Hoffman v. Aronson

12 F. Cas. 299, 8 Blatchf. 324, 4 Am. Law T. Rep. U.S. Cts. 110, 4 Fish. Pat. Cas. 456, 1871 U.S. App. LEXIS 1694

This text of 12 F. Cas. 299 (Hoffman v. Aronson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hoffman v. Aronson, 12 F. Cas. 299, 8 Blatchf. 324, 4 Am. Law T. Rep. U.S. Cts. 110, 4 Fish. Pat. Cas. 456, 1871 U.S. App. LEXIS 1694 (circtsdny 1871).

Opinion

BLATCHFORD, District Judge.

This suit is founded on reissued letters patent of the United States, granted to the plaintiff, July-25, 1865, on the surrender of original letters patent granted to him January 24, 1865, for an “improvement in turn-down enameled paper collars.” The specification of the patent says: “Ever since the first introduction of turned-down paper collars as an article of usual wear, it has been attempted by many persons to make them with an enameled surface, but until my invention such attempts have failed. All such prior attempts, like my own early efforts, failed, for the reason that they attempted to make collars from paper which was enameled for, or prepared as if intended for, the uses for which enameled paper was usually employed; and from this it always resulted that the enamel, and sometimes both the enamel and paper, was cracked or broken in making the fold. The error which led to all such failures was in attempting to use for a new purpose, a material suitably prepared for an entirely different purpose. In the course of my experiments, I discovered that it was in vain to attempt to make the-required fold for a turned-down collar, in paper enameled for other purposes which do not require the making of folds. No amount of care in folding, and no appliances could be-devised, that could prevent the enameled surface from breaking at the fold. After making many unsuccessful efforts, and the trial of [300]*300various compositions for producing the enameled surface, none of which would stretch ■sufficiently to admit of making the required fold, I finally discovered that the desired result would he obtained by making the coating ■of enamel very thin, and much thinner than had ever before been applied in making enameled paper, and making or selecting for the purpose paper made made of pulp having a very long fibre, and by preference, obtained from linen rags. In the manufacture of the paper from which I make my improved collars, I am careful not to reduce the linen ■.stock to a finer pulp than is absolutely necessary for paper of the thickness required, that the fibres may remain long and the body of the paper be uniformly flexible; or, I am careful to purchase, for my manufacture, linen paper having these characteristics — a long fibre and uniform flexibility. Taking paper so made, I moisten and steam it until all its pores or spaces between its fibres are opened to the degree required to receive the •composition which constitutes the enamel of the collar when finished. The composition I prefer for this purpose consists of about four parts of blanc fix, one part of white wax, and a trace of ultramarine, to give the required tint. The blanc fix being digested (like the ultramarine) in hot water, and the white wax being melted, are mixed in about these proportions, and stirred thoroughly together, until the wax is intimately incorporated with the other materials, and the whole reduced to a thin homogeneous paste, which is now applied warm to the surface of the steamed paper by a brush, or by coating a warm metal plate, and then laying the paper, sheet by sheet, upon the plate, and then letting the composition be taken up by absorption from the surface of the plate. Great care must be observed to put on the coating of composition so thin that it will simply cover the surface of the paper, .and, for that reason, I prefer to apply the thin coat of composition with a brush to the surface of the metal plate, from which it is then absorbed by the paper, although it may be applied directly to the paper with a brush. After the paper has been thus coated, it is passed between polished heated rollers, under •considerable pressure, by which the composition is caused to adhere firmly to the paper and the outer surface highly polished. From paper thus prepared, the collars are cut to the required form, for ladies or gentlemen, and then folded or turned down. The union of the composition and the paper is so complete, and the coating of composition so thin, that the fold can be made without breaking or crumbling the enamel — a result never obtained before my said invention. The collars can be embossed, or punched, or printed, as desired, as the surface so enameled will receive without injury any desired style of ornament or finish. The claim.is: “The new article of manufacture, consisting of a turn-down or folded enameled paper collar, substantially •as desired.”

The bill charges, as an infringement, that the defendants have made and sold collars made and manufactured upon the plan described and claimed in the patent. The answer denies that the patent is valid, or that it secures to the plaintiff any right to prevent the defendants from making or selling the particular kind of paper collars made and sold by them, for these reasons: 1. That, as matter of fact, a turn-down collar, made of linen, muslin, or paper, was an old article before the date of the plaintiff’s invention; and that, if the plaintiff was the first person who ever made turn-down or folded collars of enameled paper, such substitution of one material for another, in the manufacture of an old article, will not support a patent for a new article of manufacture, as claimed in the plaintiff’s patent. 2. That the patent contains a false suggestion in a matter of fact, namely, that the state of the art of making enameled paper prior to the plaintiff’s invention was such, that none of the previously known processes of preparing enameled paper would admit of making an enameled surface that would not break in folding, whereas, prior to the plaintiff’s invention, the art of making enameled paper embraced many known processes of manufacture, whereby, without an invention, in fact or in law, and by methods well-known and practiced by those skilled in the art, an enameled paper could be prepared fit to be used in the manufacture of turn-down or folded paper collars, and capable of folding without breaking the enameled surface at the fold. The answer avers, therefore, as matter of law, that the patent can not be supported as covering a new article of manufacture, because the material of which such new article is, in the' patent, described to be made, namely, an enameled paper capable of folding without breaking the enameled surface at the fold, could be made without invention, by the application of processes well known in the previous art of enameling papers.

The answer also sets up, that one Lind-ley M. Crane, in 1863. at Ballston Spa, New York, and at Troy, New York, practiced the same process of manufacturing turn-down enameled collars that is described and claimed in the plaintiff’s patent, and made and exhibited to others turn-down enameled paper collars of enameled paper, that did not bréale at the fold, when folded in the process of forming the collar.

The answer avers, that the defendants are manufacturers and venders of turn-down paper collars by a process of manufacture known as the linen finish, and essentially unlike the plan of manufacture described and claimed in the plaintiff's patent, and that they have not infringed that patent.

The specification sets forth, as the essence of the plaintiff’s invention, that he has discovered the method of producing a properly enameled paper out of which to make a turn-down paper collar wholly of enameled [301]*301paper, by putting the proper enamel on the proper paper, in the proper -way, so as to enable the fold to be made without cracking or breaking the enamel or the paper. The specification speaks of paper collars as old, and of turn-down paper collars as old, but the new thing is a turn-down paper collar practically and successfully made of enameled paper.

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Bluebook (online)
12 F. Cas. 299, 8 Blatchf. 324, 4 Am. Law T. Rep. U.S. Cts. 110, 4 Fish. Pat. Cas. 456, 1871 U.S. App. LEXIS 1694, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hoffman-v-aronson-circtsdny-1871.