Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/348

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

340 FEDERAL REPORTER. �dust, or finely divided solid ligneous matter, previously impregnated with a solution of nitrate of potasli, or nitrate of soda, or mixture of the same, and with an alkali, such as carbonate of soda, and subsequently dried, so as to expel the water employed for effecting the solution of the before-men- tioned salts; or, instead of employlng the substances prepared as herein befo e mentioned, in combination with nitro-glycer- ine individually, mixtures of the same may be employed, and, when such mixtures of any two or more of the before- mentioned substances are employed with nitro-glycerine, the proportions of the same may be varied according to the desired requirement of the blasting material. " �Both the provisional and the fuU specifications of Nobel's English patent were filled before Dittmar's English provisional specification was filed. Nobel's full English specification distinctly says that the article he produees is a powder. The English provisional specification of Dittmar does not say that his article is a powder. No patent allowed to Dittmar, or printed publication of anything invented by him, is produced containing a description of "What is described in reissue No. 5,Y99. The only question is as to whether Nobel, in.^te.-id of having liimself invented what is described in reissue No. 5,799, derived knowledge of it from Dittmar, in the m.anner aud under the circumstances set up. �It is stated by Dittmar that, because of Nobel's dissatisfac- tion with his experiments, he experimented during Nobel's absence, and refrained from speaking to Nobel on the subject of such experiments; and, although Dittmar states that Nobel knew what the ingredients were of the compounds of nitro- glycerine and infusorial earth which Dittmar used in his pub- lic tests made in October, 1866, and that from November, 1866, until thefall of 1867, Dittmar made large quantities of the compound of nitro-glycerine and infusorial earth, in the proportion of about 70 par cent, of nitro-glycerine to about 30 per cent, of infusorial earth, it does not appear that these proportions were communicated by Dittmar to Nobel. There is nothing in Dittmar's story which goes to show that, after October, 1866, Nobel was not himself experimenting, wlthout ��� �