IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAY SLEEPERS, TANKS AND OTHER VESSELS, BRIDGES, FLOORS, DRAINS, AND OTHER STRUCTURES, REQUIRING STRENGTH AND STABILITY
Year: 1883

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Imray of N° 28 Southampton Buildings, Chancery
Lane in the County of Middlesex for an Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAY SLEEPERS, TANKS AND OTHER VESSELS,
BRIDGES, FLOORS, DRAINS, AND OTHER STRUCTURES, REQUIRING STRENGTH
AND STABILITY communicated to him from abroad by Joseph Monier of
Paris in the French Republic.
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Imray at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 7th July 1883.
'
JOHN IMRAY of N° 28 Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAY 'SLEEPERS,
TANKS AND OTHER VESSELS, BRIDGES, FLOORS, DRAINS AND OTHER STRUCTURES
REQUIRING STRENGTH AND STABILITY" [communicated to him from abroad by
Joseph Monier of Paris in the French Republic.]
The object of this invention is a cheap and strong construction for railway
sleepers, tanks and other vessels, bridges, floors, drains and other structures
requiring strength and stability. For this purpose, bars or rods of iron or steel are
interlaced with one another or bound together with wire, so as to form a basket
work approximately of the shape required for the structure, and the whole is
covered with cement filling in all the interstices and covering all the bars. For a
railway sleeper the basket work consists of longitudinal rods bound to transverso
rings which in some parts of the length may be circular, but which, at the parts
where the rails are intended to bed, are widened out so as to give greater breadth
of base. The basket work may also be made to present a section of the form of a
horse shoe. Tanks or vessels, rectangular or cylindrical, are formed by a basket
work consisting of upright bars crossed by horizontal bars or rings, and a similar
construction is used for drains or other channels. For arches, the basket work
consists of longitudinal bars, some or all of which may be of arched form, with
cross bars wired to them; and for floors the basket work is made to extend from
girder to girder. In all cases, after the bars are well secured together by wires
bound round them at their crossings, all their interstices are filled in with cement,
which is put on so as to form a thick coating covering all the metal, which it
protects against oxidation, while it gives strength and stability to the structure.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said John, Imray in the Patent Office on the 7th January 1884.
JOHN IMRAY of N° 28 Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane in the county
of Middlesex "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAY SLEEPERS
TANKS AND OTHER VESSELS, BRIDGES, FLOORS, DRAINS AND OTHER STRUCTURES
REQUIRING STRENGTH AND STABILITY. A communication to me from abroad by
Joseph Monier of Paris in the French Republic.
The object of this invention is a cheap and strong construction for railway
sleepers, tanks and other vessels, bridges, floors, drains and other structures
requiring strength and stability. For this purpose, bars or rods of iron or steel,
are interlaced with one another, or bound together with wire, so as to form a basket
,work approximately of the shape required for the structure, and the whole is
covered with cement filling in all the interstices and covering all the bars. For a
railway sleeper, the basket work consists of longitudinal rods bound to transverse
rings which in some parts of the length may be circular, but which, at the parts
where the rails are intended to bed, are widened out, so as to give greater breadth
of base. The basket-work may also be made to present a section of the form of a
horse shoe. Tanks or vessels rectangular or cylindrical, are formed by a basket-
work consisting of upright bars crossed by horizontal bars or rings; and a similar
_construction is used for drains or other channels. For arches, the basket work
-consists of longitudinal bars, some or all of which may be of arched form, with
cross bars wired to them; and for floors, the basket work is made to extend from
girder to girder. In all cases, after the bars are well secured together by wires
bound round them at their crossings, all their interstices are filled in with
cement, which is put on so as to form a thick coating covering all the metal,
which it protects against oxidation, whilst it gives strength and stability to the
structure.
The accompanying drawings represent examples of construction, such as is
described above, applied to various objects. Fig. 1 is a plan of a railway sleeper,
Fig 2, a section on M N, Fig. 3 a section on PQ, and fig. 4 is a view of the end.
The ends and middle are round or oval, and the parts under the rails are widened
out so as to give broad bases. The framing consists of rings a and longitudinal
wires or rods bound to the rings by wirings C. Besides, these parts, a strong
hoop d is coiled helically along the framing. Where the rails bed, there are
plates e supported by internal framings f. The skeleton having been completed,
it is filled in and covered with cement, presenting an even exterior, as shewn at
the right end of fig. 1. Another form of sleeper is shewn in plan at fig. 5 and in
transverse section at fig 6, shewn to an enlarged scale at fig. 7. In this construc-
tion, curved rods h, secured to longitudinal bars i, and longitudinal rods g are wired
together and the skeleton is filled in and covered with cement. Fig 8 shews the
construction of an open tank or trough, the framing chiefly consisting of bars which
cross each other at the bottom and turn up at the ends and sides, where they are
crossed by bars j, to a rail with a rounded top A shewn to an enlarged scale at
fig. 9, to which they are secured by wire ties m passing through holes drilled or
punched through the rail. Fig. 10 shews the construction of a pail or tub, framed
with upright rods n and rings o secured together by wires p. The vertical rods.
may have their tops rivetted into a ring q, as shewn in fig. 11. Tanks or vats,
round as in fig. 12, or rectangular, as in fig 15 are made in a similar way with.
vertical rods P and horizontal rings or rectangles r wired together, the rods p being
secured at the top by wiring to a flange B, as shewn in figs. 13 and 14. The
bottom and bottom angle may be strengthened by additional rods s, the ends of

page_text: which turn a little up the sides. Figs. 16 and 17 shew the construction of a drain
pipe or sewer framed with longitudinal bars wired to rings t having the shape
desired for the section of the pipe or sewer. Panels, ceilings, floors, partitions and
the like may be made in a similar manner as shewn in fig. 18. For arches or
girders, the construction is as shewn in the longitudinal and transverse sections
figs 19 and 20, figs 21 and 22, and figs 23 and 24. A bar B is bent to and fro on
itself to the desired form, and its lengths are interlaced by rods v.
Wires x are
coiled round the bar B tying on the longitudinal rods y. Figs, 25, 26 and 27 shew,
the construction of a floor consisting of girders S with transverse and longitudinal
bars C and D above, and a and b below, wired together. For supporting consider-
able loads, the structure may be strengthened, as shewn in figs 28, 29 and 30, by
introducing arched bars E with longitudinal bars e¹ wired to them. And the
arched bars E may be tied to the upper bars D, as shewn in figs. 31 and 32.
For light loads the framing may be single, as shewn in figs. 33 and 34, for a flat
ceiling, and in figs 35 and 36 for an arched ceiling. The wires or rods employed
in the various constructions may be round or square, or of other convenient
sections, and the cement used may be more or less mixed with lime, sand, iron
oxides or other ingredients.
Having thus described the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent,
I claim :-
Constructing railway sleepers, tanks and other vessels, bridges, floors, drains and
other structures by wiring together longitudinal and transverse rods or wires, so
as to form a skeleton which is filled in and covered with cement, substantially as
herein described.
In Witness whereof I the said John Imray have hereunto set my hand and seal
this Seventh day of January, in the year of our Lord, one thousand, eight hundred
and eighty four.
JOHN IMRAY (L.S.)