Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/96

88 FEDERAL REPORTER. �eut out in such a form that they may be pi-essed or hammered into the stock and hold it like dogs. In the Light patent they are called hook-shaped teeth, formed out of the ferrule. > �The idea of making a separate tip for whips belongs to Shelton, and has been found to work a great improvement in the trade. The idea is borrowed by the defendants, and, if the plaintiffs can hold a broad claim for the independent tip, there is no doubt of the infringement. It is in evidence, and is well known, that fishing rods had been made in sections before the invention of Shelton, and the tips of these rods were BO made with sockets as to be fitted to or removed from the next joint, at pleasure. These sockets were not usually fastened with a screw-thread, and I Houbt if any were so fastened in the mode of the patent before its date. The joints whioh came together were so nicely fitted by their ferrules that they were held for a practically useful purpose by adhesion or friction. Before the date of the patent, whips had been made in sections by a traveling agent, not, however, for sale in that form, but for convenience of packing in a trunk. The plain tiff 's expert testifies that a sample of these sectional whips would not work well, because the parts were so loosely united that the tip would corne ofï when a smart blow was struck. This is a matter of adjustment. There ean be no doubt, I suppose, that a whip tip might be united to the stock in a usefal way after the old fashion of the fishing rod. �These being the facts, although the merits of the adoption of this form of manufacture in the trade is great, I feel oon- strained by the authorities to hold that the patent is for little more than the application of an old art to a new use analogous to that of making fishing rods. To sustain the patent, there- fore, it must be confined to the particular improvement of the screw-thread ; and, so construed, I do not find it infringed by the defendants. �BiU dismissed, with costs. ��� �