From this decree an appeal was taken to this court.
John G. Manahan, for appellant.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 140-142 intentionally omitted]
Lewis L. Coburn and J. M. Thacher, for appellee.
Mr. Justice SHIRAS, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.
Prior to the invention patented in 1872 by Henry A. Adams, a well-known defect in cornshellers consisted in the clogging or choking of the chute through which the ears of corn descended to the sheller. As the ears would approach the throat of the machine, they were liable to stop and wedge against each other. This sometimes necessitated the stopping of the machine, in order to break the clog in the feed or chute, and usually the services of an attendant were required to clear the chute and break the clog by punching the ears with a stick.
The object of the Adams invention was to remedy this defect, and the device invented is described in the first claim of the patent in the following terms: 'The combination with a cornsheller of a series of wings, wheels, or projections, so arranged on a shaft as to revolve in the same direction which the corn is running, and so placed relative to the throat as to force into the machine all misplaced or hesitating ears, substantially as specified.' Resorting to the specification, we find the following description of the invention: 'This invention relates to an improvement upon the cornsheller patented by Augustus Adams, as described in his letters patent No. 54,659, dated May 15, 1866. In said patented cornsheller, a winged shaft is placed above the openings into the sheller, and is revolved oppositely to the direction of the entering corn, in such a manner that the said wings strike the upper ear if two ears attempt to enter the throat at once, and throw said upper ear back into position to descend properly; but I have discovered that the ear so thrown back retards the feed, inasmuch as the following ears are likely to override the ear so thrown back, and the difficulty is thus continued.
'In the present invention, I propose to overcome this objection by forcing all the ears, as they approach the throat, to pass rapidly out of the way into the sheller; and to this end I arrange a shaft above the throat, with a series of wings, wheels, or projections, to revolve in the same direction as the entering corn, so as to force the corn rapidly forward into the sheller, which is capable of shelling all the corn that can be forced through the throat. By this means I avoid any chance of clogging the feed, under ordinary circumstances.'
That the patented device is useful, and successfully overcomes the choking or clogging that interfered with the operation of corn-shellers as previously constructed is clearly made out in the case. The evidence is positive as to this point, and also to the effect that the application of the invention dispensed with the extra attendant, whose duty it was to remove the clog by using a stick or fork, and increased the ordinary capacity of the machines. It is also made to appear that the invention has gone into general use.
While it is true that the mere fact that a device has gone into general use, and has displaced other devices which had previously been employed for analogous uses, does not establish, in all cases, that the later device involves invention, within the meaning of the patent laws, yet such fact is always of importance, and is entitled to weight, when the question is whether the machine exhibits patentable invention. Smith v. Vulcanite Co., 93 U.S. 495.
We therefore agree with the court below that 'the change was a substantial and meritorious one, and one which was well worthy of a patent, by reason of the improvement which it produced in the operative effect of the cornsheller.'
We also concur in the reasoning and conclusion of the court below respecting the novelty of the invention. While it is true that the device patented by Augustus Adams, the father of the present patentee, in May, 1866, was intended to effect the same purpose, and used likewise a revolving shaft with wings or protuberances, yet the mode of operation was entirely different. The theory of the earlier machine was to prevent the clogging of the ears of corn in the throat of the sheller by driving back some of the ears and thus keeping them from entering the sheller simultaneously. But it seems that this interrupted the continuous flow of the ears into the sheller, and retarded the operation of shelling.