Lorraine

Plaintiffs allege infringement of claims 17, 18, and 19 of patent No. 1,373,664, issued April 5, 1921, and reissue No. 15,220, of November 8, 1921. The patent covers a device or meehanieal contrivance by which gas may be separated from oil delivered from a producing well. Defendants have such a device, which they claim is protected by patent No. 1,269,134, dated June 11, 1918, issued to M. J. Trumble. Plaintiffs contend that a form of the defendants’ device, differing from that described in the Trumble patent, is being manufactured by defendants, and that it is an infringement.

It is now a matter of common knowledge that in the production of oil from wells sunk into the ground there is generally “an accompaniment of gas. This gas, if not collected by some means, will escape into the air and be' lost. Various methods had for many years, long prior to the date of the patent of either the plaintiffs or the defendants, been employed for the purpose of collecting the gas and retaining it in some receptacle under pfessure, from which receptacle it might be conducted by pipes and used for heating or illumination. It is a matter of quite common knowledge that -oil producers early used…