Opinion of the Court.

signed by such judge or judges, and to be entered and certified of record by the clerk; and every such order shall state the cause in or on account of which it is drawn." The deposits being, as required, in the name and to the credit of the court, the bank was authorized and required to honor all checks drawn by the court, and to pay them generally out of such deposits; and the order or check for withdrawing the money, in stating the cause in or on account of which it was drawn, was a memorandum imposing no duty upon the bank, but only operating for the convenience of the court and its officers, in keeping its accounts. The obvious purpose of the memoranda of numbers in the deposit book of the court and. upon the checks, was to enable the court and the clerk to properly keep the accounts, and that the checks might operate as vouchers, showing the manner in which the moneys in any particular case were distributed, and to enable the clerk to show to the court that he had deposited the funds which he had received. There is no evidence anywhere of any intention that the bank should be controlled by the numbers in paying any check drawn upon it.

Nor do we perceive that there is anything in Rule 28 in bankruptcy which governs this subject. The requirement in that rule, that "every assignee and the clerk of said court shall deposit all sums received by them severally, on account of any bankrupt's estate, in one designated depository," seems to us to be abundantly satisfied by interpreting it as meaning that the assignee and the clerk shall deposit all sums received by them severally, that is, respectively, on account of any bankrupt's estate, in one designated depository. The requirement of Rule 28, that the check or warrant for drawing money from the depository shall state the account for which it is drawn, that is, the name of the estate, contains no indication that the bank is expected to keep a separate account with each estate; because, if it had been the intention that a separate account should be opened with each estate, it would naturally have been required that each check should direct the bank to charge the amount to such particular estate. Such was not the requirement of the rule, and such was not the form of the

Opinion of the Court.

check used. The rule was fully complied with in the present case. It did not require that the deposits should be made to the credit of each particular estate, but merely that the moneys should be deposited by the clerk. If it had been intended that the bank should keep a separate account with each bankrupt case, the requirement of the rule that each check should specify the account for which it was drawn, would have been superfluous, because no check otherwise drawn could or would have been paid.

It appears thus to have been plainly the sole purpose of the rule that each check, when drawn and paid, should remain in the hands of the clerk, when returned to him by the bank, as evidence not only of the payment by the bank of the amount, but also that the court had paid the amount to the particular creditor in the particular case. Thus the check would become a voucher, not only as between the court and the bank, of the payment by the latter of so much money which had been on deposit in it to the credit of the court, but a voucher as between the court and the creditor, who had received the money on account of what was due to him in a particular bankrupt case.

No bank is bound to take notice of memoranda and figures upon the margin of a check, which a depositor places there merely for his own convenience, to preserve information for his own benefit; and in such case, the memoranda and figures are not a notice to the bank that the particular check is to be paid only from a particular fund. So, too, a mark on a deposit ticket, if intended to require a particular deposit to be kept separate from all other deposits placed to the credit of the same depositor, must be in the shape of a plain direction, if such a duty is to be imposed on the bank. No facts are found in the present case which give to the figures which accompanied the deposits such a meaning as could require the bank to open a separate account with each bankrupt estate, especially in view of the fact found in the 2d finding, that, after having had at one time the name of the case in which the deposit was made entered by the bank on its book, and on the deposit book of the clerk, in the credit, the clerk directed

Syllabus.

afterwards that the name should be dropped in deposits, and that they should be entered simply in the name of the court, but retaining the number of the case. It must be assumed that this change in the manner of keeping the account had some object in view, and that object clearly must have been to avoid the keeping of separate accounts; and, if the keeping of separate accounts was in fact to continue to be required, in view of the use of the numbers in connection with the deposit tickets, an equal amount of labor, if not a greater amount, would have been caused to the bank by the change, as was required of it before, without any possible object being accomplished by the change.

The questions certified are all of them answered in the negative, the judgment of the Circuit Court is reversed, and the case is remanded to that court, with a direction to enter a judgment in favor of the defendant.

MATTHEWS v. IRONCLAD MANUFACTURING COMPANY.

APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK.

Argued December 21, 22, 1887. - Decided January 23, 1888.

