IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILS FOR STREET RAILROADS
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Sidney Alexander Beers, of the City of Brooklyn,
in the State of New York, United States of America, Civil Engineer,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILS FOR STREET RAILROADS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Sidney Alexander Beers
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
7th May 1861.
I, SIDNEY ALEXANDER BEERS, of the City of Brooklyn, in the State of
New York, United States of America, Civil Engineer, do, hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILS FOR STREET
RAILROADS." to be as follows:-
Figs. 1, 2, 3, & 4 of the Drawings heerunto annexed represent cross sections
of so many different forms of rails for street railways, and which will be more
particularly described and represented in the Final Specification contem-
plated by this preliminary proceeding claiming, however, the exclusive right
to manufacture from rolled iron the rail described by Fig. 2. Fig. 3, which
is supported in chairs at intervals, may be of wrought or cast iron, while
Figs. 1 & 4 are necessarily confined to cast iron.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Sidney Alexander Beers in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 5th November 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SIDNEY
ALEXANDER BEERS, of the City of Brooklyn, in the State of New York, United
States of America, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Sidney Alexander Beers, Her special licence that I, the said Sidney
Alexander Beers, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Sidney Alexander Beers, my executors, administrators, and
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 BAILS FOR STREET RAILLOADS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Sidney Alexander Beers, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,
or one of their hands and seals, 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 immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent: .
.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Sidney Alexander Beers, 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
following statement:-
My Invention relates to the form and manufacture of rails adapted to street
or common road railways, and consists in the particular form and, manu-
facture of such rails, and in the method of securing the joints, and laying the
track.
Figure 1 represents a transverse section of an iron rail. a is the head or
principal surface; p, a groove to receive the flanch of the car wheel; b, a tram
or surface for the use or accommodation of a common carriage wheel; c, a
projection to guide the waggon wheel and support the pavement; d, the body

page_text: of the rail; e, the base; f, f, cleets or duffs cast upon the rail at and along
each end to receive a wedge g, the upper duffs converging so as to fit the
draft of the wedge; g a transverse section of the wedge when driven into
position.
Figure 2 represents a transverse section of a rail in wrought or rolled iron,
with a car and carriage track a in combination with a vertical web and hori-
zontal base.
Figure 3 represents a transverse section of a rail a, in cast or wrought iron,.
with a surface similar to Figure 1, and with a vertical web to fit into an iron
chair b, b, b, such chair to be used at the joints and at intervals along the
length of the rails, and spiked to cross ties.
Figure 4 represents a transverse section of a box or hollow rail adapted to
street or common road railways. Letter a, the head or principal surface;.
letter p, a groove to receive the flanch of the car wheel; letter b, a tram or
surface to accommodate a common waggon wheel; letter c, a projection to
guide the waggon wheel, and support the pavement; letters d, d, vertical sides
of such depth as to give strength to the rail; letters e, e, cleets or duffs cast
upon the sides of the rail at and along the ends of the rail to receive a wedge f,
as represented in Figure 1; letter h, a strap or bar across the bottom of the
rail at each end, to secure and strengthen the vertical sides, and projecting
beyond the sides to receive the head of the spike g, by which the same is
secured to the tie on which it rests.
In laying the rails above described, no longitudinal string piece is used, but
the rail is spiked to cross ties placed at distances of about six feet apart, or,
when preferred, I place the rails upon thin plates of iron or tile at the joints
and tamp the earth up firmly under the base the whole length of the rail, and
hold them in gauge by iron rods at suitable distances.
Having described the nature of my Invention, and. the method of applying
it to practice, I declare that what I claim as my Invention, and desire to
secure by Letters Patent, is as follows:-
First, the manufacture and use of rails for street railway of such surface,
form, and manner of fastening, as represented by Figure 1 in combination.
Second, the manufacture and use of an upright self-sustaining rail, as
represented by Figure 2, in wrought or rolled iron.
Third, the manufacture and use of a street rail of the form represented by
Figure 3, in wrought or cast iron.
Fourth, the manufacture and use of a box rail, as represented by Figure 4,
forming a car and carriage track, in combination with sides of such depth as

page_text: to give the desired strength without the necessity of a longitudinal string piece
of timber.
In witness whereof, I, the said Sidney Alexander Beers, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
SIDNEY ALEXANDER BEERS. (L.S.)