US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

The second claim in the reissued patent of September 18, 1877, to Charles E, Blake, assignee of the administratrix of Thomas H. Bailey, deceased, for an improvement in relief valves for water cylinders, is for a combination of an automatic valve with a pinhole and pin to effect the desired object, and, as automatic valves had been previously used for that purpose in other combinations, it is not infringed by a combination of such a valve with a screw, sleeve or cap to effect the same objects.

The adaptation of an automatic valve, a device known and in use before the plaintiff's patent, to a steam fire engine is not such invention as will sustain a patent.

Where the public has acquired the right to use a machine or device for a particular purpose, it has the right to use it for all like purposes to which it can be applied unless a new and different result is obtained by a new application of it. chanrobles.com-red

Page 113 U. S. 680

Bill in equity to restrain the infringement of a patent for an invention. The facts which make the case are stated in the opinion of the Court.