Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/164

EEABL V. APPL.ETOH CO. 157 �In fhe new drawîngs he reduced the length of the but ; and this is insisted upon by the defendants as a fraud, -which ren- ders the issue void. The statute declares that in a machine patent the model, or drawings, shall not be amended, exoept each by the other, (Eev. St. § 4916,) and it is truethat these drawings are not amended by the model, but vary from it in this very important particular. When this fact was called to the attention of Judge Shepley, in the Ehode Island case, he said that it was not illegal to change the drawings in a mat- ter which did not affect the claims. I see no reason to change the ruling of the court upon this point. The modification of the drawings undoubtedly tends to show that the importance of the short but was discovered by the patentee after 1870, and it was, perhaps, morally spcaking, objectionable, because the value of his spindle depends very mueh upon the short but; but, as that feature was not claimed in the re-issue, the change was held to be, technically speaking, immaterial. As a question of intent, it is mitigated by the consideration that Pearl truly believed that the value of the short but, by whom- Boever introduced, was much increased, if, indeed, it was not wholly due to a shortening and lightening of the upper parts of the spindle. Upon this point the opinion in the Ocean Mills case appears to agree with that of the patentee. "With- out a knowledge of the results aeoomplished by these changea," eays Judge Shepley, referring to the cutting off of a piece of the blade of the spindle, and placing the upper adhesive bear- ing at the middle instead of the top of the bobbin, "they might, at first glance, appear to be merely structural changes ;* but he adds that the improved results attained by the inven- tion prove it to have a higher character. His meaning is that the proof of invention is found in the improved working of Pearl's spindle, as actually made and sold, shortened below as well as above, and that the shortening below, though not described or claimed, was rendered possible by the shortening above. �It is proved in this case that Pearl was not the first person to make a ring spindle with a short tip. Such an instrument was made and used for years before his time in Middlebury. ����