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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 15, Issue 767, 7 March 1870, Page 3

JOUENEUX'S PATENT METHOD OE ELAX PREPARATION. (From the Wellington Independent, February 26.) As the publication of Journeux's patent for the preparation oi the phormium tenax has been very anxiously looked forward to for some time, we have taken the first opportunity to examine the documents and iiseertain the process for which the merit of original discovery is claimed by Mr Journeux, of Wainuiomata. We must confess to a feeling of great disappointment in reading the explanation those documents afford. With the exeption of a plan for utilising the gum after its ex traction from the phormium tenax leaf, we fail to see any tiling whatever original about it. Messrs Journeux's patent provide* for the preliminary bruising or scraping of the leaf by fluted rollers, and the leaves so bruised are then subjected to a fermentation in vats, into which steam is injected, the fermentation being hastened by the use of potato and sui(ar yeast, which every bush; housekeeper can make by rule of thumb. It is, in fact, the modified retting process patented by Mr Sehenck oi New York for treating the linum usitatissimum, with the adopition of the suggestions thrown out by the Jurors in their report on the New Zeaiand Exhibition, providing for the special requirements of the phormium tenax. This will be seen by a reference to the publication issued by the New Zealand Commissioners in 1861. At page 123 the detailed account of Scheuck's mollified retting' process is described, which is in some particulars a decided improvement on that part of Mr Journeux's process which provides for the steaming of the flax ; at page 432 it is stated that the preliminary process to fermentation of bruising the leaf is an absolute necessity; and at page 433 the suggestion to use yeast is made, and the result of an experiment given in which it was employed to promote fermentation. To Mr Journeux belongs the merit of discriminating between the different processes suggested at various times and by a happy arrangement of details he arrives at a definite result, and we have no wish to detract from any merit which may fairly belong to the patentee, who has probably been obliged to undertake divers experiments more or less costly before deciding on the adoption of his present plan. But it does appear to us to show some fault in the patent law that any individual shall be able to monopolise for his own especial benefit the suggestions made as the result of experiments conducted at the public cost, and to debar others from an intelligent use of the same materials. There is nothing indeed in Journeux's process which auy intelligent mechanic would not arrive at as the necessary conclusion as to the best means of cleaning the flax, after a careful perusal of the various experiments instituted by J)r Hector and his fellow-commissioners of the New Zealand Exhibition. Apropos of this matter, the administration of the. Patent Act appears to be faulty, in making no provision for access to the documents forming the application for a patent, until the letters patent have actually been issued.

Four months is allowed for objections ito be lodged against the claim of tie patentee. But four 3 ears or a single day would equally answer the purposed unless the intending patentee has aK lowed the details of hid supposed invention to transpire. No one cau ascertain what there is to object to, therefore there is not likely to be objectors. In this case we cannot but think that Mr Journeux's right to patent his process would have been challenged, and, we believe,successfully,had access been previ usly obtainable to those documents which are now before the public, covered by the protecting hand and seal of the Colonial Secretary.