Joseph P. Bradley, Railway Company v. Sayles — Opinion of the Court
“ Courts should regard with jealousy and disfavor any attempts to enlarge the scope of an application once filed, or of a patent once granted, the effect of which would be to enable the patentee to appropriate other inventions made prior to such alteration, or to appropriate that which has, in the mean time, gone into public use. ”
Joseph P. Bradley, Railway Company v. Sayles — Opinion of the Court
“ Like almost all other inventions, that of double brakes came when, in the progress of mechanical improvement, it was needed; and being sought by many minds, it is not wonderful that it was developed in different and independent forms, all original, and yet all bearing a somewhat general resemblance to each other. In such cases, if one inventor precedes all the rest, and strikes out something which includes and underlies all that they produce, he acquires a monopoly, and subjects them to tribute. ”
Joseph P. Bradley, Railway Company v. Sayles — Opinion of the Court
“ The next point was to communicate this movement of the brakes in one truck to those of the other, by some device that would cause the upper extremity of the lever, in the latter, to be drawn inward, towards the centre of the car, at the same time that the lever on the first truck was forced inward; a simple rod connecting them together would not do this, but it would have the contrary effect. The upper extremities of the two levers must be so connected that, upon the application of force, they would approach each other, each being forced inwardly towards the centre of the car. ”
