IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS, AND IN BUCKLED PLATES TO BE USED THEREIN, THE SAME BEING APPLICABLE TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF FIRE-PROOF BUILDINGS, BRIDGES, AND OTHER LIKE STRUCTURES; ALSO IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING SUCH IMPROVED PLATES
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Mallet, of 11, Bridge Street, in the City of
Westminster, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS, AND IN BUCKLED PLATES TO BE USED THEREIN,
THE SAME BEING APPLICABLE TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF FIRE-PROOF BUILDINGS,
BRIDGES, AND OTHER LIKE STRUCTURES; ALSO IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS
FOR PRODUCING SUCH IMPROVED PLATES."
Sealed the 13th June 1865, and dated the 19th January 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Mallet, at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th
January 1865.
I, ROBERT MALLET,of 11, Bridge Street, in the City of Westminster, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS, AND IN BUCKLED PLATES TO BE USED THEREIN, THE
SAME BEING APPLICABLE TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF FIRE-PROOF BUILDINGS, BRIDGES
AND OTHER LIKE STRUCTURES; ALSO IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR
PRODUCING SUCH IMPROVED I LATES," to be as follows:-
The first part of this Invention consists in the application of buckled plates
of the ordinary or of the improved construction herein-after described, and of
any desired form or contour in plan, to the permanent way of railways for the
purpose of supporting the rails thereof, in conjunction or not with ordinaryor
other chairs, and with or without timber.

page_text: According to one mode of applying buckled plates to permanent ways
it is proposed to use buckled plates laid with their convex surface upon
the ballast, and in order to obtain elasticity to place a flat steel, or
iron, or other metallic plate across the buckled plate, so as to bridge across
or cover over partially or entirely the hollow portion thereof, and be firmly
united with the edges of the same. This bridge picce should be of a width
sufficient to receive the chair or rail foot, and may be made thicker at
the ends or edges and be there secured to the buckled plate by means of
rivets, bolts, or otherwise, or it may be made to clip the edges of the buckled
plate, a recess or notch being made in such edges to keep the bridge piece in
its place, or the width of the buckled plate may taper slightly and the clip
bridge piece be driven thereon from one end until it obtains a firm hold and
be there rivetted or bolted. Any ordinary chair may be bolted or otherwise
secured to the bridge piece, a cushion of wood, india-rubber, cork, felt, or
other suitable elastic or yielding material being interposed or not between the
chair and bridge piece. The intermediate chairs may be each carried by a
separate buckled plate, whilst the joint chairs are carried one on each end of
a thorough transverse buckled plate sleeper of an oblong form. Or the whole
of the sleepers may consist of oblong buckled plates laid transverselythorough
to the rails, and having a bridge piece at each end to carry the chairs. Or all
the chairs ray be carried on separate buckled plate sleepers and the joints of
the rails supported by fish plates. Fish chairs may be also applied at the
joint of the rails in combination with these arrangements. In this case the
buckled plates adjacent to the joints on opposite sides of the line of rails will
be connected by transverse tie rods, or otherwise. It is also proposed to use
continuous longitudinal sleepers, composed of oblong buckled plates, laid end
to end in combination or not, as preferred, with light longitudinal timber
sleepers, or with transverse bridge pieces or flat plates covering the whole or
parts of the upper or concave side of the buckled plate sleeper, and rivetted
or otherwise secured thereto for the purpose of carrying the rails or the chairs,
and with cross ties or their equivalents. Or timber sleepers may be combined
with buckled plate sleepers, situate at intervals, and when a flat-footed rail is
used it may be bolted direct on to the fillets of the buckled plate sleepers, or
any convenient form of chair may be bolted thereto to carry any other form of
rail with or without a cushion between, and with or without intermediate
bridge pieces. According to another modification it is proposed to form a
wrought-iron chair in one.piece with the bridge piece, which may be done by
rolling in long lengths, and then cutting the plate transversely into strips of
the proper width, and bending to the required form. This bridge piece may

page_text: be raised more or less in the middle, and may be of cast iron in one piece
with the chair. When using buckled plate sleepers laid with their convex
side downwards, a piece of wood may, if desired, be placed inside the hollow
or inverted arched portion which may or may not take the shape of more or
less of the interior or exterior of the buckled plate and serve as the immediate
support for the chairs or rail. In some cases the buckled plate sleepers may
be laid with their concave sides next the ballast, the rail or chair being
secured either to the centre of the plate itself or to a block of wood, or other
such material, fitted upon it or to a bridge piece which passes across the
buckled plate clear of the apex thereof, and is secured at its ends by rivets,
bolts, or otherwise, to the edges of the buckled plate. In lieu of securing the
bridge or covering plates to buckled plates, they may be secured upon or to
the edges of any other form of hollowed plates or frames, such that the bridge
or covering plates secured thereto, when exposed to transverse strain, shall be
prevented from descending beyond given limits of elasticity by the tension of
such bridges or covering plates rivetted upon two opposite edges, or upon all
parts of the edges or circumference of such hollowed plates or frames, and
which may be either polygonal or round in horizontal contour.
