right to make. use. and vend the improvement embodied in the first claim of the patent. They also allege that the respondents had full knowledge of the existence of the patent, and of their exclusive rights under it, and that they, the respondents, at Worcester, in this district, on January 1. 1858. and since that time, have unlawfully made and sold twenty-five thousand pistols and revolving fire arms, substantially embracing their patented improvement. Respondents admit that the letters patent set forth in the bill of complaint were granted to Rollin White, but they deny that he was the original and first inventor of the improvements therein described. On the contrary, they allege that anterior to the supposed discovery thereof by the pat-entee, the same invention, or substantial and material parts thereof, claimed therein as new, had been described in certain public works, and had been patented to various persons in foreign countries, and that the same had previously been invented by, known to, and used by divers persons, at the several places in the United States, as alleged and fully set forth in the answer, and they also allege that the improvements attempted to be patented to the supposed inventor, had been in public use and on sale for more than two years before his application for a patent therefor, and with his consent and allowance, and they deny that the patentee did, at any time prior to the date of his. patent, invent and reduce to practice any such improvements as those described and claimed in his specification. Application for the patent was filed February 20, 1855, and the letters patent were duly granted to the patentee at the time alleged in the bill of complaint. Pat-entee states in the specification, that his invention relates to fire arms having the rotating, many-chambered cylinder, and he therein divides the supposed improvements into four parts, but reference will here be made more especially to the first part, as that is the only one which necessarily comes into revision in this ease. Adopting the general description of the specification, it consists in extending the chambers through the rear of the cylinder, for the purpose of loading them at the breech from behind, either by hand or by a self-acting charger, from a magazine placed in the rear of the cylinder. Description is also given of the several elements of which the improvement under consideration is composed.
Omitting the references to the drawings, the description is in substance and effect as follows: First. The rotating, chambered cylinder having the chambers bored right through it and made slightly conical, with the smallest part in front, in order that a cartridge may be inserted easily at the back and that the ball may fit tight, so that when it arrives in its place it shall remain and not go through till the charge explodes. Secondly. The pin upon which the breech rotates, by means of a tooth attached to the trigger. Thirdly. The stock, which is constructed with a recess or groove in the side of it, to afford sufficient room in rear of the cylinder, opposite one of the chambers, for the insertion of a charge by hand, at the rear opening of the chamber. Fourthly. The fixed breech piece arranged opposite the barrel, behind the cylinder, to serve as a breach to the chamber, which happens to be in line with the barrel. Based upon that description, the claim involved in this suit is, extending the chamber of the rotating cylinder right through the rear of the said cylinder, for the purpose of enabling the said chamber to be charged at the rear, either by hand or by a self-acting charger, substantially as described.
Recurring to the answer, it will be seen that the respondents admit that they have manufactured and sold revolving cylinder pistols, having the chambers of the cylinder
Power to grant letters patent is conferred by law upon the commissioner of patents, and when that power is lawfully exercised, and a patent has been duly granted, it is prima facie evidence that the patentee is the original and first inventor of that which is therein described and secured to him as his invention. Availing themselves of that rule of law, the complainants introduce the patent granted to Rollin White, and contend— and well contend — that its effect is to cast the burden of proof upon the respondents to prove the defense set up in the answer. Conceding the rule of law to be as stated, the respondents introduced two foreign patents on which they chiefly rely to establish their defense. Both of those patents will be examined, but it will be more convenient to reverse the order adopted