IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Price, of Dundalk, Ireland, Civil Engineer,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PERMANENT WAY OF
RAILWAYS."
Sealed the 18th March 1862, and dated the 23rd September 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Price at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 23rd
September 1861.
I, JAMES PRICE, of Dundalk, Ireland, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PERMANENT WAY
OF RAILWAYS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a peculiar system or mode of forming the joints
of ordinary bridge rails or other flat-bottomed rails employed on railways,
applicable either to new lines or to existing lines where such rails are
employed.
According to this Invention it is proposed in forming the joints of bridge or
flat-bottomed rails to employ a wrought-iron chair of a sufficient width to
contain the flanges of the rail and to receive the fastening bolts which secure
the chair to the sleeper, such bolts passing through the chair but not through
the flanges of the rail, the edges of which they touch or nearly touch when in

page_text: their places. The actual bearing portion of the chair beneath the rail joint is
in the form of a flat plate, and the portions which extend laterally beyond the
flanges are thicker than the central portion by the thickness of the flange of
the rail, which is thus held in a species of flat trough. A washer plate is laid
upon each side of the chair, and projects some distance over the rail flanges at
the joint or abutting ends of the rails, so that the bolts which are passed
through these plates and through the chairs will, when screwed up tight, com-
press the washer plate firmly down upon the rail flanges, and thereby hold the
rail ends securely in their places. The same chair may be used on the sleepers
next the joints of a road formed of fish-jointed flat-bottomed rails. By causing
the bolts to pass through the chair only and not through the rail flanges, they
may be considerably thicker than those hitherto used, which passed through
the flanges and tended to weaken the rail by reason of the necessity of having
bolt holes drilled through the flanges.
Another improvement in the joints of bridge rails, and which may be used
either separately or in combination with the arrangement above described,
consists in the use of a dowel of compressed or uneompressed wood, which is
driven tightly into the hollow of the rails at the joints, half the dowel being
enclosed in each rail. These dowels may or may not be covered on the upper
surface and sides with a plate of sheet iron, bent to fit the interior or hollow
portion of the rails. The advantages derived from the use of these modes of
forming the joints of bridge rails are facility for using much stronger bolts
than heretofore without any of the disadvantages attendant upon the present
small bolts which pass through the rail flanges, and are not sufficient to hold
down the rail, and wear out rapidly, whilst they at the same time tend to injure
the ends of the rails and to cut up the joint sleepers by allowing vertical and
lateral motion.
Another advantage is the complete freedom of longitudinal motion allowed
to the rails when under the influence of expansion and contraction, whilst the
bearing of the chair by reason of its width is much greater, and consequently
the sleepers are less liable to injury by the cutting of the chairs into them.
Sleepers that would otherwise be cast can be used for some years longer by
laying these chairs.
Another advantage is that they can be applied to an existing permanent
way without any boring or notching of the rails, by simply widening the
groove of the joint sleepers and boring new holes for the bolts in the
sleepers.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Price in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
22nd March 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
PRICE, of Dundalk, Ireland, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said James Price, Her special license that I, the said James Price,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
James Price, 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 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 THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said James Price, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, or under the hand and seal of
one of them, 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 James Price, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained 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 a peculiar system or mode of forming the joints
of ordinary bridge rails or other flat-bottomed rails employed on railways,
applicable either to new lines or to existing lines where such rails are
employed.
According to this Invention it is proposed in forming the joints of bridge or
flat-bottomed rails to employ a wrought-iron chair of a sufficient width to
contain the flanges of the rail and receive the fastening bolts which secure the
chair to the sleeper, such bolts passing through the chair but not through the
flanges of the rail, the edges of. which they touch or nearly touch when in
their places. The actual bearing portion of the chair beneath the rail joint is