The second part of this Invention relates to certain peculiar constructions
or modifications of the forms of " buckled plates " to be used in the permanent
way of railways, or for other purposes, and consists in making the curved or
arched portion of such plates of variable eccentricity, as for example, a para-
bolic or hyperbolic curve in lieu of the arc of a circle. Or in place of obtain-
ing the arched principle of the buckled plate by any continuous curve it may
be composed of several flat faces meeting at any desired obtuse angles, so as
to form a pyramid, truncated pyramid, or series of facets meeting at different
obtuse angles, whether such angles be brought up sharp or rounded off, and
whether such plates be formed in one piece or composed of several separate
plates, and perforated or not. These improved buckled plates may be pro-
duced from plates specially rolled or otherwise manufactured for the purpose,
or they may be cast so as in either case to have fillets formed upon their
opposite edges, or all round the same, such fillets being of greater thickness
than the rest of the plate, and being made to project either on the convex or
concave side of the plate; or the increased thickness of the fillets may
gradually taper off into the reduced thickness of the rest of the plate; or one
or more of the edges of the plates may be turned in the process of manu-
facture either up or down, at a right angle or other convenient angle with
the plate itself, such edges being welded or otherwise united together, or'not
at the corners, and made either of the same or of a greater thickness than the

page_text: rest of the plate. It is further proposed, under this bead of the Invention,
to unite two buckled plates of the improved construction, so that their hollow
faces shall be parallel or opposed to each other by having trough or other
shaped iron rivetted or otherwise secured between the sides of the two plates
near their edges, the inner portions of the two plates being connected together
but kept at a convenient distance as under by means of studs and rivets or
bolts placed at intervals. The intervening space between the plates may be
filled in with sand, cement, or other solid matter, or with a liquid, the studs
and rivets in such cases being dispensed with, or not, as preferred. Or in lieu
of uniting together two buckled plates, one buckled plate of the ordinary or
of the improved construction may be united by rivets or otherwise to a flat
plate, a trough or other shaped iron being interposed or not, as preferred,
between the sides of the two plates near their edges. The buckled plates
herein-before referred to may be made of any desired form or contour in plan,
and the buckled plate, whether of the ordinary or of whatever description,
may be corrugated in any desired direction. These several buckled plates
may be applied to the various uses for which ordinary buckled plates lave
hitherto been employed or are applicable.
