IMPROVEMENTS IN JOINING THE ENDS OF THE RAILS OF RAILWAYS
Year: 1853

page_text: f.
LETTERS PATENT to Charles May and James Samuel, both of Great
George Street, Westminster, Civil Engineers, for the Invention of
IMPROVEMENTS IN JOINING THE ENDS OF THE RAILS OF RAILWAYS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles May and
James Samuel at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 8th October 1853.
We, CHARLES MAY and JAMES SAMUEL, both of Great George Street, .
Westminster, Civil Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN JOINING THE ENDS OF THE RAILS OF
RAILWAYS" to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the means of
joining the ends of the rails of railways, and such improvements consist
of arranging grooved rollers or tools in a portable machine in such
manner that when the ends of two rails at a welding heat are brought
together and are held stationary the rollers may be moved to and fro,
and caused to press more and more on the heated iron, and thus to
obtain a welding of the parts, or, in place of the weld consisting of the
inetal at the ends of the two railway bars, those ends, máy, butt together;

page_text: and an additional plate or plates be used, which being welded to the
railway bars will make what may be called a "welded fish joint;"
and when holes are required in the ends of rails to make fish or other
joints we employ a drilling apparatus having as many drills as there
are to be holes, and the framing is arranged to pass under the rails, and
act as a temporary chair or support to the rails which are to be jointed.
When the ends of the rails are to be joined or supported by casting
metal on to the rails we make holes through the rails to give more
holding to the cast metal, or pins may be introduced into the holes, and
the cast metal run thereon and on the rails.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles May and James Samuel in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 8th April 1854.
TO ALL TO
TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we,
CHARLES MAY and JAMES SAMUEL both of Great George Street, West-
minster, Civil Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date.the. Eighth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the seven-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Charles May and James, Samuel, Her
special license that we, the said Charles May and James Samuel, our.
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Charles May and James Samuel,, our 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, usé, exercise, and vend, within the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands,.
and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN JOINING THE ENDS
OF THE RAILS OF RAILWAYS," upon the condition (amongst others) that
we, the said Charles May and James Samuel, by an instrument in
writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one
of us, should particularly describe and.ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manners.the same was to be performed, and

page_text: 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 Charles May, on behalf of
myself and the said James Samuel, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:
The first part of our Invention consists in a mode of welding the
ends of the rails used in the construction of railways. Experience has
proved that if, instead of forming the line of rails by short bars placed
in chairs and keyed or wedged therein, the rails can be united so as to
be a continuous bar, many important advantages are attained. The
well-known plan of fish jointing to a certain extent accomplishes this;
but our object is a more perfect union by welding, and to accomplish.
this we arrange grooved rollers or tools in a portable machine in such
a manner that when the ends of two rails at a welding lieat are, brought
together and are held stationary the rollers may be moved to and fro,
and caused to press more and more on the heated iron,' and thus
produce a welding of the parts. The edges or peripheries of such rollers
being turned of the proper form will leave the rail of the right shape
for the wheels to run upon them. There may be either one pair of rollers
to effect this or-two pairs, with the axes of each pair at right angles to
each other and in place of the weld consisting of the scarfed ends of
two railway bars, those ends may, "butt" together, and an additional
plate or plates may be used, which being welded to the railway bars;
will make a welded fish joint, as shewn at Figure 1, which is a section.
taken through the plates and rail after welding, the dotted lines shewing:
the section of the rail at the parts intermediate between the joints;; and:
at Figure 14, an elevation of parts of two bars is. shewn. In thius,
uniting many hundreds of feet of heavy rail bars it is obvious that it
must be done very near to the place where they are to be used, because.
it would not be convenient to convey bars of such length along a linė
with curves of ordinary radius; and although we consider reciprocating
rollers as the best mechanical means of effecting the welding, it may be
done by hammers with dies or swages of suitable shape.

page_text: The second part of our Invention has reference to cases in which it
is desired to fish joint the rails of a railway in use. For this purpose it
is requisite to pierce a hole or holes near the end of each rail to allow
of a bolt or bolts, passing through to attach the fishing plates, usually
two holes in each rail, so that four bolts are used to each fish joint, as
is well understood by engineers; and to pierce these holes and attach
the fishing plates without stopping the traffic or incurring danger to the
trains we adopt a machine that forms at the same time a drill and a
temporary joint chair.
Figure 2, represents this machine in section; Figure 3, the same in
plan; Figure 4, an elevation, the same letters referring to similar parts
in each Figure; and Figure 4, shows in elevation some of the parts
on a larger scale. A, Figure 2, represents the base or foundation plate,
which is made to fit the rail B. C, is a sliding piece worked in guides
by the screw D, so as to gripe. the two rails and hold their ends firmly
as in a vice. This sliding piece has cylindrical holes E, E, E, E,
in which the drill bars F, F, F, F, work, cach carrying a drill G.
These drill bars are made to rotate by the handles H, H, and by
means of the connecting rods I, I, each handle acts upon two drill bars.
The handles being used with a to and fro or reciprocating motion, the
clicks K, K, take into the ratchet wheels L, L, and thus drive the drill
bar in the usual mode of a ratchet brace; the ends of these drill bars
are made female screws in which the male screws M, work; on the
male screws are the ratchets N, N, actuated by the clicks O, O, and
turning the screws in the same direction as the drill bars, but at a
different velocity, so that the drills are driven forward or fed at a proper
speed, as will be clearly seen; a man thus works two drills at once,
and the fishing plates being made uniform in the distances of the holes,
there will be an exact correspondence in the distances of the holes
drilled in the rails. During the process of drilling the machine may
be packed underneath, and the ends of the rails being firmly secured' in
the vice part, trains may pass safely along the line, as the machine for
the time acts as a temporary joint chair.
The third part of our Invention relates to the joining the ends of
rails by means of melted metal poured thereon in a mould surround-
ing the ends of the bars; this process of casting joints is not in itself

page_text: new, it having been patented by John Gardner, and a further Patent
relating to such a process has also been granted to R. S. Norris. Our
object is so to perform this process as to prevent the rails from drawing
asunder endwise, which we accomplish by piercing the end of each
rail with one or more holes of sufficient size to allow the molten metal
to run through and unite the two sides, as shown in Figure 5, or we
put in the holes a short piece of wrought iron previous to pouring on
the metal, which may be riveted up when the mould is removed, as
shown in Figure 6; these joints are made so as to come between two
chairs or supports in the same way that fish joints are usually applied,
or they may be of a form suitable to become supports or chairs for the
rails, and we denominate them "cast on fish joints."
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, we would
have it understood that we do not claim the welding together of
railway bars, which we are aware has been done to a limited extent.
We claim the arrangements described by which an unlimited number
of railway bars may be united in one length at or near the place where
they are to be used. We claim the Invention of a machine for drilling
rails, combining the forming a temporary joint chair with the guide
holes for keeping the spaces between the holes to be drilled at, the
required distances. We claim the invention of uniting the sides of
"cast on " joints, as described, whether such joints be chairs or fish joints
suspended between supports.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles May, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eighth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
JNO. Cook,
12, Cursitor Street,
Chancery Lane.
CHARLES MAY. (L.S.)