Opinion of the Court.

is made of the invention; but taken in connection with section 4887, providing that no person shall be debarred from receiving a patent, by reason of the invention being first patented abroad, "unless the same has been introduced into public use in the United States for more than two years prior to the application," we think that the public use or sale contemplated by section 4886 must be limited to a use or sale in this country. That this was the intent of Congress is also manifest from section 4923, providing that whenever it appears the patentee believed himself to be the original and first inventor of the thing patented, his patent shall not be held void "on account of the invention or discovery, or any part thereof, having been known or used in a foreign country before his invention or discovery thereof, if it had not been patented or described in a printed publication." So also in section 4920, providing what the defendant may plead under the general issue in actions for infringement, there is included the defence "that it had been in public use or on sale in this country for more than two years before his application for a patent, or had been abandoned to the public."

Taking all these provisions of the patent law together, we think it was manifestly the intention of Congress that the right of the patentee to his invention should not be denied by reason of the fact that he had made use of it, or put it on sale abroad, more than two years before the application, provided it were not so used or sold in this country.

(3) The questions of novelty and utility may properly be considered together. There is much testimony tending to show that Gandy believed himself to be the inventor of a belting made of hard woven canvas stitched and saturated with oil, and that the importance of having the warp stouter than the weft was not fully appreciated by him, and hence was not made an element of the claim of his original British patent. The testimony, however, shows that the canvas or duck ordinarily used for sails is made with the weft as stout, if not stouter, than the warp, and that such canvas was found to be impracticable for belting on account of its liability to stretch or to crack in passing around the smaller pulleys. His first

VOL. CXLIII-38

Opinion of the Court.

belts made of ordinary soft canvas proved to be wholly impracticable owing to their apparently endless capacity for stretching. He next experimented with hard-spun and tightwoven canvas, specially manufactured for this purpose. This did not stretch, but developed another fault, of wrinkling and cracking when running around pulleys. This he obviated by saturating it with linseed oil; but found another objection in the unequal strain on the several thicknesses when passing around the pulleys, which tended to break the stitching and permitted the plies to separate. He then conceived the idea that by decreasing the thickness of the belt, without diminishing its tensile strength, he would bring the diameter of the exterior plies more nearly level with the inner plies next the pulley, and thus more nearly equalize the strain on all parts of the belt, increasing its effective strength and diminishing the tendency of the plies to separate or wrinkle. It is obvious even to a non-expert that, if the belting be made very thick, there is a much greater strain upon the exterior plies, when passing around a small pulley, than upon the inner plies, and that the effect must be both to unduly strain the exterior plies, rendering them liable to break, and to wrinkle the inner ones, subjecting them to the danger of cracking; and that the ideal belting would be made as thin as would be consistent with the requisite strength and inflexibility. In view of the fact that previous attempts, of which there appear to have been several, to make a practical canvas belt had been failures, and that Gandy had been experimenting with the subject for several years before he discovered that a change was necessary in the structure of the canvas itself, we do not think his improvement is a change in degree only, or such an one as would have occurred to an ordinary mechanic, and our opinion. is that it does involve an exercise of the inventive faculty. The change is such as would only have occurred to one familiar, not alone with the impossibility of making a practical belt out of the ordinary canvas, but to one who had bestowed considerable thought upon the method of overcoming the difficulty. While some of the testimony would seem to indicate that there is no great advantage in this method of

Opinion of the Court.

construction, we think the fact that it has been largely adopted by manufacturers and that all the modern improved belting ordered or made by Gandy and in general use both in this country and in Europe, is made in this way, is, for the purposes of this case, sufficient evidence of its utility. Magowan v. New York Belting Co., 141 U. S. 332.

(4) We have no doubt upon the subject of infringement. While, as claimed by the defendant Plummer, there may be as many plies or individual threads in the weft of his canvas as in the warp, the most casual observer of the relative strength of the warp and the weft cannot fail to notice that the former is much thicker and stouter than the latter- in fact, that the Gandy belting and the defendants' in this particular are identical. The defendant Plummer having adopted Gandy's idea of making warp stouter than his weft, is not in a favorable position to claim that it is useless. Indeed, Plummer appears to have been formerly in business with Gandy, and was sent by him to America in 1879 to confer with his solicitor in reference to his pending application for a patent. Gandy subsequently decided to start the manufacture of belting in America, and to give Plummer employment, and for that purpose took him into his factory in Liverpool, so as to give him an insight into the business. In 1880 he came to America, was met by Plummer, leased a building for a factory, and took him into his employ. Plummer seems, however, to have failed to give satisfaction, and Gandy subsequently dismissed him from his service, whereupon Plummer proceeded to organize a company upon his own account for the manufacture of the infringing belting. In pursuance of this intention he states himself that he came to Washington, examined the Gandy patents, and took legal advice with regard to making a belt which would not infringe them. He also suggested to plaintiff the danger of his marking an unpatented article with words importing that it is patented, and called his attention to Rev. Stat. sec 4901, making this a penal offence.

