have invented "A new apparatus, destined to produce chemical decompositions by means of superheated steam and water;" and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear and exact description of the same, reference being had to the annexed sheet of drawing, making a part of the same. tube is terminated in the interior of the cylinder, h, by a rose jet; or, more simply, holes are made in the extremity, so as to distribute the water uniformly in the cylinder h, and to insure a molecular or finely subdivided contact between the superheated water and the substance submitted to the operation; h, iron or copper The apparatus, which it is the object of the upper cylinder, which should, like boiler a, be present patent to secure, is susceptible of sev- able to resist a pressure of from ten to twenty eral industrial applications: but as it is chiefly atmospheres. The cylinder h, receives the subintended for the decomposition of fatty substances to be treated: i, funnel, furnished with stances into fatty acids and glycerine, we will describe it as applied to that purpose. This invention is represented in the annexed drawing: * * * * [Fig. 2.] The dimensions of the apparatus may vary with the various purposes to which it may be applied. * * * * a tube and with a cock, serving for the introduction of the substances to be treated into the cylinder h; that is, when this substance is of such a nature as to be introduced through a small aperture; k, man-hole, serving for cleaning the cylin der h, and for the introduction of substances to be treated which cannot pass through the funnel i; l, safety valve; m, manometer or pressure gauge, indicating the pressure in the whole of the apparatus; n, n, cocks, serving to indicate the height and level of the substance and of the water in cylinder h; o, cock serving to empty the cylinder when operation is completed. Action of the apparatus. Supposing everything arranged as shown in the drawing, in order to decompose fatty substances into fatty acids and into glycerine, the boiler a is completely filled with water. The cylinder h is filled with water up to one third of its height, and it is then filled up to the level of the upper cock with the fatty bodies to be de composed. The introduction of the fatty bodies takes place, as we have said, either through the funnel i, or by the man-hole k. The boiler a is then gradually heated until the pressuregauge indicates a pressure of from ten to twenty atmospheres, according to the nature of the substances submitted to the operation, when the following takes place: The superheated water in the boiler a acquires an ascending motion, on account of the difference in the temperature of the two capacities a and h. A current is thus created, whence it results that the heated water in boiler ascends through the tube g into the cylinder h and being forcibly driven out through the holes in the rose-jet, passes through the fatty bodies and descends again through the tube f to the bottom of the boiler a, where it is again warmed, in order to recommence its ascending motion, and so on. When this operation has been thus continued during a length of time which may vary from five to eight hours, according to the nature of the fatty bodies operated upon, and also according to the variation of pressure (from ten to twenty atmospheres), the fatty bodies are decomposed into glycerine, which remains dissolved in the water, and into fatty acids, which float in the cylinder, h. The contents are now emptied out and separated from each other at the same time. * * * A, is a metal (iron or copper) boiler, of any form whatever, placed in a furnace, in order to be heated by a naked fire; this boiler has sides sufficiently strong to resist a pressure of from ten to twenty atmospheres; it is of a variable capacity, according to the requirements of the manufacture, and it may have its interior lined with lead or any other metal which will not be attacked by the fatty bodies which are to be introduced and produced therein; b, hearth; c, In conclusion, we would remark that we are ash-pit; d, dipping-pipe, furnished with a cock aware that, first, the decomposition of fatty to empty the apparatus by pressure; e, man- bodies by water, under the influence of heat hole, serving for cleaning the cylindrical vessel, and of pressure, is a well known scientific fact. a, and for the introduction of substances if re-Water is substituted for the organic basis. It quired; f, metal tube (of iron or copper) connecting the bottom of the boiler a, with the bottom of the cylinder h; g, metal tube of ascension, conducting the superheated water from the boiler a, to the upper part of cylinder h. This forms a perfect and fixed combination with the fatty acids, while the glycerine is dissolved in the excess of water." Second, that as this chemical action takes place under the influence of a weak affinity, it is necessary, in addition to the above named physical and chemical conditions, to insure perfect molecular agitation of the whole mass; and that we wish it to be understood that what we wish to claim and establish as of our invention, consists of an apparatus wherein the water and the fatty matters are heated separately in two different boilers. The first boiler is heated by the source of heat, while the second is heated by the first boiler. In these boilers the agitation necessary for the chemical action and combination is produced by the pressure of the heated water in the first boiler. This water circulates continuously from this first boiler to the second boiler, and from the second boiler to the first, in a continuous and self-acting or automatic man ner, without interruption. The characteristics of our apparatus are, that it produces agitation by circulation alone, a continuous and automatic circulation, produced by the pressure of water. Lastly, our apparatus effects its chemical action in a continuous manner, without the aid of any manual or other assistance. Claims. Having described the nature of our invention and the manner in which the