The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-04 00:00:00

IMPROVED STEEL-BEADED RAIL.

The Scientific American states that it is generally
conceded by railway engineers that Bessemer steel
rails will wear about sixteen times as long as com-
mon iron rails. If such be the fact, it is a matter
of the utmost importance that railway companies
renew their roads with steel rails or steel-headed
rails as soon as those already in their tracts are worn
out. Some of the first engineers in the country
have expressed themselves in favour of steel
headed rails, provided the steel head could
be welded perfectly to the iron ; as in Ame-
rica the weather is so intensely cold in winter that
rails made entirely of steel are very liable to break.
It is well known to all that until quite recently
steel-headed rails have proved a failure, because it
is such a difficult matter to heat a rail pile composed
of iron and steel mcording to the usual mozltm of
piling ; as the iron requires about double the heat
to bring it to a welding state that steel does, con-
sequently either the iron is not heated sufficiently
to weld, or the steel is over-heated which destroys
its properties altogether : in either case the rail is
unfit for use. Generally the iron is not heated hot
enough to weld to the steel, and the result is that
in a few weeks the steel cap separates from the iron,
and the rail is rendered worthless.

S. L. Potter, Superintendent of the Wyandotte
Rolling Mills, claims to have discovered a plan by
which a pile can be made of iron and steel, and dis-
posed in such a manner that the iron will receive
twice as much heat in the furnace as the steel ; con-
sequently they are both brought up to a welding
heat at the same time, without injuring the pro-
perties of either, and a perfect weld is secured.
A section of the file about five inches by four
inches—having been previously rolled or hammered
from ingots seven or eight inches square—is intro-
duced into the side of an ordinary rail pile, and
charged into the furnace with the steel toward the
flue, thus protecting the steel with the iron from the
extreme heat. As it passes over the bridge from the
fire chamber, the heat passes through the iron to the
steel ; and it has been proven by actual experiment
that the two metals are brought up to a welding
heat at the same time time. The pile is then rolled
on edge, working the steel in the head. In the
first passages through the roughing rolls a portion
of the iron on either side of the steel is worked down
in the lower part of the head, allowing the steel to
form the head.

More than fifty different pieces of rails made after
this plan have been subjected to one hundred blows
from a two thousand-pound steam hammer, literally
crushing them, without impairing the weld in the
least degree. Some of these rails are now in the
track of the Michigan Southern and Northern In-
diana Railroad, Michigan Central Railroad, and
Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad, and have ihus far
given entire satisfaction. This plan is peculiarly
adapted to re-rolling, as the old rails can be rolled
into flat bars, then formed into a:pile of the iron
and steel. The old rails can at a very moderate
cost be converted into a steel-beaded rail, one-third
of which being steel, and two-thirds iron, that will
be as durable and much less liable to break in cold
weather than au entire steel rail. If it be preferred
a T-shaped piece of steel can be used instead of the
square piece, and the same result obtained.
This invention is patented in the United States,
England, France, Prussia, and Belgium.