A NEW METHOD OF MAKING IRON RAILS TO BE USED IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAYS, WHICH WILL RENDER SUCH RAILWAYS MORE DURABLE, AND LESS LIABLE TO BE AFFECTED BY SUCH ACCIDENTS AS THOSE CONSTRUCTED WITH THE RAILS NOW IN USE
Year: 1817

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HAWKS, of Gateshead, in the County of Durham, Ironfounder, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fifth day of August,
in the fifty-seventh year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the
said John Hawks, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His special
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John Hawks,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, 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, my Invention of
"A NEW METHOD OF MAKING IRON RAILS TO BE USED IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF
RAILWAYS, WHICH WILL RENDER SUCH RAILWAYS MORE DURABLE, AND LESS LIABLE TO
BE AFFECTED BY SUCH ACCIDENTS AS THOSE CONSTRUCTED WITH THE RAILS NOW
IN USE;" in which Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said John Hawks, under my hand and scal, to cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation being
thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Hawks, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to be as
herein-after described and ascertained.

page_text: Railways have become of such general use that it is unnecessary to describe
them otherwise than by their general denomination. They all consist of rails
or bars of iron, connected or joined together, and supported in various manners;
but in whatever manner the rails are connected and supported, or of whatever
denomination the railway is, the present Invention is applicable, being
confined principally to the mode of making or constructing the rails or bars,
and the materials of which they are made. The rails or bars now in use are
made either of cast or malleable iron, and consequently, as to the cast iron,
liable to be broken and rendered useless, particularly in frosty weather, by
the most ordinary accidents, as every day's experience exemplifies; and as to
the malleable iron, liable to be bent and put out of form by the weight or
accidental jerks of the carriages passing along them, and it must be a matter
of no small importance to have rails not liable to be affected by such causes.
If rails or bars of this Invention are used they will almost render any repairs
of the railways of which they are formed unnecessary, at least as far as regards
the rails, as it will be next to impossible that they should be so affected by
any accident as to render them useless, or to require their being immediately
replaced, a consequence that will most materially injure the manufacturers.
Having premised thus much, I shall proceed to describe the nature of the
said Iuvention, which is as follows (that is to say) :-
Instead of making the rails or bars of cast or malleable iron as those now
in use are, they are a compound of malleable and cast iron, so connected as to
be stronger than if made of either kind alone. The surface is formed of cast
iron, and the back or under part of malleable iron, joined together, and
formed when the metal of the former is in a fluid state, and they become so
inseparable that the cast iron may be broken at the nearest possible distances,
indeed even inch by inch, which is scarcely possible to be occasioned by
accident, and the rail will remain sufficient for the purposes of the railway,
at least till it suits the convenience of the workmen to replace it, without
interruption to the concern in which the railway may be used; and as loss by
a broken rail of this Invention will be less than that of one in common use,
the expence, although it may be a little more in the first instance, will be
considerably less in the end, as the malleable iron may be used again, or as
the old iron will be of much more intrinsic value than the other. The modes
of combining cast and malleable iron together in the rails are various, but
that which I prefer as affording the best security for their being firmly affixed
together is by running the cast iron, when in a state of fusion, on the malleable
iron, to effect which the malleable part must first be forged, or otherwise
prepared in that form and of that strength which the nature of its intended

page_text: purpose or appropriation points out as most proper. Such part of it as is
intended should be immerged or adhered to the cast iron should, be rendered
rough and uneven by jogging, or by perforation, or by giving it a dovetail
form, or by any other means, so that the cast iron may affix and firmly
adhere thereto without the liability of becoming loose by jerks of the wheel,
or wheels occasioning vibration, &c. The malleable part must be clean, warm,
or at least perfectly dry when laid in the mould to receive the melted iron,
which should be poured in as soon as possible after the mould is ready to
receive it, as any damp on the malleable iron will endanger the soundness of
the cast iron part.
In witness whercof, I, the said John Hawks, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Third day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventeen.