Mettler

This is a suit in.equity for the alleged infringement of letters patent No. 1,440,614, for a combination gas burner, issued to Lee-B. Mettler on January 2, 1923. The customary injunction is sought as well as damages. The sole patent claim in issue is claim 3, which reads as follows: “In a combustion unit, an open ended air tube, a gas chamber-surrounding the walls of the tube, and a block of refractory material abutting against one end of the tube and having an aperture opposite the open end of the tube, the wall of *185 the tube being formed with a series of gas discharge orifices adjacent the block and opening to the aperture in the latter at an inclination to the center line thereof.”

The defenses urged are absolute anticipation, lack of patentable invention, and patentable novelty in view of the prior art and non-infringement. There is a further defense of laches that, in view of the conclusion reached, it is deemed unnecessary to consider.

The field of endeavor to which Mettler directed his faculties is clearly shown by the record to have been a crowded industry. Attempts to develop and improve the efficiency of combustion units where illuminating gas and air are employed…