PUTNAM V. VON HOFE. 899 �placed that when the lever has been turned against the bot- tle, to the position to hold the compound stopper so that it closes the bottle mouth, those pivotai connections are atthat time turned past the vertical plane which passes through the pivotai connections of the lever with the neck-band, and the pivotai connection of the yoke with the compound stop- per, 80 as to lock the compound stopper in its olosed posi- tion. The specification of the defendant's patent deseribes a like eccentrie action in saying that, when the lever is so far depressed as to come against the bottle, the yoke swings beyond the fulcrum pin in the lugs on which the lever tunjs, and the lever is securely retained in its locking position. The only difference between the two structures in this respect is that in the De Quillfeldt stopper the lever pushes the lower ends of the yoke beyond the center, and in the Von Hofe stopper the lever pulls the middle part of the yoke beyond the center. But this difference is only formai, and results from the fact that in the former the lever is pivoted to the lower ends of the yoke, and in the latter it is pivoted to the middle part of the yoke. There is, therefore, an infringe- ment of the ninth claim. �2. The defendant has introduced several prior patents on the question of novelty, as well as to affect the construction of the claims of the plaintiffs' re-issue. There are the follow- ing United States patents : Jeannotat, July 17, 1855; Cronk, March 19, 1861; Wiegand, September 29, 1863; Sohlich, Sep- tember 5, 1865; Kobinson and Jenkins, December 11, 1866,; and Weber, July 2, 1867. There are the following English pat- ents: ChaluSjfuU specification filed March 7, 1857; Thompson, full specification filed September 28, 1867 ; Michaelis, full spec- ification filed March 11, 1873; and Thompson, full specifica- tion filed August 14, 1874. In view of sueh bottle -stoppers as are deseribed in the foregoing patents, the defendant, by expert testimony, seeks to divide bottle-stoppers which have yok^es and levers into classes, — one class having the lever between the bottle neck and the yoke, and thus drawing the yoke down, to which class the De Quillfeldt is assigned; another class having the lever between the stopper and the ��� �
