Wood

This is an appeal from a declaratory judgment which holds that the appellees have a valid patent, serial number 1,997,-957, for a feeding mechanism of a -road mixing machine which the judgment also holds appellant had infringed by manufacturing and selling a similar road mixing machine having a mechanically equivalent feeding mechanism. Since we hold that the appellees claimed patent of the feeding mechanism, whether considered alone or as attached to the mixer, has no, novelty over the prior art, it is unnecessary to consider the question of appellant’s infringement.

Appellees’ patent purports to find invention in a feeding mechanism into a portable cylinder carried on wheels with its rounded side parallel to the road, which at its forward end receives from the feed loosened and partially pulverized earth of an existing road into the cylinder, where it is stirred and mixed with mineral oil, the earth being propelled rearward by a double worm which brings the material from its forward entrance to the rear end of the cylinder where it is redeposited.

The machines manufactured under appellees’ claimed patent are of excellent mechanical structure and have had commercial success in…