at the bar. because the complainants admit that the one granted in Belgium to Hertog & Devos, June 16, 1853, is for the same invention as that embodied in the first claim of the patent on which the suit is founded. Granting that proposition, it is obvious that the suit can not be maintained, unless it appears that the invention claimed by the complainants was made by the patentee at some period prior to the date of that patent. Complainant’s patent was granted, it will be remembered. April 3, 1855, long after the date of the foreign patent, and the presumption of originality, arising from the granting of the same, only extends back to the time when the application was filed in the patent office, which was on February 20 in the same year. Unless, therefore, the complainants show that the invention embodied in the patent claimed by them was made and reduced to practice prior to June 16. 1853, they can not prevail in the suit, and the burden of proof is shifted upon them to establish those facts. They do not controvert any of these propositions, but refer to the deposition of the patentee, and insist that his testimony, as there exhibited, establishes the priority of his invention over that described in the foreign patent under consideration. According to his testimony, he learned the gun-making business of his brother, J. D. White, at Williamstown, in the state of Vermont, and he states that the first fire arm he ever saw, so constructed as to be loaded at the breach, was a flint-lock pistol, owned by his father, when he was about ten years of age. His description of the pistol is, that the barrel unscrewed from the breech pin and received the charge at the rear end, and, of course, when the cartridge was placed in position, had to be rescrewed to the breech pin before the pistol could be fired. Assuming his statements to be true, he himself first contrived a plan for a repeating pistol in 1837, but he admits that he never constructed a fire arm or model on that plan until he made the illustrative model produced before the commissioner at the time he gave his deposition in this case. When he made that plan, he contemplated, as he represents, extending the bore of the chambers through the breach, for the purpose of loading in the rear of the chamber, and he also states, to the effect, that the charges were to be held in the respective chambers by a leather packing. Inquiry was also made of the witness, what, if anything, was to resist the discharge at the rear end when the pistol was fired, and his answer was, that the chamber in line with the barrel would rest against the pinion that revolved it, and that the pinion, on the plan suggested, would form the breech to the chamber as the discharge should take place; and he also stated, in answer to a further inquiry, that the plan contemplated communicating the fire for the discharge by means of nipples, to be inserted into the chamber in front of the packing, to be employed to hold the charge in place. Useful as the fire arm suggested might have been, if the plan had been carried into effect and the invention had been completed, still it is obvious that the mere conception of the improvement by the witness, however perfect the idea may have been, and although he actually described the plan to one person, can not benefit, the complainant in this case, because his own testimony shows that he never completed the invention, and reduced it to practice, in the form of an operative fire arm. Original and first inventors are entitled to the benefits of their inventions, if they reduce them to practice, and seasonably comply with the requirements of the patent law, in procuring letters patent for the protection of their exclusive rights. While the suggested improvement, however, rests merely in the mind of the originator of the idea, the invention is not completed within the meaning of the patent law, nor are crude and imperfect experiments sufficient to confer a right to a patent; but in order to constitute an invention, in the sense in which that word is employed in the patent act, the party alleged to have produced it must have proceeded so far as to have reduced his idea to practice, and embodied it in some distinct form. Gayler v. Wilder, 10 How. [51 U. S.] 498; Parkhurst v. Kinsman [Case No. 10,757]; Curt. Pat. § 43. Mere discovery of an improvement does not constitute it the subject-matter of a patent, although the ideas which it involves may be new; but the new set of ideas, in order to become patentable, must be embodied into working machinery and adapted to practical use. Sickels v. Borden [Case No. 12,832].
