IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAY CHAIRS AND THEIR FASTENINGS, THE LATTER BEING APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1861

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Featherstone Griffin at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st May 1861.
I, GEORGE FEATHERSTONE GRIFFIN, of New Adelphi Chambers, Adelphi, in
the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR CONSTRUCTION
OF RAILWAY CHAIRS AND THEIR FASTENINGS, THE LATTER BEING APPLICABLE TO
OTHER PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
To facilitate the taking up rails for turning, and to dispense with the use of
loose keys or wedges in fixing the rails in the chairs, I propose to construct
my chairs in two parts, one part in the form usually adopted, the other of a
separate jaw or piece of metal partially curved, which is made to press a piece
of recessed wood, leather, or other suitable material against the rail, as in a
vice, by means of a screw bolt with a wedge-shaped head, placed (previous to
the chair being fixed upon the sleeper) under and through a corresponding
wedge-shaped or tapered hole cast in both parts of the chair, and so adjusted
that by tightening the nut which secures the wedge bolt (the thread of which
projects above the side of the chair), the upper part or separate jaw slides
over the under part, and presses the wood against the rail. I effect the
same objects by the use of a curved-shaped piece of tempered steel (or of
wrought-iron made elastic), the heel whereof being fixed against a recess cast
on the chair, the upper part will be face! with wood (or other material), which

page_text: pressing against the side of the rail by means of a bolt passed up through the
piece of elastic metal from the under side of the chair, previous to its being
fixed upon the sleeper, and the required pressure being given by a nut screwed
down in the usual way. Again, I propose to cast the chair with two fixed jaws
sufficiently apart to admit of the easy removal of the rail, one jaw to be of
unusual strength, with a wedge-shaped horizontal opening, by introducing
when the rail is in position a loose piece of metal faced with recessed wood or
other substance, and having on the opposite side a wedge-shaped opening
corresponding in inclination with the wedge-shaped opening in the fixed jaw.
These openings are to be so adjusted, that by means of a wedge-shaped bolt
with a screw thread and.nut, any amount of pressure can be placed which may
be found desirable on the substance in contact with the rail. To lessen the
wear of the rails, and the noise and inconvenience arising from the contact of
-two-metallic surfaces, I propose partially to recess in the lower part of my
chairs a piece of wood, leather, or other suitable elastic or semi-clastic
material, more effectually to prevent the loosening of the parts. I make the
_bolts employed either with a cut through the thread of the bolt, or with a
narrow slot in it, and before putting on the nut, insert a metallic pin with a
head at one end (which may be fitted into a recess in the nut), the other end
being wedge-shaped, so that in screwing the nut such metallic pin will be
carried forward, and the wedged end either expands the end of the bolt, or is
forced between the bolt and the thread of the nut. My methods of preventing
nuts from loosening are applicable to fastenings of other kinds.