The third part of this Invention relates to the means employed for the
manufacture of buckled and other hollowed plates for the permanent way of
railways, and for other purposes, and consists in the use of dies, one of which
is made of a softer and more flexible metal than the other, and is formed by
casting it against the face of the harder die, which may be of iron, cast iron,
or steel, or against a counterpart of the same. The moveable die, however
formed, may be actuated by the direct action of steam or of compressed air or
of a vacuum. The plates after being struck or pressed may be sheared at the
edges in an accurate manner to any rectangular or polygonal form desired by
a shearing machine in which the plate is held fixed upon a table or support
revolving upon a vertical axis and combining the principle of the dividing
engine with the shears.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Mallet in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
19th July 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 1, ROBERT
MALLET, of 11, Bridge Street, in the City of Westminster, Engineer, send 3
greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Robert Mallet, Her special license that I, the said Robert Mallet,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, thesaid Robert
Mallet, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PER-
MANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS, AND IN BUCKLED 'PLATES TO BE USED THEREIN, THE SAME
BRING APPLICABLE TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF FIRE-PROOF BUILDINGS BRIDGES, AND
OTHER LIKE STRUCTURES; ALBO IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING
SUCH IMPROVED PLATES," upon the condition (amongst others) that 1, the said
Robert Mallet, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, or under the hand and seal of one of them, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and im-
mediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Mallet, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the föl-
lowing statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to
the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
My said Invention consists, firstly, in the application of buckled plates of
the ordinary or of the improved construction herein-after described, and of
any desired form or contour in plan, to the permanent way of railways, for
the purpose of supporting the rails thereof, in conjunction or not with ordinary
or other chairs, and with or without timber. The essential property of the
construction of hollow or other support for the chairs or rails being according
to my Invention, that the vertical pressure and transverse strains upon the
immediate support of the chairs or rails shall be resolved into longitudinal
strains of extension and of compression in the material of the buckled or
hollow plate or covering plate beneath, and so an elastic support with a
minimum weight of material in the supports is obtained.
According to one mode of applying buckled plates to permanent ways of rail-
ways, it is proposed to use buckled plates a, shewn in sectional elevation and

page_text: plan respectively at Figures 1 and 2 of the annexed Sheet of explanatory
Drawings, laid with their convex surface upon the ballast ; and inorder to obtain
the requisite amount of elasticity, I place a flat steel or iron or other metallic
plate b across the buckled plate a, so as to bridge across or cover over partially
or entirely the hollow portion thereof, and be firmly united with the edges of the
same. This bridge piece or coverb may be raised or hollow, if desired, in lieu of
being flat, as shewn at Figure 1, and should be of a width sufficient to receive
the chair or rail foot, and may be made thicker at the ends or edges, and be
there secured to the buckled plate by means of rivets, bolts, or otherwise, or
it may be made to clip the edges of the buckled plate, as shown at Figures
3, 4, 5, and 6, a recess or notch being made in such edges to keep the bridge
piece in its place, or the width of the buckled plate may taper slightly as in
Figure 3, and the clip bridge piece b be driven thereon from one end until it
obtains a firm hold, and be there rivetted or bolted. Any ordinary chair may
be bolted or otherwise secured to the bridge piece, a cushion c of wood, india-
rubber, cork, felt, or other suitable elastic or yielding material being inter-
posed, if desired, between the chair and bridge piece, as represented in
Figures 7, 8, and 9. The intermediate chairs may be each carried by a
separate buckled plate A, as shewn in the Diagram plans, Figures 10 and 11
whilst the joint chairs are carried one on each end of a thorough transverse
buckled plate sleeper Bof an oblong form; or the whole of the sleepers may con-
sist of oblong buckled plates B (see Diagram plan, Figure 12) laid transversely
thorough to the rails, and having a bridge piece fitted thereon in the manner
herein-before described at each end to carry the cbairs. Or all the chairs
may be carried on separate buckled plate sleepers, and the points of the rails
supported by fish plates, as shewn in Figure 2. Fish chairs or fish plates d
may be also applied at the joint of the rails in combination with the said
arrangements, as shown at Figures 9 and 13. When fish plates are used
between the chairs the buckled plates adjacent to the joints on opposite sides
of the line of rails will be connected by transverse tie rods e, as shown at
Figure 2, or otherwis". I also propose to use continuous longitudinal sleepers
composed of oblong buckled plates a (Figure 14) laid end to end, in combina-
tion or not, as preferred, with light longitudinal timber sleepers f, in the
manner shown at Figures 15 and 16, or with transverse bridge pieces 6 (shown
in sectional elevation and plan at Figures 17 and 18) or with flat plates cover-
ing the whole or parts of the upper or concave side of the buckled plate sleeper,
and rivetted or otherwise secured thereto, for the purpose of carrying the
rails or the chairs, and with cross ties or their equivalents. Or timber sleepers
may be combined with buckled plate sleepers situate at intervals, and when a

page_text: flat-footed rail is used it may be either bolted directly on to the fillets of the
buckled plate sleepers, or it may be bolted to an elastic cover plate or bridge
piece (Figure 19), or any convenient form of chair may be bolted thereto to
carry any other form of rail, with or without a cushion between, and with or
without intermediate bridge pieces.
