The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-05-11
WHEIN
CLOTHING STORE.
THE DRIVE-WELL CASE.
The Green Patent Held to Be Invalid-His-
tory of the Driven Well.

DEs MONIES, Ia, May 10.-The celebrated
clrive-well case of William D. Andrews ct al.
VS.. George Hovey, involving the validity of
what are known as the Nelson W. Green let
ters-patent No. 73, ,425, of date JAN IA, 1868,
and the reissue under date of May g. 1871,
was decided in the United States Circuit
Court here yesterday. The case was submit
ted at the previous term of court and in it
were involved all the cases for infringement
and damages in Iowa and Minnesota, and at
the hearing Judge Nelson, of Minnesota, sat
with Judges Love and Shiras in the consider
alton of the case. The opinion was prepared
by Judge Shiras and is lengthy document,
which ably discusses the case in all its phases.
Judge Love, though fully concurring in the
opinion of Judge Shiras, filed supplement-
ary opinion reviewing further some of the
points of law involved. Judge Nelson
dissents, but filed no opinion. From
the evidence in the case it APP
pears that in the summer of 1861
Nelson w. Green was resident of Cortland,
N. Y; that he was engaged in drilling and
organizing volunteers for the army and espe-
cially in connection with the Seventy
regiment, of which he was appointed colonel;
that whilst thus employed his attention was
called to the subject of procuring pure water
for the use of his men, and that he set about
to devise means by which water could be
readily procured from beneath the surface of
the earth, thus avoiding danger from
poisoned wells and springs and also from
the risk of being cut off from access to the
ordinary sources of supply when in the
presence of the enemy. The patentee him
self testified that in the summer OF 1861 he
had devised in his own mind a method of
accomplishing this result, which he ex-
aNlai ah fO rill nd fla,,
the officers of the regiment, and which con-
sisted in driving rod sharpened at the end
into the ground and into the water-bearing
stratum, then withdrawing the sarne and in
serting tGhe, through which the water
could be drawn by any ordinary style of
pump. The case just decided is conclusive
as to all cases pending in both States. Judge
Shiras delivered the opinion. as stated,
holding, first, that the patent is invalid be-
cause the. inventor, Colonel Green, of New
York, allowed it to go into public use for
more than two years prior to his application
for patent; second, that the reissue
was void because it was not for the same in
vention as the original patent; and void be-
cause that the instances of prior use We're in
the main mere experiments of wells at Inde-
pendence, Ia, in 1861, and the successful use
of several wells at Milwaukee in 1849 and
1850 we're from substantially the same inven-
tion as Green's Judge Love, in concurring
held further that under the act of Congress
of 1889 it was immaterial whether the prior
use of the invention for two years therein
mentioned was with or without the consent
or allowance of the inventor, and that such
prior use in either case invalidated the pat
ent Judge Nelson dissented. The opinion
was very long and all the questions involved
were discussed with much learning Judge
McCrary sat with the judges during the read
ing of the opinion, which was listened to
with the closest attention by the bar and
room full of spectators. Plaintiffs, if an APP
peal is made, will appeal on law points.