same is to be performed, we do not claim the application of superheated water for decomposing fatty bodies, nor the form of the apparatus above described, which may vary somewhat, according to conditions and circumstances; but what we claim as our invention is, producing a continuous automatic circulation of highly heated water, in a very finely divided state, through the bodies "under treatment, by means of an apparatus constructed and employed substantially as herein shown and described." The case is further stated by the court. Messrs. Charles M. Keller, William M. Evarts and S. D. Law, for appellant: I. What is the true legal construction of the patent at issue? On this question the court below erred in assuming the following as facts proved: First, that Tilghman, the patentee, is the original and first discoverer of the chemical fact that water at a high temperature will decompose fatty and oily bodies, and produce therefrom fatty acids and solution of glycerine. Second. That the description of the working of the process in the patent at issue does not re quire the vessel, in which the process is to be worked, to be full and maintained entirely full of the emulsion or mixture of fat and water, so that steam shall not be formed in said vessel during the working of the process. Third. That the description in the patent at issue is not limited to the working of the process at the range of temperature specified in the patent. Fourth. That the description in the patent at issue does not require that the fat and water shall be maintained in a state of admixture, but includes the circulation of the water through the fat under treatment. Fifth. That fats and oils can be attracted away and successfully decomposed, and fatty acids and glycerine produced therefrom, by the means described in the patent at issue. It will be contended on the part of the appellant that the evidence does not justify such findings, but the reverse. The process described in the patent at issue See 19 WALL. U. S., Book 22. by the terms of the specification is limited to four conditions. (a) The use of water in a liquid state and no other. (b) The mixture of fat and water for effecting the decomposition to be subjected to a temperature ranging from 510 to 610 degrees F., according to the quality of the fat, such being the temperature by which heat alone will de compose fat. (c) The process to be worked in a vessel of great strength, to be entirely filled with the emulsion or mixture of fat and water, so that steam shall not be formed. (d) The water and fat to be thoroughly mixed before, and maintained in such state of admixture during the working of the process. As matter of law we submit, that letters patent are to be construed according to the true import of the terms used, aided by the state of the art known before and at the time of the grant, but that the terms cannot be enlarged by developments in science and art subsequent to the grant of the patent. A patentee, in drafting his specification, may be presumed to be influenced by the state of the art then known; but it cannot be presumed that he was influenced by what was not then known. The following facts are proved in the record to have been known in the arts prior to 1854: 1. That heat alone will decompose fats and oils at the range of temperature specified in the patent at issue, but that heat alone will not resolve their elements into fatty acids and glycerine. 2. That liquids can be heated to temperatures even beyond the highest nained in the patent, in a vessel entirely full, so that steam shall not be produced; such vessel being provided with a heavy weighted piston, which yields to the dilation or expansion of the liquid by the heat applied. 3. That fats have been successfully decomposed by steam, and fatty acids produced; the successful production of glycerine at the same time being affirmed by some of the experts, sus tained by actual trial, and denied by others, whose experiments were improperly made. 4. That, in a patent of long prior date, describing the old saponifying process, it was stated that, by boiling the solution of fat, lime and water, at a higher temperature than 212 degrees F., under a pressure of several atmospheres (but at lower temperatures than the range specified in the patent at issue), the proportion of lime could be materially reduced, thereby establishing the fact that a portion of the fatty acids obtained were acidified by the water present, and only a part by the lime. In view of these known facts, it is a fair presumption that the patentee, Tilghman, drafted his specification with the knowledge of the facts above stated, and intentionally put in the above limitations in the description of his process. II. The patent at issue is void for the want of a description of means by which the process can be worked practically for the production of fatty acids and solution of glycerine. This is not a question of comparative usefulness between the thing patented and other things previously known, as the law does not measure the degree of usefulness if the inven- glycerine from fatty and oily bodies of animal tion relates to a useful purpose, but it is a ques- and vegetable origin," and that he claims "The tion of contract with which the government se manufacturing of fat acids and glycerine from cures to the patentee the exclusive right for a fatty bodies by the action of water (not broadterm of years, on condition that the patenteely, but) at a high temperature and pressure." shall describe some practical mode of making having, in the description, asserted that the and working his invention. And, unless the change from fats to fatty acids and glycerine patentee fulfills that condition of the contract, takes place at a temperature varying from 510 the government cannot protect the exclusive to 610 degrees F., according to the quality of right. the fats. He was examined as a witness in this case, and could have been but was not quesical fact. He was then and is now a chemist by profession, and the omission of so