Treibacher Chemische Werke Gesellschaft Mit Beschränkter Haftung v. Roessler & Hasslacher Chemical Co.

HOUGH, District Judge.

The only claim involved is this:

“A pyrophoric alloy, containing cerium, alloyed with iron; substantially as and for the purposes described.”

The “purposes described” in the specification render plain the contest before the court.

The patentee tells the world that all preceding investigators were wrong in supposing that the so-called “rare-earth” metals, when pure, possessed pyrophoric capacity; i. e., the property when abraded of giving off particles self-igniting in the air. Admittedly these metals, and especially cerium, had long been called pyrophoric, but Welsbach…