The language of Mr. Justice Woods, in delivering the opinion of this court in Lehnbeuter v. Holthaus, 105 U. S. 94, 96, is equally pertinent to this branch of the case: "The patent is

Syllabus.

prima facie evidence both of novelty and utility, and neither of these presumptions has been rebutted by the evidence. On the contrary, they are strengthened. No anticipation of the design is shown, although the attempt has been made to prove anticipation. The fact that it has been infringed by defendants, is sufficient to establish its utility, at least as against them."

The decree of the Circuit Court is, therefore,

Reversed, and the case remanded with directions to enter an interlocutory decree for the plaintiff, and for further proceedings in conformity with this opinion.

CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND AND PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY . DENVER AND RIO GRANDE RAILROAD COMPANY.

DENVER AND RIO GRANDE RAILROAD COMPANY v. CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND AND PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY.

APPEALS FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THR DISTRICT OF COLORADO.

Nos. 1095, 1109. Submitted January 7, 1892. - Decided March 7, 1892.

In the interpretation of any particular clause of a contract, the court is required to examine the entire contract, and may also consider the relations of the parties, their connection with the subject matter of the contract, and the circumstances under which it was made. The Chicago, Rock Island and Colorado Railway Company contracted with the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Company for the use by the former of the tracks, stations, sidings, switches, etc. of the latter company between Colorado Springs and Denver, (except its shops at Burnham), and also for its terminal facilities at Denver, and, having so contracted made its connections and entered on the enjoyment of its rights under the contract. Shortly afterwards the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway Company was organized and acquired the property and rights of the Chicago, Rock Island and Colorado Railway and entered into the enjoyment of them, and its rights were recognized by the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Company. The Rock Island and Pacific Company then acquired a right to connect with the Union Pacific Railroad

Statement of the Case.

Company at Limon, and to run its eastern trains over the tracks of the latter company to Denver, which it did. The distance from Limon to Denver by this route was sixty-four miles less than by the way of Colorado Springs and the Denver and Rio Grande road. Although it had diverted its Denver traffic, it continued to use the Rio Grande road for its Pueblo traffic, and it claimed the use of the terminal facilities of that road at Denver for all, and also the use of some land at Burnham not actually used for shops. It also claimed the right under the contract to put in its own switching forces and cleaning gangs. The Denver and Rio Grande Company then gave notice that it would exclude from the Denver terminals all business coming over the Union Pacific tracks. Thereupon the Rock Island Company filed a bill in equity and obtained a restraining order. By amendments and supplemental bills there were brought into the controversy other matters of difference between the two companies and a final decree was made settling their rights under the contract as follows: (1), that the new Rock Island Company was the successor of the old, and had the right under the contract to operate its trains over the Rio Grande Company's line; (2), that it had not the right, under the contract, to bring its trains to the Denver terminals over the Union Pacific; (3), that it had the right to employ separate switching crews and separate employés to perform other services in the yards of the Rio Grande Company under the control and subject to the direction of the agent of that company; (4), that the words “ shops at Burnham" in the contract included all lands used or procured for shop purposes and appurtenant to the shops located at Burnham; (5), that a track should be set apart at Denver on which the Kansas Pacific Company might clean its cars; (6), that each party should pay one-half of all costs. On appeal this court Held,

(1) That the plaintiff was entitled to file this bill;

(2) That it was never intended to grant the use of terminal facilities for the Rock Island road, except as appurtenant to the use by it of the Rio Grande road;

(3) That the exception of the shops at Burnham not only included the buildings actually used for mechanical purposes, but also two tracts purchased for the use of the shops, and intended to be devoted to such purposes;

(4) That there was no error in the decree of the court below as to the employment of separate switching crews;

(5) That the cleaning of the cars could be done by the Rock Island Company, but the Rio Grande Company was bound to furnish track facilities for it;

(6) That it was not necessary to decide questions raised as to the discharge of employés engaged in the operation of that part of the road jointly occupied and used under the contract.

THE Court stated the case as follows:

This was a bill in equity brought by the Chicago, Rock