A patent for a soda-water fountain, with a specification describing a fountain consisting of a tin lining, with an outer shell of steel, having end caps fastened on, "without flanges or projections, by tin joints, made by soldering with pure tin, which, being a ringing metal, unites closely with the steel exterior to make a firm and durable joint, as other solders having lead in them will not do," and a claim for "the tin vessel, incased by a steel cylinder, and ends soldered to the latter, in the manner substantially as described," was reissued seven years afterwards, with a similar specification and claim, except in omitting from the claim the words "steel" and soldered to the latter." Held, that the original patent was limited to a fountain whose outer cylinder and end caps were united by a solder of pure tin, without rivets or flanges; that if the reissue was equally limited, it was not infringed by a fountain with end caps fastened to the

Opinion of the Court.

outer shell by a solder of half tin and half lead, as well as by rivets, and with vertical flanges at one end, through which the rivets passed; and that if the reissue was not so limited, it was void.

BILL IN EQUITY for infringement of letters patent. The case is stated in the opinion of the court.

Mr. Arthur v. Briesen for appellants.

Mr. Frederic H. Betts, with whom was Mr. Ernest C. Webb on the brief, for appellee.

MR. JUSTICE GRAY delivered the opinion of the court.

This was a bill in equity for the infringement of lette patent, issued June 25, 1872, and reissued August 5, 1879, for an improvement in soda-water fountains.

The opinion delivered by the Circuit Court in dismissing the bill is reported, and drawings of the fountain of each party given, in 22 Blatchford, 427.

The only claim relied on at the argument of this appeal was the second claim of the reissue, being the one most like the single claim of the original patent. The specifications, the drawings therein referred to, and the claims in question, were alike in the two patents, differing only, as shown below, by omitting in the reissue the words of the original patent which are printed in brackets, and by inserting the words printed in italics, and three additional claims immaterial to the present inquiry. After a general reference to the drawings, the specification proceeds as follows:

"My invention consists in a novel construction of a tin-lined steel fountain for soda-water and other aerated or gaseous liquids, such fountain combining lightness with strength, and being of cylindrical form and uniform dimensions, or thereabout, throughout its length, thereby adding to the convenience of packing and handling; also being exempt from expansion or permanent lateral distension by the interior pressure to which it is subjected, thus preserving its form and contributing to its durability. Fountains for the like purpose, as previously

Opinion of the Court.

made, have been largely expansive, and retained the set given, to them by extension, and being otherwise objectionable.

"In the accompanying drawing, A represents a block-tin interior body of cylindrical form with hemispherical or reduced ends, the same constituting the tin lining of the fountain, and being provided at one of its ends with a neck b, for introduction of the usual or any suitable connections by which the fountain is charged and its contents drawn off, said neck receiving or having screwed into it a screw-coupling c, secured by a nut and washer d e, on the exterior of an outer end-cap B, for making the connection. C is the exterior shell or body proper, made of galvanized sheet steel, as may also be the end caps B B', which are soldered to or over the extremities of the same, and constitute, as it were, parts of said body C that [closely] surrounds or fits over the tin lining A. The end caps B B' are united to the body C, without flanges or projections, by tin joints, as at ƒƒ, made by soldering with pure tin, which, being a ringing metal, unites closely with the steel exterior to make a firm and durable joint, as other solders having lead in them will not do. Bands g g of brown paper or other non-conducting material are introduced between the tin lining A and steel body C, at the ends of the latter, to prevent the tin of the lining from being melted by the heat used in making the pure tin joints ff. The fountain is also filled with water for the same purpose, prior to making said joints.

"The non-stretching character of the body C, by reason of the same being of steel, insures the fountain preserving its shape, and the absence of end flanges provides for the close packing of a series of such formations when transporting or storing them.

[“What is here claimed, and desired to be secured by letters patent, is"] "I claim

"The tin vessel A, incased by a [steel] cylinder C, and ends B B' [soldered to the latter], in the manner substantially as described, as a new and improved article of manufacture, for the purpose specified."

It has been argued for the plaintiff that the patent is for the combination of an inner flexible vessel of tin or its equiva