tersinks of different sizes, (ib.) To pack bales of compressed feed in paper, retained by slats and binders, instead of straw retained by slats as usual, is an improvement deserving recognition, (S. W. Adwen, ib., 23.) To unite with steam boilers of different kinds a steam generator and superheater, such as has been united with one kind of boiler before, and claim the combination, is not to be allowed, (James Murphy, ib., 24.) Adding a hinged lid to a vignette plate, and changing the mode of holding it in position, so that the whole frame is rendered less cumbersome, deserves a favorable consideration, (A. C. Platt, ib., 42.) A band upon an open-grooved arrow gun, which holds the arrow in the groove while it is impelled by the spring, is not anticipated by a band which holds the arrow only before it is discharged, nor by such guns having close grooves or barrels, (Charles Robinson, ib., 44.) A claim for a short stud, projecting downward from the head of a railroad spike, might possibly be understood to embrace a flexible barb in the same position; and that being old, the claim should not be allowed, (P. J. Dwyer, ib., 57.) Mere omission of parts does not constitute patentable novelty; but, if followed by reorganization, it may, (George McRoy, ib., 58.) Postage stamps with coupons, to be detached when the stamps are applied, in order to cancel them, anticipate revenue stamps with like coupons, although the coupons of the latter are made to correspond with the stamps, and are pre served in order to check frauds, (Lewis Abraham, ib., 59.) There is no invention in changing a mill from a horizontal to a vertical position, nor in applying the driving power directly to the main roller instead of applying it through other mechanism, nor in incasing two bolts in one casting, (Stevens & Powers, ib., 63.) To spring an elastic body of a lamp shade over an inflexible rim cannot be regarded as novel, an elastic rim having been before sprung into an inflexible body, (Dimond & Doolittle, ib., 64.) A ladies' safety belt, made with elastic pieces inserted, having been allowed a patent, it is an improvement upon it to make the belt in two pieces, connected by two buckles, so that the flaps which are attached are always opposite to each other, (Bacheller v. Porter & Bancroft, ib., 64.) Pumps having been made in sections, there is no invention in making hydrants in sections, (Charles & H. Ackerson, ib., 74.) A combination in a typesetting machine of an ejecting finger, a key to select the finger, and a carrier operated by a power separate from the key, is not answered by a combination in which the key both selects and operates the finger, (Joseph Thorne, ib., 76.) A cover combined with a door latch sunk into the face of a door being old, as well as a projecting cover arranged on the face of a door, there is no novelty in a projecting cover with a latch so arranged, (P. W. Dean, ib., 77.) A right and left screw having been used with a printer's side-stick, there is no invention in operating a quoin with one, although the side-stick can be used only in a press of a given size and a quoin can be used in any, (F. H. Webb, ib., 78.) Whether a claim to a pencil, rubber eraser, and sleeve to unite them, can be extended to cover a complete cylinder for a sleeve without the ring by which the semi-cylinders composing the sleeve are connected, quere? (Vosburg & Ludden, ib., 80.) To drive two rollers, one by the gear wheel on one end of a shaft and the other by another gear wheel on the other end of the same shaft, is an improvement on a similar machine, in which one roller is driven by a gear wheel on the other, (Powers & Stevens, ib., 81.) A broad-faced stop with a flange extending down the side of the bar on which it is placed, so as to bear the blow better, when substituted for a pin to check the movement of the arm in a horse rake, is patentable, (A. T. Barnes, ib., 81.) To make a latch and weighted catch in one piece, which have before been made in two and soldered together, is not to be esteemed an invention, (R. M. Thompson, ib., 81.) A metal shade in one piece, with flexible springs ou its inner periphery, and intended to rest by the springs on the glass chimney of a lamp, is not anticipated by one which rests by three inflexible points on a metal cap over the chimney, (M. H. Collins, ib., 82.) If a pinion has been secured upon the arbor of a wheel by means of a screw thread cut upon the