George Shiras, Jr.

“ We content ourselves with saying that, upon the evidence laid before us, we are satisfied that Gordon was the first inventor of a mechanical binder and twister, adjustable, at the will of the operator, to effect the binding by passing the cord or wire round the middle of the bundle, where this adjustability was reached by mounting the binder and twister upon a frame which was movable upon a shaft in a longitudinal direction. ”

“ In the Gordon machine the devices belonging to the binder cannot be taken away without dismantling the harvester, or, if the harvester be left intact, then what is left of the binding mechanism will not be operative as a binder. In defendants' case the binding mechanism can be wholly detached from the harvester without in any way affecting the capacity of the harvester to operate, and, when so removed, the binder will continue to operate as such whenever it is fed with grain and power is applied to its shaft. ”

“ In the defendants' machines the binding arm and knot-tying mechanism are permanently secured in a fixed position, and incapable of adjustment by being moved to and fro in the machine. When the binding machine itself is moved so as to adjust it to the middle of the stalks to be bound, the binding arm and tying mechanism, by virtue of their permanent attachment to the frame of the machine, are necessarily moved with it, but they cannot be adjusted in it. ”