` PHILLIPS U. KOCHERTL 39
1 Pmnmrs v. Kocnnar and others.
(0'lrcuit Uowrt, S. D. New York. May 17,1887.) `
1. P.s·rm·r·rs ron INVENTIONS—PROOESS on Swmvrme Arm Gimme 'l‘on.xcco——
Inimmeaunnr.
Suit was brought to restrain infringement of the first claim of letters patent
No. 91,601, granted June 22, 1869, to Leander Burdick and others for a pro-
cess of sweating and. curing tobacco. The proofs showed that other patents
were previously granted to other persons for processes of similar character
for renovating tobacco, and for coloring and curing tobacco stemsj In avoid-
ance of these prior patents, the plaintiis urged that the patent in question
pertained to the curing of green tobacco leaves, and not to renovating or rc-
sweating after they ha been cured, and was therefore diferent from the prior
patents. The proofs further showed that defendants conducted a process for
resweating instead of curing the material. Held, that the defendants did not
infringe. h
2. S.um—Tonacco SWEAT-HOUSES—INFRINGEMENT. P
The first claim of letters patent No. 228,928, granted June 15, 1880, to one
Charles S. Phillips, for a tobacco sweat-house, consisting of a metal—1ined tray at
_ the bottom. an interior wooden bottom, steam-pipes, an interior chamber hav·
ing a slotted or slat door, aninclined roof, and upright cleats on the sides, is
so far restricted by prior patents relating to the same subject that the heating .
of tobacco in boxes in a close room with the use of a slatted iioor, without,
however, a metal-lined iiooror cleats, does not constitute an infringement.
8. SAME--Pnocmss or Cosmo AND Conomnc Tonscco-—INvEN·r10N.
The sole claim of letters patent No. 240,266, granted April 19, 1881, to Charles
S. Phillips, for a process of curing and coloring tobacco by heating it ina
sweat-room, fails for want of nove ty and invention to support it by reason of
prior patents covering the same subject, and a suit for infringement of the
same cannot be maintained. »
In Equity. ‘ . V
` _ Hubert A. Banning, for plaintid.
Ernest O. Webb and Douglass Dyrenforth, for defendants. . .
WHEELER, J. This suit is brought upon the Hrst claim of letters pat-
ent No. 91,601, dated June 22, 1869, granted to Leander Burdick, H.
J. Chase, F. P. Isherwood, and W. S. Isherwood, for the process of
sweating and curing tobacco, substantially as described in the specifica-
tion; the first claim of No. 228,928, dated June 15, 1880, granted to the
orator for a? tobacco sweatrhouse, consisting of a metal-lined tray at the
bottom, an interior wooden bottom, steam-pipes, an interior chamber
having a slotted or slat iioor, an inclined roof, and upright cleats attached
to its side walls, as in the specification set forth-; and the sole claim of
No. 240,266, dated April 19, 1881, and granted tothe orator,~fo1· the .
process of curing and coloring tobacco, consisting in subdividing the to-
bacco, by packing it into wooden cases to be placed or tiered in a sweat-
room, and heating it in a moist atmosphere of suincientzdensity and heat
to color the tobacco, substantially as set forth in the specidcation. The
defendants set up lack of patentable invention,land want of novelty, and
deny infringement. The process described in the specification of the ‘
patent Hrstimentioned "consists in subjecting tobacco to the action of
artificial heat, ranging from 90 deg. to 110 deg. Fahrenheit, by enc1os·