(1) Before he left the first time, and while he was at work turning barrels, he procured two refuse Colt’s cylinders, borrowed a cutting-off tool of an acquaintance, placed them in a lathe that be used for turning the barrels, and cut off the front of one and the rear of the other, so that the two parts when put together, that is, the front of one and the rear of the other, would make a cylinder of about the usual length. Easily as the alteration was made, still it is evident that the result effected by it was of very great importance, as it constituted the front part a cylinder of chambers, bored entirely through, so as to admit the charges to be inserted at the rear end. and it, at the same time, constituted the rear part cut off from the other cylinder, a breech to close up the chambers after the cartridges were placed in position. Flanged cartridges were not used by him in that experiment, but he drilled out the rear end of the chamber, making it a little larger than it was at the front, for the purpose of holding the ball in position. Drilling out the rear end of the chamber, leaving the front of the same diameter as it was before, had the effect to form a flange in the same, against which the ball would rest when inserted at the end so enlarged, and was designed, undoubtedly, to answer the same purpose as the flanged cartridge, or the conical bore of the cylinder which has since been introduced. Circumstantial account is then given of what he subsequently did with the parts so selected, and of the way in which he attached them to the lock frame of a pistol which he borrowed for the purpose of the experiment, and of the manner in which he loaded and fired the arm so constructed and arranged. "When he had eom-pleted the parts as described, he carried them to his boarding-house, procured a Colt revolving pistol of a fellow boarder, took off the barrel and the cylinder, charged one chamber of the cylinder he had prepared, with powder and ball, putting the ball foremost, and inserting the charge into the chamber until the ball came in contact with the flange or shoulder made by the drilling, and then arranged the cylinder and breech together, as already described, and fastened on the barrel, which completed the arrangement. Desiring to fire it secretly, for reasons which will presently appear, he then went across the street to a neighboring shop, and there made inquiry of the foreman, who was a workman of his acquaintance, whether or not there was a good place in the shop where he could fire his newly-constructed pistol. Responsive to that inquiry, he was shown into the basement of
(2) Witness made another experiment about the same time, but with a much better result. He employed, on the second occasion, the same cylinder and breech as on the first, and he loaded it in the same way, except that he did not quite fill the chamber with powder, leaving sufficient space, so that he could put in a packing prepared for the purpose, which consisted of a piece of leather, fitted to the bore of the chamber, and inserted behind the powder, and made with a central conical hole, larger on the inside than the outside, and which, it was supposed, would be so expanded by the discharge as to prevent the escape of the flame at the rear. Having perfected the leather packing, and put the pistol in order for use, he went to the same shop as before, and fired it again in the basement of the building, and he states, without qualification, that the packing stopped the escape of the flame, and that he was satisfied with the experiment. Both of these experiments were made while the witness was engaged in turning pistol barrels in the establishment of Samuel Colt, and before he left there the first time.
(3) Subsequently to that time, and after he came back in the month of August, in the same year, he made a third experiment. Whether he took the same breech, or another with a ratchet on it, so that it could be turned by the machinery of the lock, is immaterial in this investigation, as in all other particulars they were substantially the same, so far at least as respects the questions involved in this controversy. Attention to what he did on the occasion, will show that the experiment was one of very great importance. First, he loaded all the chambers with powder and balls, nearly filling the chambers with loose powder, and putting in the leather packing, as described in the preceding experiment, and he states that each chamber had its nipple, and that all were capped. Secondly, having loaded all the chambers of the cylinder and adjusted the breech to the same, he again borrowed a Colt’s pistol, either of the same person or of his brother, took off the barrel and cylinder, as he had done before, and attached the loaded cylinder, together with the breech, to the lock frame, as before explained, and put the same in order for use. Thirdly, he then proceeded to the same shop, and there, in the basement of the building, fired and discharged all the chambers, one after another, and he states that the pistol operated well and to his satisfaction, and that it was seen by one of the workmen in the shop, and by one of his brothers.
In (4)His fourth experiment was indubitably made with a Colt’s cylinder, having the ratchet ax-rangement on it, and its importance consists, not only in the improvements made, both in the cylinder and the breech, but also in the fact that the witness successfully repeated all that he had accomplished in the preceding experiment. Employing the language of the witness, his statement is, that “he drilled the breech the size of the chamber” through to the recess cut for the shoulder of the nipple, and then he borrowed an arbor, put the cylinder into it, and turned off the rear part of the same below the center, so that he could insert a cartridge in the rear. Particular attention should also be given to the several improvements made in the breech and its attachments or connections, and in the general arrangement of the arm. Adopting the same course-as on the former occasion, he procured another refuse cylinder that had the central hole in it, cut off the rear end of it as he had done before, drilled the hole larger, so that it would slide on to the rear part of the cylinder he had just prepared for the experiment, and in that manner formed the breech, and having arranged the breech, he drilled a hole and inserted a nipple, and then attached the cylinder to the lock frame, marking it by the frame so that he could make it correspond with the recess in the lock frame for the purpose of capping the nipple, and he states, in respect to this experiment, that he so constructed the pistol that he could load it in the rear without removing the cylinder from the lock frame. Constructed and arranged as described, he loaded the pistol, using packing to stop the escape of the flame, and went to the same shop and fired it; and he states that it operated satisfactorily, as it could hardly fail to do, as it was obviously precisely such an arm as that described in the patent on which the suit was founded. Doubt can not be entertained that the pistol, as described, was a complete arm; that the cylinder of chambers could be turned in front of a stationary breech by the mechanism of the lock, and that the several chambers of the cylinder could be brought in succession to the line of the barrel to be fired; and it is equally clear that it was so constructed and arranged that the charges could be inserted in the rear of the chamber without removing the cylinder. Precise dates are not given in respect to and of these experiments, but the proof is, as already exhibited, that they commenced as early as March or April, 1849, and that the one last mentioned was made during the latter part of that year, or the fore part of the year 1850.
