L. D. Underwood printed in the January issue of the Journal. Without expressing an opinion on the question of priority, it is only due to Mr. Rines to explain. that his application was submitted before the Journal containing Mr. Underwood's article had come to hand. Proposals for simplifying Patent Office proceedure appear to be timely and of interest to many.

D. A. GOURICK.

David A. Gourick, 74 years old, a practicing attorney in this city for 35 years, died at Georgetown University Hospital Tuesday, Jan. 27, 1925, after an illness of about two months.

Mr. Gourick was a member of the District bar and the bar of the United States Supreme Court. He was formerly a member of the Philadelphia bar. He was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

During his practice in the District Mr. Gourick specialized in patent law and in practice in connection with pensions and employees of other Government depart

ments.

Mr. Gourick was formerly the publisher of the Gourick Washington Digest, a legal journal. He is survived by a sister, Mrs. Annie Payne, two nephews and a niece. His wife died about five years ago.

MINOTT E. PORTER.

Minott E. Porter was born in Media Co. Ohio on July 11, 1869. His boyhood was spent on a farm. During the school year of 1888 and 1889 he attended Hiram College, Ohio. Deciding to take an engineering course he entered the University of Michigan in 1889 and graduated in 1893, receiving the degree of B. S. (C. E.). After graduating he continued his engineering studies

and received the degree of C. E. from the same university in 1897.

From May 1 to Nov. 1, 1892 he was one of the inspectors of masonry on the 800-Foot Lock being constructed at Saulte Ste Marie, Michigan.

From Sept. 1894 until Feb. 1897 he was computer in the U. S. Hydrographic Office of the Navy Department and from Feb. 1897 to Dec. 1901 he was computer at the U. S. Naval Observatory.

On Dec. 11, 1901 he was appointed 4th Assistant Examiner in the Patent Office and assigned to Div. 6. In a few months he was transferred to Div. 5 and on July 1, 1902 was assigned to Div. 38. He was employed in Div. 38 from July 1, 1902 until Feb. 1, 1914 with the exception of about a year in which he worked in the Interference Division.

From 1902 to 1906 he studied law at George Washington University and received the degree of Master of Patent Law. He is a member of the bar of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia.

On Feb. 1, 1914 he was appointed Law Examiner and on Nov. 15, 1915 he was appointed Principal Examiner and assigned to Division 18 where he still remains. The classes now examined in Division 18 are Power Plants, Motors-Expansible Chamber Type, and Speed Responsive Devices. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

CYRUS D. BACKUS.

Cyrus D. Backus is a native of New York State, having been born on a farm in Groton Township of Tompkins County. His early education was in the district school and later in Groton High School. He was graduated from Cornell University in 1896 in the Philosophy and Law Courses supplemented by science work required in engineering. After a subsequent period of teaching and law clerkship he was admitted to the Bar of the New York State Courts, began law practice in Syracuse, and continued in New York City for about four years.

In 1903 Mr. Backus entered the Patent Office as a fourth assistant examiner. The first four and a half years were spent in the metal working arts in Division 14 under the guidance of the late Examiner Maxson, where it happened that the distribution of the work was such that it afforded a wide experience in these and related arts. In 1907 Mr. Backus was transferred to Division 16 in which he served continuously as an assistant under the present First Assistant Commissioner, Dr. William A. Kinnan in the electrical communication arts, particularly in automatic telephony. Upon the advancement of Dr. Kinnan in 1917 Mr. Backus was promoted to be a Principal Examiner and placed in charge of Division 16 where he remained till assigned to the new division to which the Radio and wave transmission arts were transferred from Division 16.

Meanwhile Mr. Backus had attended George Washington University, completing an Electrical Engineering course and pursued graduate studies for which in part he secured the Master of Science degree. He is a member of the Bar of Federal Courts and the United States Supreme Court, also of several engineering societies and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In 1909 he was married to Miss Clara N. Stewart of Kentucky. They have one daughter.

TWO APPEALS ARE ENOUGH.

"The time has come", the Walrus said
"To talk of many things,

Of shoes-and ships-and sealing wax,-
Of cabbages-and kings—

And why the sea is boiling hot

And whether pigs have wings.'

-Through the Looking Glass.

The time has come, say the Editors, for me, too, to talk of things, and many things there are, indeed, to

talk about. One such is my invention. It is the only invention that I have ever made. My friend, the Primary Examiner, will probably reject my application on the ground that the alleged invention does not fall within any of the statutory classes. Here it is, however, for what it is worth.

My Invention.

My invention relates to the art of prosecuting patent applications, and more particularly to methods of obtaining relief from adverse decisions.

According to present-day practice, an applicant who is unable to obtain from a Primary Examiner the claims to which he considers himself to be entitled may appeal to a Board of Examiners-in-Chief, three in number. If he is unsuccessful before the Board of Examiners-inChief, he may appeal from this body of three to a single individual, the Commissioner of Patents. The applicant sometimes thinks that even the Commissioner of Patents may err; so he then appeals from the one Commissioner to another body of three,-the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia. Cases are on record, however, indicating that this eminent body has also made mistakes. In order that such mistakes may be corrected, the applicant is permitted to start afresh before a single District Judge, under the provisions of Section 4915 of the Revised Statutes; and, finally, he may appeal from this Judge to the three Judges of another Court of Appeals. A similar procedure, as is well known to persons skilled in the art, prevails in inter partes cases. This procedure is both time consuming and costly.

It is an object of my invention, therefore, to improve upon and simplify the above-described procedure, to the end of speeding up, and lessening the cost of, the prosecution of patent applications.

With this end in view, a feature of the invention resides in eliminating three of the above-named six tribunals, in such manner as to introduce a minimum of

change in the habits of thought of patent lawyers, and without in any way decreasing the probable accuracy of the ultimate decision.

According to my invention, the applicant who considers himself to be aggrieved by a decision of the Primary Examiner appeals, not to the Board of Examinersin-Chief, but to a Board of Commissioners. To this end, any desired number of Commissioners may be provided, with varying grades and titles and with varying powers and authority. Thus, there may be one Commissioner, one Assistant Commissioner, one First Assistant Commissioner and five Second Assistant Commissioners. The powers of the Second Assistant Commissioners may be limited to those enjoyed by the present-day Examinersin-Chief. The Board of Commissioners may sit by threes to hear and determine the cases appealed to them. Among the three may be the Assistant Commissioner or the First Assistant Commissioner, or, even, the Commissioner. Usually, the Commissioner will not desire to sit in person, because pressed by too many duties of other nature; but having the power to hear and determine cases, he may and will exercise such power at such times as to him seem meet and proper.

It is not, of course, essential that the Board of Commissioners be definitely labelled a "Board", and it is within the scope of my invention to have this body constituted of more or less than three members, as desired. Experience has demonstrated that, in the great majority of instances where cases are decided by a body of three, not more than one of the three, owing to pressure of work, can give very much of his time to any particular case. According to the preferred embodiment of the invention, therefore, the Board of Commissioners is constituted of a single individual, who will sometimes, naturally enough, be the Commissioner, sometimes the Assistant Commissioner, sometimes the First Assistant Commissioner, and in the great majority of instances one of the Second Assistant Commissioners. All the advantages inherent in the Board of Examiners-in-Chief