ar to electric motors and other claims for
mechanism common to electric motors and other kinds of motors, the
claims for the electric motor would control the classification.

(D) PROCEDURE IN RECLASSIFYING WITHIN EXAMINING DIVISIONS.

(1) Do not start to make a new class or revise an old one with
preconceived fixed notions respecting its scope and the particular
subdivisions required. Wait until all patents pertinent to the subject
have been seen and adequate knowledge of them acquired. In other words,
make no _a priori_ classification but discover and assemble all the
facts and from them make your inductions. Then the common
characteristics of the subject-matter of the class may be intelligently
defined, the limitations of the class marked out, and its relation to
other classes set forth. Bear in mind that the Patent Office
classification deals with the subject-matter of the useful arts rather
than merely with existing classes, and that it is not therefore
essential to retain classes that are found to be composed of unrelated
or too distantly related units.

Assuming that the work of reclassification is undertaken by examiners
who are already experienced in the subject-matter to be classified,
procedure as follows is recommended:

(2) Utilizing your previously acquired knowledge of the patents in the
class you are about to revise, subdivide the existing subclasses into
bundles, so as to assemble in each bundle those patents deemed to have
the closest resemblance to each other. For the purpose of this
assemblage, consider each patent as an entirety and not with reference
to various more or less important parts of that entirety.

Example: An apparatus comprising in alleged combination a
means for decanting water, a means for electrolytically
depositing impurities, and a means for filtering the water,
should not be classified either as a decanter, an
electrolytic apparatus, or a filter, but should be
classified as a combination apparatus (taking it to the
general art of liquid purification). So also the
combination of a rotary printing-press with a folding
mechanism, and a wrapping mechanism, should not be
classified merely as a rotary printing-press, a folding
machine, or a wrapping machine, but should be classified as
a combination of the several mechanisms as an entirety
whose functions carried out in proper order produce a
printed and wrapped newspaper.

(3) W