arbor, there is no invention in securing the wheel upon the arbor of the pinion by the same means, although some slight advantages are incident to the latter construction, (J. A. Smith, ib., 83.) There is no merit in forming blocks for a wooden pavement with a rebate on one side, so as to form a channel for holding concretes, after such blocks have been cut with a rebate on both sides for the same purpose, and the same effect has been produced by using long blocks alternating with short ones, (L. S. Robbins, ib., 84.) A cork machine in which the cork was cut tapering by four cutters, which were made to approach each other during the process by means of a collar sliding upon the shaft to which they are hinged, does not anticipate one in which the cutter is in one piece, but with slits, and the edges approach each other in consequence of their form,'(M. F. Crocker, administratrix, ib., 85.) An instrument for kindling fires by gas, which is supplied to it by a flexible pipe attached to a tubular handle, is not anticipated by a like instrument for kindling fires having no such handle, although it was suggested that it might be used with gas, if desired, (Jeremiah Kenney, sr., ib., 95.) Where the distance between two points in an instrument is all that distinguished it from others, and that distance must be varied in different applications, it will not render the instrument patentable, (I. D. Warner, ib., 109.) In a paperfolding machine the addition of a spring to one of the rollers, so that it will yield to the folding knife, is entitled to favor, (S. C. Forsaith, assignee, &c., ib., 111.) 353. EXAMINATION OF PARTIES.-As a general rule, a party in a patent cause cannot be a witness in his own. behalf. (Buck v. Hermance, 1 Blatchf., 324; Foote v. Silsby, 3 Blatchf., 508.) But the judiciary act of September, 1789, § 34, (1 Stats. at Large, p. 92,) in adopting the laws of the several States as rules of decisions in the courts of the United States, embraced laws relating to evidence; and where, therefore, under the laws of any State, parties may be examined as witnesses in their own behalf, a plaintiff in an action in the United States courts for infringement of his patent is a competent witness as to the issues raised therein. (Haussknecht v. Claypool, 1 Black, 431; Vance v. Campbell, 1 Black, 427.) Formerly the testimony of an inventor or a party to the record was not admissible in an interference, (Yearsly v. White, MS. Appeal Cases, D. C., 1853,) even though he had assigned all his interest in an invention to another. (Eams v. Richards, ib., 1859; Hill v. Dunklee, ib., 1857; Gibbs v. Johnson, ib., 1860; O'Rielly v. Smith, ib., 1853; Upon this point Mr. Chief Barstow v. Swain, ib., 1860.) Justice Cartter said, (Irwin v. Merrill, MS. Appeal Cases, D. C., 1864:) "It is an elemental rule of evidence, as repeatedly declared by my predecessors and now affirmed, that a patentee and party to the record cannot become a witness by transfer of his right pending the proceeding. I do not possess the right, if I could see the reason, for removing this disability. It is urged by the Commissioner that the legislature and courts incline to listen to the testimony of parties. If the federal legislature, the law-making power of this jurisdiction, had made parties competent as witnesses, I should not hesitate to follow, but Congress has failed to do so. * * The prevailing rule of all good courts is to administer the law as they find it, without attempting to make it." 354. PARTIES IN INTERFERENCE CASES MAY TESTIFY.Since the act of July 2, 1864, relating to the law of evidence in the District of Columbia, parties to the record. in interference cases, and all parties interested in the same, have been deemed competent to give evidence. The provisions of the act are as follows: "Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That on the trial of any issue joined, or of any matter or question, or on any inquiry arising in any suit, action, or other proceeding in any court of justice in the District of Columbia, or before any person having by law, or by consent of parties, authority to hear, receive, and examine evidence within said District, the parties thereto, and the persons in whose behalf any such action or other proceeding may be brought or defended, and any and all persons interested in the same, shall, except as hereinafter excepted, be competent and compellable to give evidence, |