Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/691

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

684 FBDBBAL EEPOETER. �overlapping was underneath the foxing, almost as a matter of course, but the invention would be the same if the foxing did not exist. �The patentee says, in his specifications : "My invention relates to that class of cloth and rubber gaiters vrhich are provided with flaps and buckles, and it consists in a peculiar construction of certain double water-proofed jointed flaps, so arranged that the flap tongue passing over the inatep will dra-w equally upon the aides of the quarter vrhen buckled to the foot, and render the gaiter water-proof at ail points adja- cent to the flap." The description which is contained in the patent consists mainly of a reference to the drawinga. �The claim is as follows: "As a new article of manufac- ture, a cloth and rubber gaiter overshoe, having a double water-proof flap, composed of extensions of the vamp and qUarter, folded on each side of the instep, and provided with a buckle and flap tongue, which are arranged to draw equally on each side of the quarter across the instep, substantially as described." �Before the date of this invention, an Engliah patent, dated January 23, 1856, had been granted to Stephen Norris for an improvement in leather shoes. His improvement consisted in the insertion of a gore or gusset between the vamp and quarter, which folded upon itself inside the shoe, and ex- cluded water to a certain extent. The shoe was not perfectly water-proof, because the truncated apex of the gore at the point of union of vamp quarter and gore did not form a folded or an overlapping joint with vamp or quarter. The union of the three pieces of leather was made by sewing, and there was no turning of the water by a fold of the leather 80 as to exclude the admission of moisture to the foot. The great effort upon the part of the defendant was to limit the WilHams patent, in view of the Norris invention, to the ex- act eut of vàijip and quarter, and of their extension into a flap tongue, which is shown in the drawings. The defendant construes the patent to be for an overshoe having the pecu- liarly constructed water-proof jointed flaps, shown in the drawings, composed of extensions of both vamp and quarter, ����