page_text: in the form of a flat plate, and the portions which extend laterally beyond the
flanges are thicker than the central portion by the thickness of the flange of
the rail, or nearly so, which is thus held in a species of flat trough. A washer
plate is laid upon each side of the chair, and projects some distance over the rail
flanges at the joint or abutting ends of the rails, so that the bolts which are
passed through these plates and through the chairs will, when screwed up tight,
compress the washer plates firmly down upon the rail flanges, and thereby hold
the rail ends securely in their places. The same chair may be used on the
sleepers next the joints of a road formed of fish-jointed flat-bottomed rails.
By causing the bolts to pass through the chair only and not through the rail
flanges, they may be considerably thicker than those hitherto used, which
passed through the flanges and tended to weaken the rail by reason of the
necessity of having bolt holes drilled through the flanges.
a
These dowels
plate of sheet
The advantages
It is also proposed as a further improvement in the joints of bridge rails to
use, in combination with the arrangement above described, a dowel of com-
pressed or uncompressed wood, which is driven tightly into the hollow of the
rails at the joints, half the dowel being enclosed in each rail.
may or may not be covered on the upper surface and sides with
iron bent to fit the interior or hollow portion of the rails.
derived from the use of these modes of forming the joints of bridge rails are
facility for using much stronger bolts than heretofore without any of the
disadvantages attendant upon the present small bolts which pass through the
rail flanges, and are not sufficient to hold down the rail, and wear out rapidly,
whilst they at the same time tend to injure the ends of the rails and to cut up
the joint sleepers by allowing vertical and lateral motion.
Another advantage is the complete freedom of longitudinal motion allowed
to the rails when under the influence of expansion and contraction, whilst the
bearing of the chair by reason of its width is much greater, and consequently
the sleepers are less liable to injury by the cutting of the chairs into them.
Sleepers that would otherwise be cast aside can be used for some years longer
by laying these chairs.
Another advantage is that the system can be applied to an existing per-
manent way without any boring or notching of the rails.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood I shall now
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose I shall
refer to the several Figures on the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, the
same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts throughout all the
Figures.
Figure 1 of the Drawings represents a side elevation of my improved form of

page_text: joint applied to bridge rails; Figure 2 is a corresponding cross section of the
same; and Figure 3 is a plan of my improved chair detached.
.
To insure perfect contact
A, A, are the two bridge rails; B, the trough-shaped chair into which the
flanges of the rails are fitted; and C, C, are the washer plates, which are
bolted down upon the chair, and project over the flanges of the rails; the
bolts D, D, which pass through the washer plates and through the thicker
portions of the chair, serving to hold the whole of the parts firmly together,
and to secure them down upon the sleeper E, E.
between the washers and the flanges of rails, it is better that the outside
portions of the chairs where they touch the flanges should not rise quite
as high as the top of the flanges, but slope upwards to that height at the
extreme edges. F is a wooden dowel, which is driven into the abutting ends
of the rails, and may or may not be protected on the upper surface by a sheet
iron plate a bent over it before being inserted into the rails. This dowel may,
if desired, be dispensed with in my system, but I prefer to use it in com-
bination therewith.
Figure 4 represents an elevation of my system of securing the rails down
upon their sleepers as applied to the ordinary fish-jointed flat-bottomed rails;
Figure 5 is a cross section of the same; and Figure 6 shows a plan of the
chairs.
As these chairs are not in this case used as joint chairs, but merely as
intermediate chairs, it is only requisite to have one bolt hole in each side
thereof, and to have shorter washer plates, but when the joint is not formed
by fish plates then the joint chair shewn in Figure 3 is to be used, as before
described, with washer plates of a corresponding length.
Figure 7 shows a flat-bottomed rail, having the upper surface of its flanges
inclined in place of horizontal, in which case the outside portion of the chair
may be raised at the outer edge so as to form one inclined surface corre-
sponding or nearly so to the incline of the top surface of the flange, the under
surface of the washer plates being found to correspond with the inclined
surfaces of the chair and flange, or the chair may remain unaltered in shape,
and the under side of that portion of the washer plates which bears upon the
Cross
inclined surface of the flanges only need be inclined or bevelled.
sleepers alone are shown on the Drawings, but the arrangements are appli-
cable equally to longitudinal sleepers.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I would observe, in conclusion, that what I consider to be novel

page_text: and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
1st, the general construction, arrangement, and combination of chairs, bolts,
and washer plates for securing the rails in the permanent way of railways, as
herein-before described.
2nd, the application and use in combination with the above, as applied to
bridge rails, of a wooden dowel, in the manner and for the purpose herein-
before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Price, have to this my Specification
hereunto set my hand and seal, this 17th day of March, One thou-
sand eight hundred and sixty-two.
JAMES PRICE. (L.S.)