IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas William Kinder, of the City of
Dublin, Ireland, Engineer; for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS."

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas William Kinder in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 22nd May 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
THOMAS WILLIAM KINDER, of the City of Dublin, Ireland, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of November, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas William Kinder, Her
special license that I, the said Thomas William Kinder, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas William
Kinder, 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 tlierein 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 CONSTRUCTION OF THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAIL-
WAYS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas
William Kinder, by an instrument in writing under my land and
seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was, to be performed, and
pause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six

page_text: calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas William Kinder, do
hereby declare the nature of my said. Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
tained in and by the following statement, reference being had to
the accompanying Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon, that is to say :-
My said Invention relates to an improved construction of rail, and
consists in rolling them first in long and nearly flat lengths, with a
heavier amount of metal in the middle of the roll; the plate is after-
wards brought into the requisite shape for the rail by suitable rollers;
these rails may either be secured by Norris' patent chairs, cast on to
the rail, or by any other system, the objects of the Invention being the
substitution of a hollow rail of equal strength, and of considerable
less expense than the present solid rails.
Fig. 1, of the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, represents a
transverse section of a plate after undergoing the first rolling or
shaping process, which is effected by the rollers shewn in side elevation
at Fig. 2. The swell or thickened portion A, of the plate forms the
top or bearing surface of the rail, and the thinner portions B, are bent
down by suitable rollers to form the sides and base of the rail. The
rail may be formed of any of the sections shown in Figs. 3, 4, and 5,
and may be fitted in the ordinary manner to longitudinal sleepers, by
the flanges C, in Fig. 3, or they may be employed in conjunction with
Norris' chair," such chair being cast on to the rail in its proper
place. By the form of rail shewn in Fig. 3, and a chair cast on at
each end, a most effectual fish joint (of the form of a double wedge, as
shewn in Fig. 3,) will be formed, thereby preventing the possibility of
any up and down or lateral movement to take place in the rails at
either the joint or intermediate chairs. Figs. 6 and 7 represent trans-
verse sections of the rails, Figs. 4 and 5, as shewn with the chairs cast
on; and Figs. 8 and 9 are corresponding plans of the same. It will
be clearly seen from Figs. 6 and 7, that the metal of the chairs is run
under and into the centre of the rail at those points where they cecur,

page_text: thereby not only effectually securing the rail in a species of dove tail,
but also adding to the stability of the same by the internal metal at
those points where the chairs are attached. I propose also employing
my improved form of rail in conjunction with either transverse or
longitudinal sleepers, and securing them thereto either by ordinary
chairs or bolts, or with chairs made to fit the section of the rails, and
when put in their places permanently shrunk on.
By the employment of the rails herein-before described, a saving of
about twenty per cent. in weight of metal is effected as compared with
that of the usual sections at present adopted to obtain the same strength.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used
or carried into effect,. I would observe in conclusion, that I do not
confine or..restrict myself to the precise details or arrangements which
I have had occasion to describe or refer to, as many variations may be
made therefrom, but 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 general arrangement and construction of hollow rails for
railway purposes, as herein-before described.
Second, the system or mode of forming hollow rails out of flat plates,
wherein the top of the rail is allowed for by a swell or increased
thickness of metal rolled thereon, such plate being afterwards rolled or
bent into the required section by suitable rollers, as described.
Third, the system or mode of securing the chairs to rails by
shrinking or casting them on to the body of the rail, as herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas William Kinder, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the Twentieth day of May, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
THOS WM KINDER. (L.S.)