“ The court distinctly held that the words 'newly-invented machine, manufacture, or composition of atter,' and the words 'such invention,' in the first clause of the seventh section, meant the invention patented; and that the words 'the specific machine, manufacture, or composition of matter' meant the thing invented, the right to which was secured by the patent. We see nothing in this case which sustains the position of the appellants. ”

“ Nor is this a case for the application of the doctrine that, in cases of ambiguity, the practice adopted by an executive department of the government in interpreting and administering a statute is to be taken as some evidence of its proper construction. The question before us, as to the validity of a patent, by reason of pre-existing acts or omissions of the inventor, of the character f those involved in the present case, is not a question of executive administration, but is properly a judicial question. ”

“ It is also urged that in the rules of the patent office, promulgated between the time of the passage of the act of March 3, 1839, and the enactment of the act of July 8, 1870, it was made known to applicants for patents that a patent would not be granted if the invention had been in public use or on sale, with the consent and allowance of the inventor, for more than two years before his application. ”