The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1852-10-09

ArEunitub rom cSibSln testimony IL the case Ii
was wholly unsuccessful. Tas dsfendens need not
regret the candor of his answer ia admitting IL.
The question now snder consideration is, there
fore, Thether any other person ha3 succeeded IN
discovering and perfectng the peculiar process or
maOaiactare clalHrsn in the patent oE IS4 and
1852 before Charles Goodbye Wss ''yuicanized
india rnhher." nSw known III the arts, knoyn,
and tae process Of manufacturing i perfected, be-
fore Cbatiss Goodyear made known his discovery,
and bad perfected II by experiment.
The testimony shows that many pefsons had
made eEper ments-thGt rGey bad used phur, Lead
and heat. before GooGyear's patents, and, pro-
baby, before his discovery. Bat TO what purpose.
Their experiments ended in discovering nothing,
except. perhaps, that they had ruined Themselves.
The great difference between them and Goodyear
is, that lie persisted in bis experiments, and finally
succeeded n pertecting valuable discovery, anu
they failed. 1t is usually the case, when any va
liable discovery Is made, or any new machine oil
great utility has been invented shat the attention
OF the public has been turned 30 that subject pre-
viously; and that many persons have been making
researches and experiments. Philosophers and me-
chaniciaps may have in some measure, antcip ated,
in their speculation, the possibility probability OF
such discovery or invention many experiments
may have been unsuccessfnlly tried, coming very
near yet falling short of the desired result. They
have produced nothing beneficial. The invention,
when perfected, may truly be said to be the culmi-
mating point OF many experiments, net only by the
inventor but by many Others He may have pro.
fitted indirectly by the unsuccessful experiments and
claim share of the honor or the profit Of the sue
cesstul inventor 1t is when speculation has been
reduced to practice, when experiment has resulted
in discovery, and when that discovery has been
perfected by patient and continued experiments
when some new compound, art, manufacture, or
machine, has been thus produced, which is useful
to the public, that the party making it becomes
public benefactor, and entitled to patent.
have at length succeeded, in spite Of sneers and
SCOTS, in perfecting some valuable invention or
discovery, how seldom is it followed by reward.
Envy robs him of the honor, while Spectators,
Every unsuccessful experimenter who did, or did
not, come very near making the discovery, now
claims it. Every one who can invent an improve.
ment, or vary its form, claims right to pirate the
original discovery. We need not summon Morse,
or Blanchard, or Woodwork, to prove that this is
the usual history ofevery great discovery or nven-
ton.
The present case adds another chapter to
this long and uniform history. Every man who has
made experiments with india rubber sulphur, lead,
or any other substance; who has heated them in q
stove or furnace; wpe has annoyed his family and
his neighbors with suphurous gas; who has set up
rubber factory and jailed; who has made india rub
Der goods that no one would buy, Or if bought,
returned as worthless in fine, all who had ceased
their experiments and endeavors, because they had
not discovered that such qualities could be given to
that substance; are now paraded forth as the nven
tors and discoveries Of vulcanzed india rubber. II
they themselves have made no such claim. It has
been now for the first time made for them by
the defendant, who appears to have discovered at
length that he himself was probably the inventor ;
fact which appears to have been unknown to him
in 1886, when actions were first brought against
him for pirating this discovery; fact, also, which
others are more ready to prove thaa him
self to assert. Notwithstanding the iHdomitable
energy and perseverance with which this attempt
to invalidate the patent has been pursued, the
volumes of testimony with which it is oppressed and
the great ability with which it has been canvassed
in the argument, we are of opinion that the deten-
that himself any other person discovered and per-
fected the process of manufacturing vulcanized
india rubber before Charles Goodyear.
The testimony about Collins, which has been
most relied on in the argument contains much IL
ternal evidence of falsehood it proves too much,
and too little it is fo de Yet, assuming it to
be true, it amounts to no more than this: that he
had used the ingredients of sulphur, white lead.
Sc in connection with the rubber; that he had
heated them that he may have had some partial
success, which, if pursued with perseverance and
judgment, might have resulted in the discovery of
vulcanized rubber. He may possibly have been so
near the discovery as to stumble over it. Yet he
never went on to perfect his experiments They
were abandoned without a successful result. Every
factory that employed him, and purchased his
services or his secret, failed. No goods Of
"vulcanized india rubber " made by him,
or in the factories that employed him,
have survived to prove his success. Time, which
devours all things, may be presumed not yet
to have dgested or destroyed all the vulcanised
rubber supposed to have been made Gf it ever had
been made) by Collins and the various other pre-
tenders
The sum ofthe evidence go ndustriously collected
appears to be this, and this only. Others nave
made experiments: they have tried sulphur, white
lead, and high degree of heat, and have failed to
perfect any valuable discovery. Goodyear has used
these elements and perfected a valuable art. They
have failed: he has succeeded.
". The objection that the patents to Goodyear
are invalid, because both Hayward and himself had
severaly abandonened their discoveries to the pub.
lie is not sustained.
The ques ion Of abandonment to the public must
always depend, in great measure, on the peculiar
nature Of the subject matter The mere sale Of n
peculiar manufacture, which does not, on its face,
disclose the nature of the compound, or the mode
Of producing it, is not such an abandonment. That
india Rubber could be treated as to have the qua
ties that it is known to possess in its "vulcan
zed state, could be discovered by any reasoning
a Wiori. Those acquainted with the subject might
conjecture, hope or believe, that such thing might
be discovered. But the discovery must necessarily
be empirical-the result of time, experiment, or
chance; OF patient attention to phenomena exhi,
bited, and results obtained. And when the fact OF
possibility is length established, the best mode of
obtaining the given result must be tested by fire.
quent AID patient experiment, and observation.
The compound or substance called " vulcanized
india rubber was Of no actual value per Sc but only
as it could be made to enter into the manufacture
Of other articles, and communicate its peculiar qua
lites 70 them. How those articles would retain
those qualities in use and command market, could
be tested Only by time and experience. Neither
Hayward nor Goodyear would have been justified in
shouting Eureka" and claiming patent on the
first appearance of success in their respective expe
rments Goodyear exhibited the substance dis
covered by him and some goods mao ufactur ed with
it in England in 1913. He sold some Of the goods
here. But he did not disclose to the public either
there or here, the method Of compoupding his ma
teral or Whist constituted his real secret or
discovery. An exhibition Of the manufactured
articles did not disclose it, except that, from
the smell, it might be inferred tina. sulphur had
been somehow used in its connection. Hancock,
who obtained a patent in England for the same dis
ceyery, bad seen Goodyear's articles, and thus
ceItaincd that such a material could be made, but
not The mode of efecting it. His patent was held
valid BY the English courts, the ground that, nj
though Goodyear had first made the discovery in
America. he had not abandoned it to the public by
the sale of the ufactured articles and that the
use OF the manufacture was not the use Of the in
yention as The material itself did not disclose the
means of making it and that tharefo Hancock