Nathan Clifford

“ Its constituents are such, that it is singularly susceptible to fermentation, decomposition, and change,-more so than any other vegetable that has been successfully preserved in hermetically-closed vessels for any considerable length of time. Such liability to rapid change is not due to any one particular constituent, but to the presence of several, such as gluten, sugar, fat, and starch, in such proportions as are calculated to promote fermentation and action upon each other. ”

“ Preserved green corn, unless it is packed and cooked in its own milk and juices, is of very little value, as it is only in that mode of operation that the preserved articles will retain the peculiar flavor and sweetness which the cereal possesses when fresh gathered from the field and cooked in the usual way. ”

“ Other vegetables, such as beets and carrots, or pease and beans, may be packed in cans in a crude state under the foreign process, as they retain their juices, and may perhaps be tolerably well preserved in that mode of operation if entirely secluded from the atmosphere, as by packing ripe vegetables in hermetically-sealed cans; but the chemical composition of such vegetables is very different from green sweet corn, which is much more difficult to preserve in its natural freshness without loss of its peculiar flavor and aroma, as accomplished by the complainants' process. ”

“ Before examining that defence, it becomes necessary to refer somewhat more fully to the nature and peculiar characteristics of the respective improvements, in order that the evidence introduced may be correctly understood and properly applied. ”

“ Exposure to heat, if seasonable, will prevent that tendency, as the relations of the constituents of which the mixture is composed will become fixed, and the danger of putrefaction or souring will be greatly diminished, or be entirely averted. ”

“ Meritorious inventors are entitled to protection; and the proofs are full to the point that the product, manufactured by the process of the complainants, is far superior to that preserved in any other mode ”

“ Pursuant to that rule, the second patent of the complainants was issued, which embodies an invention for a new and useful improvement in preserving green corn; or, in other words, the patented invention is for the process of manufacturing the new product described and secured to the inventor in the other letters-patent. ”

“ Unripe ears of corn may be boiled and hermetically sealed in cans without infringing the inventions of the patentee; but the difficulty with that product is, that the cob absorbs the sweetness of the kernels, and the article becomes insipid and unpalatable, and consequently it is not salable to any considerable extent. Sales of such a product do not infringe the patents of the complainants ”

“ Indian corn may also be preserved when in a green state by removing the kernels from the cob, and boiling or cooking the same before the kernels are packed in cans hermetically sealed, without subjecting the manufacturer to the charge of infringing the patents described in the bill of the complaint ”