The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-04-26 00:00:00

212° MILNER'S PATENT FIRE-RESISTING
SAFES.
MILNER v. HARRISON.
SECOND TRIAL AT LAW FOR PIRACY OF MILNER'S PATENT.
THE Defendant, JOHN GERMAN HARRISON, having
persevered in the sale of Safes constructed on the princi-
ple of Milner's Patent, in defiance of the verdict found against
him in June, 1851, in the Court of Queen's Bench, and an In-
junction afterwards awarded against him by the Court of
Chancery (he pretending that the Safes sold by him since the
first trial were not infringements, but made under a patent
granted to Messrs. Sarin), a second action was brought on the
suggestion of Vice-Chancellor Sir George Turner, to try
whether such safes were or were not infringements on Milner's
Patent.
This action was tried on the 25th June last, before Lord
Campbell and a special jury. The following extracts from the
learned Judge's address to the jury in summing up will show
distinctly the questions submitted to the jury :
Lord Campbell.—" I own it seems to me that Mr. Harrison
does not appear before you in very advantageous colours from
these proceedings. He had been in the service of Messrs.
Milner, and while in their service he takes another shop, and
there he begins and sells fire-proof boxes which were agreed by
a jury sitting where you now are to be substantially the same
as those of Milner, the Patentee, and that record has been
given in evidence: you are not bound by it, but you may at-
tend to it; and I must own that I do not see any reason to
believe that the jury who sat on the trial of that cause were in
any respect mistaken in point of fact, and I do not discoTer
that there is any real difference between this case and thilt ;
you will attend to all the evidence, and form your own conclu-
sion from the evidence that has been given.
" You are first called upon to say whether this invention of
Messrs. Milner is new. As to wheter it is useful, it seems to
me
se
i.vtaot
ibvee
against allowed on
fire;all bands,
fo,.
tiet seems ar
remains
ns marvellous
permanently
e.
held in artificial vessels or in natural vessels, and the very
calamity brings the cure, for the heat causes the water to ex-
pand, and then it is turned into steam, and the steam moistens
tit?,
is ift bysottai ntchei
nwkh
this which swtaosbneepwr,est
le,revnedt
the nod.
lityo
riet ann
negffeqcut ue
al
guard against tire.
s-
Clot, is with regard to the infringement.
Now the infringement seems to rest upon substantially she
same evidence as the infringement on the fgrmer trial, when
the action was brought against Mr. Harnson.
" Now you find with respect to Tann's Patent, whatever
thatto act
you precisely
wiformth eysoaumrye:wwu
not yo
jausd
Tann's invention might have been, that this patent which lie
manufactures, and which the defendant Harrison sells, and of
which he calls himself the sole proprietor,' operates in the
8 in
:1 lteeweas yp.at patent, mets,ebeumtsutpoon
ment. Then if it really has the same effect, and operates in
the same manner, and upon the same nrinciple, it will be for
you to say whether you have any doubt it is an infraction of
Milner's Patent. Those are the two questions for
con-
sider."
The Jury found a verdict for the Plaintiff on both the
issues, thus establishing that the so-called Tann's Patent Safes
are a mere piracy of Milner's invention. After the trial last
year, it was pretended that the Safes then condemned were not
made according to Tann's Patent—in other words that the
water in them had not been boiled and set to cool before being
used. The three Safes upon which this second action was
brought were sworn to by Messrs. 7 ann as being made accord-
ing to their Patent.
The Public of Liverpool will remember the species of adver-
tisements by which this wretched case has been upheld. THEY
have been as much imposed upon, with regard to the quality
and price of the safes sold by these parties, as the advertisers
have been wronged by their illegal use of Milner's (the only
effective) Fire-resisting principle. The experience of Mr.
Cafferata, as at this ,(b a unknown to
us before,) isshown only that of alli
the buy yers ofgentleman these things. Mr.
C. was induced to give £l5 for a safe. 22 x 16 x 16, on the
ht
toe nt
assurance that it was " Thief-proof—three quarter inch thick
solid wrought iron," &c., &c. Looking at it a dayif
parties
rrttuiis
afterwards, at home, and on scraping the paint off it, he
haveo n
intrusted their valuable property to such safeguards will do
it a MERE SHELL-2 perfect delusion ; and thosedena•
well to take the same course.
For our own Safes, we have devoted our lives and our earn-
ings to the production of the best securities in the world against
Fire, Robbery, or Violence, which the public has given to us
the best means of making, and which we mean to sell at the
willowest
remunerating mi
nutnoeroaut irn gp
works,ri prices. .11
and
Beforesee t buyinghe labour a Saauf
paid to the manufacture in all its details, they will be less likely
to be imposed upon by external appearances and fallacious
representations in the very important matter of the selection
of a Safe. "MILNER'S PHCENIX SAFE WORKS, (late Wind-
sor Foundry,) Falkner-street, are said to be the finest work.
shops in Europe, of their class, certainly THE MOST EXTEN-
SIVE AND COMPLETE SAFE MANUFACTORY IN THE WORLD,
employing more hands than all the Safe makers in Great Bri-
tain, and the Proprietors respectfully invite the people of
Liverpool to inspect an establishment that has originated under
our present patent, and grown up amongst them. The effect
of these trials will be to confirm to Messrs. Milner and Son the
exclusive use of materials or vessels in which, to use the
Judge's words, " the water remains permanently held until the
occurrence of the calamity (Fire) brings the cure." The trials
by the Liverpool Polytechnic Society of Chubb 's and Marr's
Boxes filled with anhydrous (dry) materials, and of Milner's
filled according to their evaporating, principle, proving 014
manifest superiority of the latter, will be remembered, and
such is now the defined relative position of Milner's only
tive Fite-taming principle, by the agency of water oitd its
vapour contrasted with, all others without, that agency,. 212
deg. tc 3,900 degi.