~ 1°»{_iDAMON v. msrwrox. 41
the manufacture of sulphate of alumina or aluminous cake, involv-
ing the same invention. The commissioner, after the usual hearing ,
· and examination, decided in favor of the respondent, to whom letters
‘ were accordingly issued. The complainants have nled this bill to
obtain the benefit of a review, in the light, not only of the evidence
before the commissioner, but also of that taken here. The respond-
ent challenges the court’s jurisdiction, as well as the claim to priority
of invention. As our judgment is with the respondent on the second
point, and the bill must therefore be dismissed, the former may be
passed by. {
Little need be said in passing on the question of priority. I In Jan-
uary, 1878, the respondent discovered that aluminous cake, of 'supe- ' ·
rior quality, may be obtained from halloysite, by the process described
in his patent. This process consists in mixing ground halloysite,
sulphuric acid, and hydrate of alumina, in the manner and proportions
stated in the specifications, whereby a high degree of heat is gener-
ated by chemical action, producing ebullition, the halloysite rapidly
decomposed, the Hue particles of silicia thus liberated infused through-
out the entire mass, resulting in a uniform homogeneous cake. It
is unnecessary to review the prior state of the art, or recount the
complainants’ experiments in the direction of this discovery. Mr.
Damon was p1·esident of the Pennsylvania Salt Company, whose busi-
. ness, in part, was the manufacture of aluminous cake. Having been
tendered the purchase of extensive halloysite beds in Indiana, he
was anxious to ascertain how this mineral could be profitably em-
ployed. Experiments were accordingly made, which satisfied him
and his company, that it was valuable for the manufacture of alu- P
minous cake, and they bought it in the fall of 1877. It is quite clear,
however, that the experiments were incomplete, and the process sub-
sequently patented had not then been discovered. Eastwick and
Bihn were the company’s chemists, and it was in the further prose-
cution of the experiments by Mr. Eastwick, at Mr. Damon’s request,
that the patented process was developed. All previous efforts had
fallen short. That halloysitc can be dissolved by sulphuric acid, and
the resultant cake rendered neutral by the addition of hydrate of
alumina, had been ascertained. But this was insufficient even to
suggest the subsequent discovery,—which was not simply that halloy-
site may be thus dissolved and hydrate of alumina employed as a
neutralizing agent, but a process whereby a high degree of heat is
generated, the action of the sulphuric acid accelerated, and the de-
composition and nnal result greatly improved,——mainly by the em-