important a fact in the specification cannot be attributed to ignorance. By the means described in the patent, the process never has been and never can be practioned as to being the discoverer of that chem tically worked. The patentee patented this alleged invention in England, France and Belgium, as well as in the United States. The evidence is conclusive to establish the following facts: (a) That the process described in the patent has never been reduced to practice in the United States by the mode of operation or the means described or suggested in the patent. (b) That the process was never reduced to practice in England in the business of manufacturing fatty acids and solutions of glycerine. (c) That no evidence has been produced to prove that the process was ever used in Belgium. (d) That the patentee, after selling his French patent, tried to make the process work, but failed. (e) That the tests made by the chemical experts, on the part of the patentee, were not made in accordance with the mode of opera tion described in the patent. Long prior to the alleged invention in the patent at issue, the chemical fact of the decomposition of fatty and oily bodies and the production therefrom of fatty acids and glycerine by heat and the elements of water, was known to the literature of chemistry. The change of fats into fatty acids by water and heat was announced to the scientific world as early as 1823, by the celebrated chemist Professor Faraday, in a paper published in the London Journal of Science. IV. Does the process used by appellant infringe the patent at issue? It will be contended, on the part of the ap pellant, that it does not. The process practiced by appellant is under letters patent granted Wright and Fouché, dated Jan. 25, 1859, the same process having III. The patent is void for the want of nov-been patented by them in France in 1857. elty, unless the claim be limited to the process as presented under the first point. The patentee, Tilghman, was not the first to discover the chemical fact that water, at a high temperature and pressure, would decompose fatty and oily bodies of vegetable and animal origin, and produce therefrom fatty acids and solution of glycerine. The court below found, as a fact proven, what is not sustained by the evidence: that Tilghman, the patentee, was the first to discover the chemical fact that fats and oils could be decomposed and fatty acids and solution of glycerine produced by highly heated water. The dissenting opinion of the learned and distinguished judge in Leroy v. Tatham, 14 How., 156, cannot fail to indicate how his mind would be influenced, in the legal construction of the patent at issue, by the belief that the patentee was the first and true discoverer of that chemical fact. On the assumption, however, that the pat entee was the first to discover that chemical fact, he could not patent it. All that he could patent was the invention of some process for effecting the decomposition by water. O'Reilly v. Morse, 15 How., 62. But the patentee was not the first to make that discovery. The only person who could positively know the fact was the patentee. That he was not the discoverer may be in ferred from the fact that it is not asserted in the patent. All that appears in the patent is that the patentee claims to have invented "A new and improved mode of treating fatty and oily bodies,' and that his invention "Consists of a process of producing free fat acids and solution of If the claim of the patent at issue should be construed as presented under point one of this brief, it is respectfully submitted that appellant cannot be held to have infringed, because: First. He has never employed substantially the range of temperature required in the patent at issue, viz. from 510 to 810 degrees F., the temperature which will alone decompose fats; but instead, the temperature used by him has been limited to 374 degrees F., far below the temperature required to decompose fats alone. Second. Instead of the dangerous pressure resulting from the temperature required in the patent at issue, nearly 2,000 pounds to the square inch, he has not used a pressure greater than 180 pounds to the square inch. Third. He has never worked his process in a vessel entirely full of fat and water, to prevent the water from evaporating, as required in the patent at issue, but, on the contrary, has al ways left abundant space for the generation of steam, and his process has always been worked with steam and water. Fourth. He has never mixed the fat and water before charging it into the apparatus, and never permitted them to be in a state of admixture during the working of the process, as required in the patent at issue; but instead, the fat has been separately charged in one vessel and the water in a separate boiler, the two being so connected by pipes that the steam generated in the boiler passed into the vessel containing the fat, and above the charge; the steam and water of condensation filtered through the charge of fat and down into the boiler, carrying away with it what glycerine may have been formed. The two processes are substantially different, and effect the decomposition of fats by modes of operation which are substantially different. | a controversy may be removed here for re-exIt is by reason of this substantially different amination. mode of operation that appellant has been enabled to successfully decompose fats, and produce therefrom free fat acids and glycerine of superior qualities, while the mode of operation de scribed in the patent never has been, and never can be, worked practically. Appellee never succeeded in practically decomposing fats and obtaining free fat acids and glycerine, until after Wright and Fouché invented that mode of operation of causing the water to circulate through the fat and after that, in 1860, appellee, by an imperfect application of this mode of operation, obtained a partial success; but he never entirely succeeded until 1863, when he adopted the entire mode of operation of Wright and Fouché, by applying water and