According to another modification, I propose to form a wrought-iron
chair g in one piece, or partly in one piece, with the bridge piece b (see
Figures 17 and 18), which may be done by rolling in long lengths, and then
cutting the plate transversely into strips of the proper width, and bending to
the required form. This bridge piece may be raised more or less in the
middle, as shewn in the Drawing, or inay be cast in one piece with the chair
if preferred. At Figures 20 and 21 a sectional elevation and plan are given
of a modified arrangement wherein the rail is suspended by its upper flange
from the turned-up lips or flanges h, h, formed on the contiguous edges oftwo
semicircular dished cover plates 61, 61, rivetted or otherwise secured to the
fillets of the buckled plate a, the rail being secured by bolts passing through
it and through the flanges h, h. When using buckled plate sleepers laid with
their convex side downwards, a piece of wood i (Figure 13) may, if desired,
be placed inside the hollow or inverted arched portion, which may or may
not take the shape of more or less of the interior or exterior of the buckled
plate, and serve as the immediate support for the chairs or rail. In some
cases the buckled plate sleepers may be laid with their concave sides next the
ballast, the rail or chair being secured either to the centre of the plate itself
or to a block of wood or other such material fitted upon it, or to a bridge
piece which passes across the buckled plate clear of the apex thereof, and is
secured at its ends by rivets, bolts, or otherwise to the edges of the buckled
plate. The rivets, bolts, or other fastenings of the chairs to the buckled
plates may be got at through holes made for that purpose in the buckled plates
or covering plates, either above or below. Figures 22 and 22ª represent two
buckled plates rivetted together at their fillets, and having their concave or
hollow surfaces opposed to each other. In lieu of securing the bridge or
covering plates to buckled plates, they may be secured upon or to the edges
of any other form of hollowed plates or frames a', either open or not at the
bottom, as is shewn by Figures 23, 24, and 25, such that the bridge or
covering plates secured thereto, when exposed to transverse strain, shall be
prevented from descending beyond given limits of elasticity by the tension of
such bridges or covering plates exerted upon two opposite edges, or upon all
parts of the edges or circumferences of such hollowed plates or frames, aud
which may be either polygonal or round in horizontal contour.

