IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS
Year: 1851

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOSEPH
ROBINSON, of Ebbw Vale Iron Company, CHARLES MAY, of Great George
Street, Westminster, Engineer, and WILLIAM THOMAS DOYNB, of Euston
Square Station, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fourth day of
November (One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, in the fifteenth year
of Iler reign, did, for Herself, IIer heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said Joseph Robinson, Charles May, and William Thomas Doyne, our
exors, adñiors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that we, the said Joseph Robinson, Charles May, and William
Thomas Doyne, our exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as we, the
said Joseph Robinson, Charles May, and William Thomas Doyne, our exors,
adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained
a proviso that we, the said Joseph Robinson, Charles May, and William
Thomas Doyne, shall cause a particular description of the nature of our said
Juvention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument

page_text: in writing under our bands and seals, or under the hand and seal of some or
one of us, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto
had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Joseph Robinson, Charles May, and William Thomas Doyne, do hereby
declare that the nature of our said Invention, and the manner in which the
same is to be performed, are fully described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto
annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say:
Our Invention consists of improvements in obtaining continuous bearing
to the under surfaces of the rails on plates of wrought iron, fixed on either
side of the rails. And in order that our Invention may be most fully under-
stood and readily carried into effect, we will proceed to describe the means
pursued by us.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 show several sections of rails supported by
wrought-iron plates of angle iron suitably formed to be fastened on either
side of a rail, so as to offer a continuous bearing to the under parts of the
rail; and the side bearing plates are, in laying down a railway, to be laid on
either side of the rail, so as to break joint with each other, that is, that the joints
on each side may not come opposite to each other. The forms of the side or
bearing plates may be varied, as will be seen by reference to the Drawing,
where different forms of plates are used in each case, and they may be still
further varied without departing from our Invention, so long as the peculiar
character common to them all is retained; and this peculiarity is that the
longitudinal supporting plates offer a longitudinal support to the under parts
of the rail, as is indicated in each case by a, a. And we would state, that the
modes of fixing the plates to the rails, and to each other, may be varied
without departing from our Invention. In Figures 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7, the
bearing parts a, a, are similar and come at the very bottom of the rails, whilst
the rails are held between the plates on either side. In Figure 5 the rail is
notched at a, a, so that the bearing plates may come under such parts a, a,
and thus support the rail longitudinally; and in Figure 4 a trough rail is used,
the longitudinal bearing a being composed of the two side or bearing plates
coming within and resting under the lower parts of therail, as shown at
a, a, a, a, all which will readily be traced on examining the Drawing.

page_text: Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, we would have it understood that what we claim is,
the mode of constructing the permanent ways of railways, by combining with
the rails bearings in the form of wrought-iron plates, offering longitudinal
supports a, a, as shewn and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles May, have hereunto set my hand