steam to the upper part of the charge and using a pump to draw the water from the bottom and discharge it on the top, so as to cause a constant circulation through the fat from the top to the bottom, using a mechanical pump instead of heat to effect the circulation. Mr. George Harding, for appellee: I. Appellee's patent is for a process and is patentable, and not for a mere philosophical principle, unapplied to practical use. On the 3d of October, 1854, letters patent were granted to the complainant for a new and useful improvement in processes for purifying fatty and oily substances of animal and vegetable origin and which contain glycerine (glyceryl) as their base. His invention, as the patentee states, consists of a new and improved mode of treating such substances in order to produce fat acids and solution of glycerine, which, as he says, was not known or used before his application, and the recital of the patent is, that it shall take effect from the 9th day of January preceding the date of the instrument. By virtue of the said letters patent, as the complainant alleges in his bill of complaint, he acquired the exclusive right to make and use the described improvement, and to vend the same to others to be used; and he also alleges that the respondent, prior to the time when the bill of complaint was filed, without his license and in violation of his rights, engaged in making and using his patented process, and that he, the respondent, intends to continue to make and use the same, as set forth in the bill of complaint. Service was made and the respondent appeared and filed an answer setting up several defenses, as follows: 1. That the complainant, on the 9th of Jan O'Reilly v. Morse, 15 How., 62; Househill Co. v. Neilson, Web. Pat. Cas., 683; Corning v. Bur-uary, 1854, was not the original and first inventden, 15 How., 267. or of the improvement described in the said letters patent. II. The mention of the use of a convenient vessel in appellee's patent is sufficient, without further description or reference to known existing apparatus. Househill Co. v. Neilson, 1 Web. Pat. Cas., 687; Emerson v. Hogg, 2 Blatchf., 9; Brooks v. Jenkins, 3 McLean, 447; Kneass v. Schuylkill Bank, 4 Wash., 13. III. Appellant infringes by the use of highly heated water under pressure, to decompose fat into fatty acids and glycerine. Appellee's pat ent is not limited to specific degrees of temper ature. Mowry v. Whitney, 14 Wall., 639 (81 U. S., XX, 861); Goodyear v. Wait, 3 Fish., 248; Am. Wood Paper Co. v. Glens Falls Co., 4 Fish.. 328. IV. The mere suggestions of actual and possible modes of operation in prior books or patents, is not sufficient to invalidate a patent for a process reduced to practice and adequately described. Curt. Pat., sec. 378; Bettz v. Menzies, 7 Law T. (N. S.), 110; Househill Co. v. Neilson, 1 Web. Pat. Cas., 690. V. Appellee's patent is not void for want of practical utility, or because lower temperatures are generally used than those pointed out in appellee's patent, or because there may be inconvenience in working his process at the maximum temperature mentioned by him. Mowry v. Whitney (supra); Tilghman v. Mitch ell, per Nelson, J., Record 87, p. 98; Tilghman v. Mitchell, per Blatchford, J., 9 Blatchf., 28. Mr. Justice Clifford delivered the opinion of the court: Exclusive jurisdiction, in all actions at law and suits in equity arising under any Act of Congress granting or confirming to inventors the right to their inventions or discoveries, is conferred upon the circuit court, subject to the condition that the final judgment or decree in such 2. That the result described in the specification and claims of the patent cannot be accomplished, so as to be practically useful, by the method and apparatus described in the specification. 3. That the respondent never practiced or used the patented process of the complainant as charged in the bill of complaint, or in any other manner. He admits that he is engaged in manufacturing candles, and that in manufacturing such articles he uses water and steam at high temperature, and that he also uses such pressure as arises from the expansive force of hot water or steam in a close vessel, but he denies that he uses any such method, process or apparatus as those described in the letters patent of the complainant. 4. That the patented processes described in the specification were well known to chemists and men of science and to manufacturers long before the alleged invention of the complainant, and were also used and practiced by them and were described in printed publications before the complainant filed his application for a patent. 5. That the use of a close vessel of sufficient strength to resist the pressure of water when heated or any pressure needed when using water to decompose other substances, was known to and practiced by men of science and manufacturers in this country and elsewhere long before the alleged invention; that highly heated water, when used as described, is an elementary principle open and free to all, and that such a principle is not one that is subject to a patent; that a prior knowledge of the alleged invention was possessed by many other persons, and that the same was described in many printed publications, as fully set forth in the answer. Issues of the kind cannot be intelligently determined without a clear understanding of the nature and scope of the invention secured by the letters patent, as it is the patented invention which it is alleged the respondent has infringed; and in order to such an understanding it becomes necessary, as a preliminary step in the investigation, to construe and define the claims of the patent, as the most efficient means of ascertaining the precise nature and extent of the inquiry involved in the respective issues presented in the pleadings. given in the drawings, and the inventor proceeds to state, that in applying his process and carrying it into effect he places the fat or oil to be subjected to the process in the receiving vessel shown in the drawings with from one