The controversy in the Patent Office lasted five years, was strenuously contested, and was carried to the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia. The controversy involved, among other issues, that of the operativeness of Dickinson's device, as does the present case in one of its phases. He had given a public test of his machine at Grand Rapids where he lived, in 1900, and had invited a number of witnesses. They were called before the Examiner to testify whether the machine had worked successfully, and the Examiner found from the great weight of evidence that it had. Hildreth was a witness in the District Court below on this issue. He was in the embarrassing situation of having fought, in the Patent Office, Dickinson's claim, which he was now supporting as his property. He testified that while Dickinson's machine was not a success commercially, he had found that by shortening it and speeding it up, in accord with a suggestion of Dickinson, he could and did make satisfactory candy. The record shows that the judge in the District Court below had a working model before him which he refers to as demonstrating that the device is operative.
Hildreth has been a candy manufacturer of Boston for many years, and since 1906 has made candy machines. In addition to his own patent, he has acquired by purchase all the other patents in interference with Dickinson. He acquired the Dickinson patent from Thibodeau before its issue, for $75,000.
By these new devices the art of candy making has been revolutionized. Some kinds of candy which if pulled at all had to be pulled when cold, could not be pulled by hand, because it required more than man strength; but they are now pulled by power machines. The production of candy has greatly increased, and 90 per cent of all the pulled candy made is pulled by machine. Hildreth makes a half dozen different classes of machines which embody the devices of his own patent and others which he has
