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FLETCHER, APPELLANT, VS. BLAKE. Mr. Justice Harlan delivered the opinion of the court. This is an appewnom a decree in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York, dismissing a bill in equity based upon an alleged infringement of letters patent issued to the plaintiff in error on the 8lh of June, 1869, for an improvement in stamps used for revenue and other puposes. Held:--All invention consisting of a postage or revenue stamp having a portion of its surface composed of thin fragile paper or other suitable material loosely attached, and on which a portion of the design or other matter is printed, is not infringed by a stamp composed of one continuous piece of paper, of uniform thickness, upon the face of which is certain printed or engraved matter, with blank spaces, in which are inserted, at the appropriate time, certain figures and names required by law to appear upon revenue stamps, which blank spaces are prevented from adhering to the barrel by the interjiosition of a red slip of blank paper attached to the back and outside edges of the stamp. Decree of Circuit Court sustained. United States Circuit Court.--Soutborn District of New York. BTJCHAK ei al. vs. MCKESSON etal. SAME VS. HENEY et al.-- PATENT CAKBOLIC ACID SOAP. Blatchford, J. : 1. The first claim of reissued patent No. 5,007, to Isabella Eames and Charles A. Seely, July 30, 1872, being a claim for "a soap made by incorporating carbolic acid, or its equivalent, with ordinary soap, sulistantially as specified," SeM to be anticipated by the English patent of Alexander McDougall, No. 3,510, of October 15, 1860, for impiovenient in materials or composition for destroying vermin on sheep and other animals, and for protecting them therefrom." 2. If McDougall, by using with a fat and an alkali a crude carbolic acid or creosote wliich did not contain carbolic acid or cresylic acid as pure or as concentrated as it was afterward made, produced a true soap developing the properties ot the acids referred to, there was no invention in subsequently using the purer article. The advance was only one of degree. 3. Although soaps made with the finer carbolic acid existing at the date of plaintiffs patent may be applicable to purposes to which soaps made with the less pure carbolic acid could not be applied, that shows only a difference in degree and not invention. 4. The effect of an earlier invention upon the claim of a patent not avoided by a specific disclaimer in the specification when it appears that such disclaimer is based upon an unsound view of the invention to which it relates. Malleable Castings. Considerable pretense of mystery is assumed by manufacturers of malleable castings both in this and the old country, and doubtless there are some trade secrets of value to those in the trade relative to mixtures of different irons, etc., but the process is in itself simple, and a litlle experience should euable any foundryman to attain a creditable success in it. Nearly every founder has his own mixtures and methods, but they are all based upon the proces.ses of Samuel Lucas, of Dronfield, which date back to 1811. The general features of the process, as carried out by the Birmingham (England) iron founders, is given iu tlie Ironmonger, as follows: "For the purpose of the casting pig of a fine quality is needed, and great care is used in the preparation of the moulds, so that there may be no flaw or imperfection iu the casting. The latter, after coofing, is, of course, hard and brittle, and it is to remove this brittleness aud give it the character of malleable iron that the special process is required. The casting is now placed in hermetically sealed pots or boxes surrounded by powdered ore, and subjected for several days to intense heat, which, by cementation, gradually softens it and renders it malleable to the core, when it maybe bent or wound into any shape. The annealing process takes ordinarily about ten days. Thus a pot made up on Tuesday is got up to a white heat about Friday, and this heat is maintained for some twenty-four hours or more, according to the size or thickness of the article annealed. The fire is then allowed to die down, and when the mass is cool the castings are found to lie thoroughly annealed and malleable. Scarcely a trade in Birmingham fails to use malleable castings for some purpose or another. " The introduction of Bessemer steel has somewhat operated against the trade, but there is still a great field for malleable iron founders in catering for the requirements ot the Birmingham gun, harness, and engineering trades." The journal quoted thinks it much to lie regretted there is not a more free interchange of ideas and experience among English iron founders, as in this only is there hope that the English trade can keep pace with German and French pro-gress in the art. 166 Courage, Ingenuity, and Perils of Firemen. The perils to which firemen are frequently subjected and the courage with which they are faced are scarcely inferior to the dangers met with and courage evinced by brave soldiers on the field of battle. If statistics were carefully compiled, we thinli the loss of life and personal injuries sustained by the trained corps that by day and night guards tills city from conflagration would more nearly approach tlie proportion usually killed and wounded in active military campaigns than we could easily believe. They are a noble, though a small army, which yearly gains respect from our citizens; and they often perform heroic deeds that merit a higher reward than the praise bestowed by the chronicler who records the story. A rare instance of the exercise of great ingenuity under circumstances of great personal danger occurred in a recent fire in this city, an account of which we transcribe from a leading daily: A portly man was imprisoned by fire and smoke in the fifth story, and there were no ordinary means of reaching him. The adjoining house was smaller, its roof reaching about half way between the fourth and fifth story windows of the burning structure. A fireman reached this roof with a small ladder. He then slid down the ladder until he could get into the fourth-story window, but he found it impossible to ascend to the fifth fioor. Then he put the short ladder on the window sill and held it flat against the building, so that it would reach to the story above, and on this support the man whose life was endangered descended. The men were now together, but not out of danger. The ladder was next put with one leg on the sill, but aslant, so that it would reach over to the roof of the adjoining house. Held in this position by the fireman atone end and volunteer assistants at the other, it formed a very dangerous but, as it proved, successful means of escape for the citizen whose life was endangered. The fireman was now left alone, but escaped by the same path, trusting entirely to the grip of the men at the top of the ladder. All this was done at the height of thirty or forty feet from the stone sidewalk, in the midst of excitement attending a great fire. The man who does such work with the necessary quickness of invention and cool bravery deserves something better than the mere wages necessary for his existence, with the chances that, if injured or disabled in the service, he will be discharged a" useless.