third to one half its bulk of warm water, and to effect the described result he employs a piston with a perforated disk, arranged to work up and down, in the receiving vessel, which, being kept in rapid motion, will cause the fat or oil and the water to form an emulsion or intimate mechanical mixture, which is the mixture to be subjected to the high temperature and pressure. But the heat is to be applied in another vessel, as shown in the drawings, and for the purpose of removing the mxiture to such other vessel the inventor employs a force-pump, like those in use for hydraulic presses, by means of which he drives the mixture into and through a long coil of very strong iron tube, which, being placed in a furnace, is continued there until the mixture is heated to the temperature of melting lead. Attached to the opposite end of the coil is a refrigerator or cooling apparatus, but the inventor states that he prefers that the high temperature of the mixture should be maintained for ten minutes before the product passes through that part of the coil immersed in water, by which it is cooled down from its high temperature to 210° Fah., after which it escapes through the exit valve to the vessel prepared to receive the product of the patented process. High heat applied in the manner and by the means described is, unquestionably, the agent employed by the patentee to decompose the fatty and oily substances to be subjected to the patented process, and it is equally certain that he contemplates that the temperature shall be so high that the fatty and oily substances, as mixed with the water, in the manner before explained, will be decomposed and converted into fat acids and solution of glycerine in a brief space of time, not exceeding ten minutes, as he gives no intimation that it will ever be neces sary to continue the mixture in the heated coil beyond that length of time. What the patentee claims as his invention, is the process of manufacturing fat acids and glycerine from fatty or oily substances by the action of water at a high temperature and pressure, which, beyond doubt, is the true object of the invention described in the specification, as plainly appears from the description of the means employed by the patentee to decompose the described substances and to produce the described result. His invention, as the patentee states, consists of a process to produce fat acids and glycerine from the described fatty and oily substances by subjecting the substances to the action of water at a temperature and pressure, so high as to decompose those substances and cause the elements of the same to combine with water, and by such means to produce fat acids and solution of glycerine, which is the described result. Specific description is also given as to the relative quantity of water to be used, and of the character of the vessel to be employed, as means to create the high temperature and pressure and to decompose the original substances, and cause the elements of the same to combine with the water to produce the result described in the patent. Such substances, the specification states, must be mixed with a quantity of water, equal in bulk to one third or one half of the fatty or oily substance to be subjected to the patented process, and that the mixture of the substance and the water must be placed in some convenient vessel in which it can be heated to the melting point of lead and be kept at that temperature until the operation is complete. Undoubtedly the mixture may be placed in any convenient vessel of sufficient strength to resist the internal pressure when the Rapid manipulation and high heat are, theresolution is heated to the point described in the fore, the leading characteristics of the described specification, but it is equally clear that any process, as the great pressure mentioned is only vessel not strong enough to resist such a press- the consequence of the high heat, but as the ure would not be a convenient one for such a high heat is indispensable to produce the depurpose, nor is any one of less strength within scribed result, and as the vessel containing the the contemplation of the patentee, as he states, mixture to be heated must be closed, it is quite with emphasis, that the vessel must be closed obvious that the vessel must be one of very and of great strength, so that the requisite great strength, else it would prove to be a very amount of pressure may be applied to prevent inconvenient one, as it would be likely to burst. the conversion of the water into steam, and he Support to that conclusion is found in the demight have added, to prevent the vessel from scription which the inventor gives, of the char bursting. High temperature, in the view of the acter of the tubes which he employs as the vespatentee, is indispensable and, inasmuch as the sel for heating the mixture. He employs coils of vessel must be closed, it follows that the vessel tube for the purpose, arranged in such a manner must be one of great strength, as the high tem- that a considerable length of the same will ocperature will necessarily produce very great in-cupy but a moderate space, the coils being kept ternal pressure. Hence the reqirement is that about a quarter of an inch apart from each oththe vessel must be one of great strength, and er. Tubes of the kind are made of iron, and the the patentee suggests, as the best mode of car-inventor states that they are one inch in the exrying his invention into effect, that the mixture, prepared as described, be passed through a tube or continuous channel, heated to the beforementioned temperature, that is, to the melting point of lead. Figures of the several parts of the described apparatus for performing the operation are ternal diameter with a half inch bore, incased with solid cast iron, which also covers the outer coils or rows of tubes to the thickness of half or three quarters of an inch, to insure uniformity of temperature in the different parts of the coil and to give strength to the apparatus and to protect it from injury by fire. Much addi |