The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-05-03 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
j_ 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, 1831, 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. Sann), 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 lie 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 discover
that there is any real difference between this case and that ;
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 to be allowed on all hands, it seems a most marvellous pre-
servative against fire; for the water remains permanently
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
the substance which is to be preserved, and so it is an effectual
guard against fire. •
" If you think this was new, then the only remaining ques-
tion is with regard to the infringement.
"Now the infringement seems to rest upon substantially the
same evidence as the infringement on the former trial, when
the action was brought against Mr. Harrison.
" Now you find with respect to Tann's Patent, whatever
Tann's invention might have been, that this patent which be
manufactures, and which the defendant Harrison sells, and of
which he calls himself the sole proprietor,' operates in the
same way. It seems to me to act precisely the same way as in
Milher's patent, but upon that you will form your own judg-
ment. Then if it really has the same effect, and operates in
the same manner, and upon the same urinciple, 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 you to 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
year,
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. Yann 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 51ilner's (the only
effective) Fire-resisting principle. The experience of Mr.
Cafferata, as shown at this trial, (by a gentleman unknown to
us before,) is only that of all the buyers of these things. Mr.
C. was induced to give .315 for a safe, 22 x 16 x 16, on the
assurance that it was " Thief-proof—three quarter inch thick
solid wrought iron," &c., &c. Looking at it a day or two
afterwards, at home, and on scraping the paint off it, he found
it a MERE SHELL—a perfect delusion ; and those who have
intrusted their valuable property to such safeguards will do
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
lowest remunerating prices. Before buying a Safe, if parties
will look into our works, and see the labour and attention
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 PHLENIX 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 he d until the
The trials
occurrence of the calamity (Fire) brings the cure.'s
by the Liverpool Polytechnic Society of Chubb and Marr's
Boxes filled with anhydrous (dry) materials, argilof Milner's,
filled
a p o
latter,rat nwg
ipl rbien ole, proving the
remembered, and c •
according
manifestsuperiority
to
thee
effec-
tive Fite-taming principle, by the ages, cy of water and its
such is now the defined relative position of 'mither7, only &rec..
vapour contrasted with 511 others witbritit, that agency. 212
dea.. tc 3,060 deg.