Accordingly there is no
fundamental or indispensable portion of an acetylene apparatus which
lends itself to the protection of the patent laws; and even the details
(it may be said truthfully, if somewhat cynically) stand in patentability
in inverse ratio to their simplicity and utility.
During the early part of 1901 a Committee appointed by the British Home
Office, "to advise as to the conditions of safety to which acetylene
generators should conform, and to carry out tests of generators in the
market in order to ascertain how far those conform with such conditions,"
issued a circular to the trade suggesting that apparatus should be sent
them for examination. In response, forty-six British generators were
submitted for trial, and were examined in a fashion which somewhat
exceeded the instructions given to the Committee, who finally reported to
the Explosives Department of the Home Office in a Blue Book, No. Cd. 952,
which can be purchased through any bookseller. This report comprises an
appendix in which most of the apparatus are illustrated, and it includes
the result of the particular test which the Committee decided to apply.
Qualitatively the test was useful, as it was identical in all instances,
and only lacks full utility inasmuch as the trustworthiness of the
automatic mechanism applied to such generators as were intended to work
on the automatic system was not estimated.
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