(5)During the next year he made a fifth experiment, with a view to use Sharp’s cartridges, with a cylinder like the one he had contrived, and, to make the trial, he took the same pistol used in the preceding experiment,
(G) Failing to adapt the arm he had invented to the use of the particular cartridge mentioned, his. next effort was to see if he could not construct a joint between the breech plate and the rear end of the cylinder, sufficiently close by the contact of the metal surfaces to prevent the escape of the flame when the pistol was fired, without the necessity of using the leather packing, or any other equivalent means to confine the powder within the chambers; and with a view to determine that matter, he, in the year 1852, made a sixth experiment, which is the last to be particularly noticed in this investigation. Commencing as before, he procured two cylinders of the same kind, cut off the front of one. to be used as such, and the rear of the other, to be used as a breech, brazed a plate over the nipples of the latter, so as to make the surface smooth, and fitted the part used as a cylinder, and the breech, together as closely as he could, and have the arm the proper length to revolve in the lock frame. What he was endeavoring to accomplish was, to make the joint so tight that upon firing the pistol, the flame would not escape from one chamber to the others, and having perfected the arrangement 'as well as he could, he loaded the pistol, placed it in the lock frame and tired it, but the result was. that he found he could not prevent the escape of the flame in that way. Abandoning that idea as hopeless, he mentioned the failure to his brother, and told him what the result had been, and his brother inquired of him if he was sure he could accomplish the desired result by the use of the leather packing, and he, the witness, told his brother that he was, and to satisfy him that he could do so, he loaded the pistol, using the leather packing, and fired it, and carried the breech to the shop and exhibited it to his brother for his satisfaction. No appearance of any escape of flame or smoke could be seen, as the witness states, except what appeared in the hole of the leather packing, wherfe the fire from the cap communicated with the charge. Witness exhibited the breech used by him on that occasion, before the commissioner, when he gave his deposition, and its identity is fully established by the testimony, and it is also fully proved that the same cylinder was preserved and used by him in constructing his model for the patent office. Much testimony was introduced by the complainants, to confirm the testimony of the pat-entee in relation to those several experiments, but it will be sufficient to say, without reproducing the testimony, that I am of the opinion that his statements are correct, and that no one of them, which is of any importance in this investigation, has been successfully contradicted. Taking the statements as true, they show that the patentee made the invention described in the first claim of the patent, and reduced it to practice as an operative fire arm, within the meaning of the patent law, as early as the fall of 1840, or the fore part of the year 1850, when his fourth experiment was completed.
