IMPROVEMENTS IN CHAIRS FOR RAILWAYS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Shae Perring, of Radcliffe, in the County of
Lancaster, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CHAIRS
FOR RAILWAYS."
Sealed the 21st October 1856, and dated the 23rd April 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Shae Perring at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd April 1856.
I, the said JOHN SHAE PERRING, of Radcliffe, in the County of Lancaster,
Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN CHAIRS FOR RAILWAYS, to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in the application to railway chairs of a wedge or
key acting by its own gravity. To effect this I construct one side or cheek of
.the.chair so as to fit the rail in the usual manner, the other side thereof acts
as a stop at bottom, and is then carried upward at an angle which I prefer
should not be less than seventy degrees with the horizon. Within the space
formed by this angle I apply a loose piece of metal, one side of which rests
therefore upon an inclined plane, and acting thereon by its own gravity presses
by the other side against the face of the rail, so as to keep it in contact with
the opposite cheek of the chair. In the case of a joint chair I cast it of
sufficient length and of suitable form to use two or more pieces of loose metal,
acting as above described.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Shae Perring in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
22nd October 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
SHAE PERRING, of Radcliffe, in the County of Lancaster, Civil Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Shae Perring, Her expecial licence that I, the said John Shae
Perring, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said John Shae Perring, 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 CHAIRS FOR RAILWAYS," upon the condition, amongst others, that I, the
said John Shae Perring, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
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 John Shae Perring, 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 and accompanying Drawings (that is to say):-
My Invention consists in the application to railway chairs of a wedge or
key acting by its own gravity. To effect this I construct one side or cheek of
the chair so as to fit the rail in the usual manner, the other side thereof acts
as a stop at bottom, and is then carried upward at an angle which I prefer
should be not less than seventy degrees with the horizon. Within the space
formed by this angle I apply a loose piece of metal, one side of which rests
therefore upon an inclined plane, and acting thereon by its own gravity presses
by the other side against the face of the rail, so as to keep it in contact with
the opposite cheek of the chair. In the case of a joint chair I cast it of
sufficient length and of suitable form to use two or more pieces of loose metal,
acting as above described.

page_text: The accompanying Drawing represents the section of a chair and rail so
constructed, in which a is the cheek, formed so as to correspond to a portion
of the rail b, which at its lower end and opposite side is situate against the
bottom of the other cheek, as at c, from whence the said cheek arises at an
angle to the point *. Within the space included by this angle is placed a
loose wedge or key d, provided with flanges, which project over the sides of
the cheek so as to prevent lateral movement. In order to apply this wedge
or key the rail is placed as shewn in the Drawing, and it is then introduced
between the points c* and 6*.
By this arrangement it will be observed that the rail is prevented from
rising by the ordinary cheek a of the chain, and from removing in a lateral
direction by the graviating wedge d.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I desire it to be under-
stood that I do not confine myself strictly to the form of apparatus shewn,
provided the essential character be kept and the object be retained, of employing
a wedge or other shaped piece acting by its own gravity, so as to prevent the
rail from moving in a lateral direction, by keeping it in contact with a cheek
of the chair; and this I claim as secured to me under the above in part
recited Letters Patent.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Shae Perring, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.