George Shiras, Jr.

“ A button formed from a single sheet of metal, free from sutrues, of a convenient shape, and uniting strength with lightness, would seem to come fairly within the meaning of the patent laws. The tools to be used in making the button are not described, but they are not claimed to be new; and the method or process of manufacture is described with sufficient particularity to enable any one skilled in the art to follow it. ”

“ It may be laid down as a general rule, though perhaps not an invariable one, that if a new combination and arrangement of known elements produce a new and beneficial result, never attained before, it is evidence of invention. It was certainly a new and useful result to make a loom produce fifty yards a day, when it never before had produced more than forty; and we think that the combination of elements by which this was effected, even if these elements were separately known before, was invention sufficient to form the basis of a patent.'
Consolidated Safety Valve Co. ”

“ The Stokes patent was for an improvement in making a stud fastening known as 'Thomson's Unbreakable Busk Fastening,' and whereby, instead of fastening the parts of the stud together by rivets, the entire busk was made out of one piece of metal, by striking up or raising the stud out of a strip of malleable sheet metal. The structure thus produced is a solid, rivetlike, and flat head, intended to resist a great strain, and evidently not designed to be used as a collar button, where a well-defined, round head, adapted to be used where there is no strain, is necessary and essential. ”