De Lamar v. De Lamar Min. Co.

Citations

• 117 F. 240
• 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 4435

Syllabus

<p>1. Patents—Anticipation — Process for Recovering Metals from Solutions.</p> <p>The Waldstein patent, No. 607,719, for a process for extracting precious metals from cyanide solutions by the use of zinc dust as a precipitating agent, and the agitation of the solution until the precipitation is complete, is void for lack of invention and anticipation; every step in the process having been disclosed in prior patents and publications. The additional feature of claims 2 and 3, in requiring the use of a “definite quantity” or the “exact quantity” of zinc dust sufficient to precipitate the contained metals, does not render the process patentable, since the propet proportion is not given, nor the means for ascertaining it; and, conceding that such fact does not render the claims fatally defective; the patentee not being the inventor of the use of zinc dust by means of agitation as a precipitating reagent, the public is free to use such quantity as may be required to best produce the desired result.</p>