Journal OF THE Patent Office Society Published monthly by the Patent Office Society Office of Publication 3928 New Hampshire Ave., Washington, D. C. Subscription $2.50 a year Single copy 25 cents EDITORIAL BOARD H. Keneipp, Case editor. E. R. Cole E. C. Reynolds, Chairman and Editor-in-chief. W. I. Wyman M. C. Rosa G. P. Tucker M. L. Whitney, Business Manager (Room 182, U. S. Patent Office.) 3928 New Hampshire Ave., Washington, D. C. N. E. Eccleston, Circulation. Entered as second class matter, September 17, 1918, at the post office at Washington. D. C., under the act of March 3, 1879. Publication of signed articles in this journal is not to be understood as an adoption by the Patent Office Society of the views expressed therein. The editors are glad to have pertinent articles submitted. VOL. VII. June, 1925. No. 10. COMMENT. A gain of 2733 cases was made during April. The oldest date for the Office on May 1st was under six months; there were 39 divisions under 5 months; 28 under 4 months and 7 under 3 months. In the week ending May 1, 1925 a total of 6681 cases were acted on as opposed to 5674 for the same week last year. On this date there were 45,286 applications awaiting action while a year ago there were 60,773. Entrance Examinations. There were 217 applicants for the April examination and of these 212 finished their papers; 19 of those taking the examination were already on the supplemental register. It is expected that sufficient eligibles will be secured from this list to avoid the necessity of holding another examination for at least six months possibly for a whole year. 80 vacancies occurred in the examining corps last year. Promotions. The regulations of the Personnel Classification Board require a Junior Examiner to have three years experience before being promoted to Assistant. With resignations taking place at the present rate, this forms the limiting factor so far as all fully qualified Juniors are concerned. One years service is necessary for eligibility as Associate. New Office Stationery. The new examiner's letter heads containing an oval for the address enable several more lines to be placed on the first sheet. About 5500 letters are written each week and it is estimated that the new form will obviate the necessity of a second sheet in about 100 of these letters. This will result in a saving of more than 10,000 sheets in a year (including the carbon copies) and will make a corresponding saving in the bulk of the office records. These new forms can also be folded in four equal parts and still fit the window envelopes. This letter head is only one of a number of changes which will gradually be made to condense and simplify the records and correspondence. Committee. Secretary Hoover has added to the Secretary's Committee on the Patent Office Mr. W. H. Leffingwell, President of the Leffingwell-Ream Company of New York City, and Mr. Wallace Clarke, Consulting Engineer of New York City. Both of these men have had long and successful experience in many lines of industry, in installing methods of office management. They together with Mr. L. W. Wallace, Executive Secretary of the American Engineering Council, Mr. H. A. Brousseau, President of the Mack Truck Company, have been appointed a sub committee on housing, personnel, and procedure. This sub committee is now actively engaged in an investigation of the present conditions and problems of the Patent Office. An Advance in the Art. The effect of invention on cheapening processes of manufacture was given judicial acknowledgement in one notable instance in the recently published decision by Judge Johnson of the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of American Cone and Wafer Co. v. Denaro, 334 O. G. page 6. The court in summarizing the commercial result of the invention in suit stated that "One-quarter of all the ice-cream cones manufactured in the United States are made on the Bruckman machines, and the price has been reduced for cones from $15.50 and $17.50 per thousand in 1908 to $3 per thousand soon after the Bruckman machines came into use." In the same decision appears the court's comment on a matter that is now up for agitation. The reflection of the judge concerning the number of claims in the patent involved is in the following terms: "The other claims relate to subcombinations, which set forth in wearisome and unnecessary repetition the instrumentalities employed in the patent in suit." JAMES S. HODGES. James Shaler Hodges, Principal Examiner of Division 26, is a native of New Jersey, but for most of his life has been a resident of Maryland. He was educated at St. Pauls School, Concord, New Hampshire, and the Johns Hopkins University, graduating with the degree of A.B., in classical course, and after spending two years teaching, returning to the University for post graduate work and obtaining a certificate as Proficient in Applied Electricity. Before his appointment as 4th Assistant Examiner in December, 1902, he had some years practical experience as an electrical engineer, both in the manufacturing end, as assistant engineer with the Edison General Electric Company and the Detroit Electrical Works, and in the construction and operation of commercial electric plants, with street railway and lighting companies in Baltimore, Maryland. He was for two years in charge of the electrotechnical courses at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York. His first assignment was in Division 25, then in Division 6, and since 1906 he has been in Division 26. In that Division as an assistant he has at various times examined classes including electric railway apparatus, general dynamo electric machine construction, electric meters and metering, alternating current transmission systems and alternating current motors and their control. Since June, 1919 he has been in charge of the Division. PAUL P. PIERCE. Mr. Paul P. Pierce was born Feb. 17, 1879, on a farm in western New York, and remained there until he was seventeen. He was educated in the common schools of New York State and in Chamberlain Institute at Randolph, N. Y., supplemented by considerable home study. He received a degree of LL.B. from the Washington Col |