Henry Billings Brown

“ Indeed, from the statement in the introduction of the specification, through all the description, and in each of these claims, care is taken to emphasize the fact that the invention relates to the combination, with the ordinary harvester elevator, of a butt elevator which operates upon the butts of the grain while the grain is being lifted upon the main belt, so as to hasten the ascent of the butts and move the stalks back upon the harvester elevator. ”

“ In 1880 he got a new binder, which the adjustable extension did not fit, and for lack of time he put on a rigid one instead of an adjustable one, though he preferred the latter. At various time he put on rigid ones for other persons. The pivoted butt adjuster represented in his sketch, and relied upon to establish the prior use, was thrown aside and lost sight of for several years, Heller never applying for a patent, nor taking any steps towards the introduction of the device. ”

“ As we have had occasion before to observe, oral testimony, unsupported by patents or exhibits, tending to show prior use of a device regularly patented, is, in the nature of the case, open to grave suspicion. ”

“ Plaintiff claims in this connection that, by the lower end of the swinging elevator is in reality meant the receiving end, and that, as the defendant's device (which can hardly be called an elevator at all, since it facilitates the descent of the grain) is pivoted at its receiving end, which happens to be its upper end, it is within the spirit, though not within the letter, of the claim. ”

“ The Olin patent relates to a harvesting machine, and more particularly to a certain method of elevating the grain from the harvester platform, upon which it falls as it is cut, to the top of the delivery apron, where it is discharged from the machine, either into the hands of a binder or into a mechanical grain binder, as the case may be. ”

“ The invention of a needle with the eye near the point is the basis of all sewing machines used; but the methods of operating such a needle are many, and if Howe had been obliged to make his own method a part of every claim in which the needle was an element his patent whould have been practically worthless. We think it sufficiently appears that Steward was the inventor of the pivoted extension described in the twentieth claim: that the claim is valid, and was infringed by the defendant. ”

“ In other words, when the pivotal form of extension is used, the connections are such that, while the angle of the butt adjuster with the top of the binder changes, the angle of the extension and the same board remains constant, or nearly so. Defendant's machine is provided with a moving butt-adjusting mechanism, and also with a board pivoted to the lower end of the butt adjuster, practically identical in its construction and operation with that of the Steward patent. ”