The next morning I was received by Mr. Fowler, the accomplished chief examiner in the class of steam-engines, with his usual extreme courtesy. He told me that he felt very sorry at finding himself obliged to reject my application, but the very precedents cited in the application itself left him no alternative. “However,” he added, “if you have anything new to present I shall be most happy to receive it.” In reply I handed to him the specification which had already done duty so ineffectively with the expert and in which I had not changed a syllable. He read it through with fixed attention, and the instant he finished he exclaimed: “Why, Mr. Porter, it is perfectly obvious that you are entitled to this reissue, and the cases cited in the application have nothing to do with it; but why was not this presented to me in the first place?” I told him I had prepared it for that purpose and placed it in the hands of the expert, who, after reading it, returned it to me, saying it would be of no use to him. Mr. Fowler instantly asked me if I had prepared any claims. I told him I had, because I could not get any one to prepare them for me; but it was a new business to me, and I had asked the advice of the expert about them, who, after reading them, returned them to me without any suggestion, merely remarking: “If you get these allowed you will be doing very well.” The moment Mr. Fowler glanced at them he exclaimed: “Oh, Mr. Porter, we cannot allow any such claims as these; they are functional claims, which the Patent Office never allows.” Then, evidently seeing my helpless condition in the hands of a traitor, he instantly added: “I shall be occupied this morning, but if you will call at three o’clock I will have two claims prepared for you which will be allowed.” So the expert had let me go to Washington with claims that he knew could not be allowed, and sure that my errand would be fruitless. But he did not imagine that the examiner would see through his treachery and thwart it. At three o’clock our interview was brief; as I entered Mr. Fowler’s room he handed me a paper, saying: “These have been allowed; you will receive the reissue in the course of three or four days, and it will appear in next week’s _Gazette_. Good afternoon.”