Briokill v. Mayor of New York

WAR-RACE, Circuit Judge.

The defendants have appealed from a decree awarding the complainants a recovery for $931,070 for the infringement of letters patent No. 81,132, granted August 18, 1868, to William A. Briekill, for “improvement in feed water heaters for steam fire engines.” The assignments of error raise the questions of the novelty of the patented improvement, and of the amount recoverable as profits derived from its use by the defendants if the patent is adjudged valid.

The patentee, a machinist, while in the employ of the fire department of the city of New York as an engineer in…