Statement of the case.-Brown's original machines.

dated the same. These will be more particularly referred to after the features of the complainant's machine have been described.

The original machine, the patent for which was granted to the complainant on the 2d day of August, 1853, and the application for which patent was dated the 27th of September, 1852, is shown in perspective in Figure 2, and consisted of the following parts:

FIG. 2.

SEAT.

1. A framework supported on two runners-the latter being used for cutting a gash or furrow in the earth to receive the seed; each runner having a cleft at the rear end for allowing the seed to drop to the ground, and furnished with a hopper above, containing oscillating horizontal valves for dropping the seed at proper intervals into the gash or furrow through a tube in the heel of the runner.

2. Another framework, following the first, and supported on two wheels, or rollers, to follow the runners and press the earth down upon the seed in the gash or furrow.

The relation of the runners A to the covering-wheel W is shown at Figure 3, which is a side view of Brown's machine.

FIG. 8.

3. A free or jointed connection between the two frames, allowing them to rise and fall independently of each other

Statement of the case.-Brown's original machines.

in going over inequalities of surface. This jointed connection was formed by a bolt passing through the arm J, Figure 3, at the point I.

4. A system of levers resting on the axle of the wheels under the rear frame, shown at L, Figure 3, and so applied to the forward frame as to enable the driver to raise the runners out of the ground for turning about or for any other purpose, with a further arrangement for regulating the depth of the furrow or gash made by the runner.

The complainant's machine was a hand-dropping machine, and it was so arranged that a man could be mounted upon it so as to ride sidewise, and observe the lines or furrows which had been made across the field. Whenever the runners passed on these lines the seed was dropped. This was done by means of a connecting-rod between the seedvalves in the two hoppers, one end attached to each, with a lever to move it backward and forward by the hand of the dropper sitting crosswise on the frame, so that he could, by such movement, drop the seed from both hoppers at the same time at the intersection of the cross lines marked on the field.

The machine is shown with the dropman placed in his position in Figure 4, and the check-rows are seen extending

across the field.

The machine was described with substantially these parts in the specifications and drawings attached to the original patent of 1853, as well as the several reissues 1036, 1037, 1038, 1039, and 1040.

Statement of the case.-Brown's improved machine.

The improved machine, as patented in 1855, had two additional features, or improvements:

1. A vibrating valve, called a flipper-valve, in each seeddropping tube, which valve is composed of a long slender slip of metal attached to a pivot in the middle, connected by a small attachment to a slide-valve having two openings, so that when the top is moved to one side of the tube the bottom moves to the other side. By one movement the seed drops through the slide-valve into one side, and is detained near the bottom till the next movement, when it is dropped on the ground, and seed is admitted simultaneously through the slide-valve into the other side. The two positions of the flipper-valve, slide-valve, and lever are shown in Figures 5 and 6. The effect of this arrangement is that the seed

is near the bottom of the furrow when it is dropped, so that it is immediately deposited in line with the check-row. And the peculiarity of the apparatus is such that it requires but one movement of the levers above to drop for a single hill.

2. Another improvement was a high, long seat for the driver, on the rear frame, located above the wheels lengthwise of the machine, so that by moving backward or forward on the seat, his weight will raise or depress the run

ners.

The only claims allowed by the Patent Office upon the original application in the patent of 1853 were:

1st. "The oscillating horizontal wheels or distributors (namely, the valves before referred to), in the bottoms of the hoppers, having slots and holes of various sizes, in combination

Statement of the case.-Brown's improved machine.

with the stationary caps and pins for the discharge of different kinds and quantities of seeds, as set forth in the specification."

2d. "The arrangement of the covering rollers, mounted as described, and performing the purpose of covering the seed, elevating the cutters in turning round, and also in adjusting to different depths, as set forth."

Other claims were applied for, but were disallowed.

The five reissues, or new patents, issued September 11th, 1860, in lieu of the original patent of August 2d, 1853, and of its first reissue in 1858, were for a number of supposed distinct inventions comprised in the machine, and each contained one or more separate claims. None of these distinct inventions were claimed as distinct features in the original patents, nor were they claimed as such in an intermediate reissue granted in 1858, but they are shown distinctly in the original drawings, and were described in the specification of the original patent.

The only claim allowed in the patent of May 8th, 1855, for the improvements added to the machine, was as follows:

"In combination with the hoppers and their semi-rotating plates d, the runners A with their valves ƒ, and their adjustment by means of the levers and cams, and the driver's weight for the purpose of carrying and dropping seeds by each vibration of the lever D, and to regulate the depth of the planting, as described."

By the reissue of December 11th, 1860, this patent was subdivided into five new ones, each having one or more separate claims for supposed distinct inventions which were comprised in the drawings of the original patent, and in the descriptive part thereof.

Upon the first question, that of novelty, the defendants referred in argument to Cooke's well-known "drill," and other like machines described in the Farmer's Encyclopædia, and to an old machine of Joab Moffatt; but the principal prior machines relied upon by them as anticipating the invention found in Brown's patent of 1853 were the following:

Statement of the case.—Anticipation.-Thomas, Todd.

1. The cottonseed-planter of Thomas, patented in 1848, which the complainant contended was different from his corn-planter. This machine is described in the opinion of the court,* and illustrated at Figure 7.

FIG. 7.

2. Henry Todd's seed-planter, patented December 13th, 1843, which is also described in the opinion,† and illustrated

FIG. 8.

in Figure 8. The complainant contended that this was a different machine.

* Infra, pp. 206, 207.

† Infra, pp. 207, 208.