s, declared void, the first claim, if
not for want of novelty, for want of patentability, and the second for
want of novelty.

2. Neither the tubing, nor the open spiral link formed of tubing, nor
the process of making either the open or the closed link, nor the
junction of closed and open spiral links in a chain, was invented by the
patentee.

3. All improvement is not invention and entitled to protection as such.
Thus to entitle it it must be the product of some exercise of the
inventive faculties, and it must involve something more than what is
obvious to persons skilled in the art to which it relates.

The decree of the circuit court is therefore reversed, and it is ordered
that the bill be dismissed.

BY THE COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS.

DICKSON vs. KINSMAN.--INTERFERENCE.--TELEPHONE.

The subject matter of the interference is defined in the preliminary
declaration thereof as follows:

The combination in one instrument of a transmitting telephone and a
receiving telephone, so arranged that when the mouthpiece of the
speaking or transmitting telephone is applied to the mouth of a person,
the orifice of the receiving telephone will be applied to his ear.

1. While it is true that the unsupported allegations of an inventor,
that he conceived an invention at a certain date, are not sufficient to
establish such fact, the testimony of a party that he constructed and
used a device at a certain time is admissible.

2. Abandonment is an ill-favored finding, which cannot be presumed, but
must be conclusively proven.

The decision of the Board of Examiners-in-Chief is reversed, and
priority awarded to Dickson.

* * * * *

CHARACTERISTICS OF ARCTIC WINTER.

Lieutenant Schwatka, whose recent return from a successful expedition in
search of the remains of Sir John Fanklin's ill-fated company, combats
the prevalent opinion that the Arctic winter, especially in the higher
latitudes, is a period of dreary darkness.

In latitude 83 deg. 20' 20" N., the highest point ever reached by man, there
are four hours and forty-two minutes of twilight on December 22, the
shortest day in the year, in the northern hemisphere. In latitude 82 deg.
27' N., the highest point where white men have wintered, there are six
hours and two minutes in the shortest day; and latitude 84 deg. 32' N., 172
geographical miles nearer the North Pole than Markham reached, and 328
geographical miles from that poi