Suppose it to be so, still it is insisted by the respondents that the supposed inventor afterward deserted and abandoned his invention, and, consequently, that he cannot be regarded in this controversy as the original and first inventor of the improvement. But if that proposition cannot be sustained, then they contend that the proofs show that he took the pistol he constructed apart, and laid the materials aside for years, as something incomplete and requiring more thought and experiment, before he attempted to restore the invention, and without any definite intention of resuming the undertaking, and they insist that the rule of law upon that state of the case is. that if another in the mean time invents the same thing, without any knowledge of that which is so suspended. and reduces the same to practice, applies for and takes out his patent, and introduces the patented invention into .public use, he is entitled to the benefits of his skill and diligence, and must, in judgment of law, be regarded as the original and first inventor of the improvement, although it may appear that the final experiment of the other party was so far completed that the machine, or other invention, was, in fact, the proper subject of a patent, and that the materials were laid aside to preserve the parts, to be used or not in the future, as circumstances should arise, or as he should thereafter determine, yet without any positive unconditional intention of relinquishing
But the question to be decided in this controversy is. whether the proofs exhibited in the record bring this case within the operation of that rule of law ? Some of the parts ased in the several experiments to which reference has been made were preserved, as, for example, the revolving breech constructed with the nipples in it, as used in the-sixth experiment, and it is an exhibit in the case, and the cylinder used in the same experiment, and several others of the identical parts used in those experiments were also preserved, and put into one or the other of his patent office models. Most or all of the other parts were put into a box, and were kept for a time in the attic of the house where he lived, and he states that when he moved from there, in shipping his goods, he lost the box, together with the materials, and it is upon the loss of these materials, and the delay that ensued in applying for a patent, that the respondents chiefly rely to support the theory of fact involved in the proposition. On the other hand, it undeniably appears that the invention held by the complainants is only an improvement upon the patented invention of Samuel Colt, who, for a long series of years, was an extensive and. successful manufacturer of revolving pistols. Full proof also is exhibited that the patentee of the invention, under whom the complainants hold, was in the employment of that same manufacturer from the time he made his first experiment until he commenced to make his preparations with a view to apply for his patent: and that throughout that entire period, the well-known patent of his employer was in full oiieration. Direct inquiry was made of the patentee in this case, why it was that his application for a patent was so long delayed, and his answer was, that it was because his employer had a patent for the mode of revolving the pistol embraced in his improvement, and which he desired to use. and also because his employer had discharged certain men who had been experimenting on revolving pistols. Two or more of his brothers were employed in the same establishment, and on one or more occasions, when the witness exhibited his pistol to his brothers, he proposed to show the same to his and their employer, but they objected and remonstrated against the suggestion, upon the ground that if it were done, they would all lose their places. Meeting with these discouragements, he delayed his application for a patent, but there is no ground whatever to conclude that he ever, for a moment, intended to postpone his application for a patent any longer than it became necessary that he should do so in order to overcome those difficulties, and, consequently. the theory of fact involved in the proposition, can not be sustained.
Mention has not been made of the patent of John H. Johnson of April 17, 1854. because it is subsequent in date to the other foreign patent, and of course must fall within the same category.
Examination must also be made of the Lefaucheux patent of May 2, 1845. and also of a subsequent patent granted to the same per
In the introductory part of the description, he characterizes his former invention as a “system for pistols with one barrel,” and his statement is, that the new modification or improvement relates to “pistols with several barrels.” and there is no mention whatever made of pistols composed of a cylinder of chambers. united with a single barrel, and arranged upon a common center, and so located that, as the cylinder is turned, the several cham-bei’s are, in succession, brought in line with the barrel to be fired. Such a pistol is nowhere mentioned, described, suggested, or indicated in any part of the patent, unless it be assumed that the chambers of such a cylinder are the barrels of the pistol, and consequently that a pistol composed of a cylinder, although united to one barrel only, as described. is nevextheless, in the sense of the patent law, a pistol of as many bairels as there are chambers in the cylinder. All will agree, I think, that the patentee, when he framed the specification of his original patent, took no such view of the subject. On the contrai’y, it is clear, that when he stated that the invention was applicable to pistols with one bari-el. he referred to the form of the barrel, as exhibited in the oi-dinary pistol, except
Several other defenses were presented at the argument, but it will be sufficient to say that none of them can be sustained, and they are accordingly overruled. Nothing need be added upon the subject of infringement, as it is virtually admitted in the pleadings and fully proved. The complainants are entitled to an account, and when the amount is ascertained, a perpetual injunction will be granted.