The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1914-05-30
HANDS DOWN
IMPORTANT RULING
QUOTED AN REASONS FOR RE.
VERSEING FEDERAL
COURT.

The opinion handed down by the
United States circuit court of appeals
in the suit Oh the Minerals Separa-
ton, limited and the Minerals Separ-
alton American syndicate against
James M. Hyde, involving the oil flo
tation process used by the Butte &
Superior Copper company, contains
about 1000 words, but the greater
portion of it is a history of the case,
a review of the trial in the Montana
court, and a comparison of the pro-
cess with similar processes.
Eliminating those parts of the de-
cision, the conclusions and findings
of the court were as follows:
We hold that to sustain the appel
lees minerals S~eparation) patent
would be to give to the owners there
of a monopoly. Of that which others
had discovered.
What they claim to be the new
and useful feature Of their invention,
as stated by their counsel, is "agi-
tating the mixture to cause oily
coated mineral to form a froth." AS
we have seen, that feature was clear
ly anticipated by the prior art, and
when the elements of the appe1lees'
claims are read M by one. it will
be found that each step in their pro-
cess is fully described in more than
one of the patents of the prior art,
with the single exception of the re,
duced quantity of oil which they use.
The %patentees of the appellees' pat
ent made a valuable contribution to
the art in discovering the smallest
quantity of oil which would produce
the desired result. In doing so they
pursued the course which all skillful
metallurgists would be expected tc
pursue. They made a series of exp
erments to determine how small a
quantity of oil could be used success
fully.
They found, as all must find who
use the oil flotati"n process, that
certain oils are adapted to use with
certain ores, and that a larger guam.
tity of oil is necessary for one kind
of an ore than for another. The ap-
pellees admit that for some ores they
use four times as much oil as fol
others.
Their discovery that a small frac-
ton of n per cent of oil is suf-
ficient to produce f~lotation of the
metalliferous matter cannot. as We
have seen, be made by itself or in
combination. the subject Of a patent
The appellees cannot take from
others the right to use oil economic
ally. This was evidently the ruling
of the patent office on their appli-
cation for the patent.
The appellees cannot take from
others the right to use oil ecenom'
ically. This vac evidently the ruling
of the patent office on their applica-
ton for the patent.
One of their claims in the origina'
application was 1.-The process of con
%centrating powdered ore, which con
sists in separating minerals from
gangue by coating the minerals with
oil in water containing a fraction OF
one per cent of oil on the ore, and
recovering the oil-coated minerals
This was rejected in view of the
Cattermole patent "as expressing
merely a difference of degree as to
the proportion of oily matter EN-.
ployed." Counsel for appellees ad.
nit that the claim was properly re
iected for the reason that it leaves
out the agitation and froth, and says
Our invention is something else
than the mere reduction of oil"
The decree (of lower court favor
ing Minerals Separation us reversed
and the case is remanded with in
struotiOns to dismiss the bill.