Samuel Freeman Miller

“ If the spaces between the threads of the netting were too large, thereby permitting the escape of the hair, there is nothing new in the idea that making them smaller would remedy the evil. If the size of the threads then in use was too large for beauty, neither discovery nor invention were necessary to reduce it. There is nothing new in the number of these threads, in their size, nor in the manner in which they are crossed and connected. ”

“ The defendant relies on want of novelty, produces some fifteen or sixteen specimens of fabrics and designs which he alleges to be anticipations of plaintiff's production, and refers to as many persons who were making or selling fabrics which are identical with that patented by plaintiff. ”

“ It is the same device to remedy the same defect: only one is for mosquitoes and the other for hair.
Exhibit No. 6 is a hair-net consisting of larger cords crossing each other at equal distances, with finer threads passing over or around them, and filling up the space so as to reduce the size of the interstices. This was used and sold openly in New York in 1871.
Exhibit No. 2 is a hair-net made twenty years ago, in which the larger cords are knotted together at their crossing at regular intervals, and smaller threads between, so as to make the meshes smaller. ”