page_text: The second part of my Invention relates to certain peculiar constructions or
modifications of the forms of "buckled plates "to be used in the permanent
way of railways, or applied to other purposes, and consists in making the
curved or arched portion of such plates of variable eccentricity, as for example,
using a parabolic or hyperbolic curve in lieu of the arc of a circle as shown by
the sectional Diagrams, Figures 26, 27, and 28; or in place of obtaining the
arched principle of the buckled plate by any continuous curve, it may be
composed of several flat faces, meeting at any desired obtuse angles so as to
form a pyramid, truncated pyramid, or series of facets meeting at different
obtuse angles, as shewn at Figures 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, and 34, whether such
angles be brought up sharp or rounded off, and whether such plates be formed
in one piece or composed of several separate plates, and perforated, or not, as
represented by Figures 35 and 36. I lay no claim, however, to plates formed
of several flat plates rivetted or otherwise fastened together into one concave
plate or frustrum of a pyramid, when such plates are laid horizontally and
employed with the concave side placed upwards. These improved buckled
plates may be produced from plates specially rolled or otherwise manufactured
for the purpose, or they may be cast so as in either case to have fillets formed
upon their opposite edges or all round the same, such fillets being of greater
thickness than the rest of the plate, and this extra thickness being made to
project either on the convex or concave side of the plate (see Figures 27,
28, 37, and 38), or the increased thickness of the fillets may gradually taper
off into the reduced thickness of the rest of the plate, or one or more of the
edges of the plates may be turned in the process of manufacture, either up or
down, at a right angle or other convenient angle with the plate itself (see
Figures 39 and 40), such edges being welded or otherwise united together or
not at the corners, and made either of the same or of a greater thickness
than the rest of the plate. In lieu of uniting together directly two buckled
plates, oue buckled plate of the ordinary or of the improved construction may
be united by rivets or otherwise to a flat plate by interposing a trough or
other suitably shaped iron between the sides of the two plates near their edges,
such arrangement being applicable to railway sleepers or employed for other
purposes. The buckled plates herein-before referred to may be made of any
desired form or contour in plan, and the buckled plate, whether of the
ordinary or of whatever description, may be corrugated in any desired direc-
tion. These several buckled plates may be applied to the various uses
for which ordinary buckled plates have hitherto been employed or are
applicable.
The third part of my Invention relates to the means employed for the

page_text: manufacture of buckled and other hollowed plates for the permanent way of
railways and for other purposes, and consists in the use of dies, one of which
is made of a softer and more ductile metal than the other, and is formed by
casting it against the face of the harder die, which may be of iron, cast-iron,
or steel, or against a counterpart of the same, or by casting or making it by
other modes. The moveable die, however formed, may be actuated by the
direct action of steam or of compressed air, or of a vacuum, or by hydraulic
pressure; or in lieu of using an upper die an open frame may be employed of
a size and shape conforming to the fillet or flat edge of the buckled plate to
be produced, such frame being worked in the manner herein-before described
with reference to the upper die. The plates after being struck or pressed may
be sheared at the edges in an accurate manner to any rectangular or polygonal
form desired by a shearing machine, in which the plate is held fixed upon a
table or support, revolving upon a vertical axis and combining the principle
of the dividing engine' with the shears.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into
effect, I would observe in conclusion, that what I consider to be novel and
original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent is,
First, the application of buckled plates to the supporting of the rails of the
permanent way of railways, whether as isolated sleepers or as transverse or
longitudinal sleepers, substantially in the manner herein-before described and
illustrated by my Drawings.
Second, the combination with buckled plates of yielding or elastic covers or
bridge pieces upon which the rails are secured either directly or through the
intervention of chairs, with or without cushions or light timber sleepers between
the rail foot or chair base and the elastic cover or bridge.
Third, the forming of the chair in one piece with the elastic cover or bridge
piece of the buckled plate sleeper.
Fourth, the combination of elastic covers or bridge pieces with open frames
or hollowed plates so as to give the requisite elastic bearing to the rails of
permanent ways, substantially as herein-before described.
Fifth, the making the curved or arched portion of buckled plates of any
curve of variable eccentricity,such as a parabolic or hyperbolic curve in place
of the arc of a circle.
Sixth, the construction of buckled plates by the combining in one plate of
several flat faces meeting at any desired obtuse angles and forming pyramids,

page_text: truncated pyramids, or series of facets meeting at obtuse angles, as herein-
before described.
Seventh, the manufacture of buckled plates of the improved forms herein-
before described by rivetting or otherwise combining together any number of
separate flat or slightly curved plates.
Eighth, the application and use of ductile or soft metal dies in combination
with hard metal dies or open frames in the bending or striking up of buckled
or other hollów plates, substantially as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Mallet, have to this my Speci-
fication set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of July, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five...