Henry Billings Brown

“ If there be any invention at all, then, in the combinations specified in the third and fourth claims, it is in the introduction of the reservoir, O, beneath the hopper, which is really an enlargement of the chute, for the purpose of affording a lodgment for the coal until it is drawn off for use. Great stress was laid by plaintiff's counsel upon this feature of the invention, but, even conceding it to be patentable, there is nothing corresponding to it in the defendant's machine. ”

“ The coal is hoisted from the hold of the vessel in buckets or tubs, which are swung over the machine, and the coal dumped into the hopper, through which it falls upon the first screen and lodges in the reservoir until required for use, when the coarser coal slides down upon a chute, having an outlet or gate, through which it is withdrawn into carts. The finer coal falls through the first screen upon a second, where it is again sifted, the coarser sliding down to the side of the machine, the finer falling through the meshes upon the wharf, directly beneath the hopper. ”

“ The court instructed the jury that the plaintiff's patent was not limited to a device in which a screen is one of the elements, and that, if they found that defendant had used a device substantially identical with the device shown in the patent, but having a solid bottom to the reservoir, and a chute which extends from the receiving hopper, instead of having a screen bottom, such device was also covered by the patent, and was an infringement. ”