IMPROVED APPARATUS TO " DATS ON RATE WAY OF TRAMWAY SLEEPERS. BE USED IN FIXING CHAIRS
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry William Dyer, of the City of Bristol,
Locomotive Engineer, for the Invention of “IMPROVED APPARATUS TO
"
DATS ON RATE WAY OF TRAMWAY SLEEPERS.
Sealed the 4th July 1871, and dated the 1st February 1871.
'
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry William Dyer
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 1st February 1871.
I, HENRY WILLIAM DYER, of the City of Bristol, Locomotive Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED
APPARATUS TO BE USED IN FIXING CHAIRS ON RAILWAY OR TRAMWAY SLEEPERS,"
to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to facilitate the operation of fixing
railway chairs on their sleepers. To this end instead of employing the
means at present in use for gauging the distance between the chairs, I
provide an apparatus which will at once determine their position and
will securely hold them in place on the sleepers while being spiked or
fixed thereto.

page_text: This apparatus will admit of various modifications, but I have found
that the following arrangement will effectually attain the desired object.
I take two flat bars of sufficient length, to extend somewhat beyond the
distance within which, say, three chairs are intended to be placed.
These bars I connect together by means of bolts and nuts, keeping them
at a distance apart somewhat greater than the width of a chair by means
of tubes or collars set between them on the coupling screw bolts. The
frame thus formed I fit with transverse gauge pieces, which are so
situated that their positions will severally correspond with the centre or
seat of one of the group of chairs to which the apparatus is to be applied.
These gauges may be made adjustable on the frame to suit varying
circumstances, and they will measure in transverse section somewhat less
than the space between the jaws of the chair. By applying this appa-
ratus, to say, three chairs placed on a longitudinal sleeper and bringing
one of the jaws of the chair into contact with say the front face of their
respective gauges their relative positions on the sleeper will be deter-
mined with great facility and exactness. Then by driving in a wedge
between the back of each gauge and the jaw of its chair the loose chairs
will be held firmly in position ready for spiking.
In carrying out this operation it will be understood that one of the
chairs will be made fast to its sleeper before applying the gauging
apparatus, and thus a fixed point being obtained the liability of the
frame to shift will be avoided. Instead of driving in wedges to obtain
a bite on the chair, the gauge itself may be made to expand and fit
tightly in the jaws, and instead of a frame a simple bar may be used
to carry the gauge pieces, which may fit the jaws of the chair and enter
them endwise.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry William Dyer in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 1st August 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
WILLIAM DYER, of the City of Bristol, Locomotive Engineer, send
greeting.
3
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of February, in the year of our 3

page_text: Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-onc, in the thirty-fourth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Henry William Dyer, Her special licence that I,
the said Henry William Dyer, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Henry William Dyer, my executors, ad-
ministrators, 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, excrcise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS TO BE
USED IN FIXING CHAIRS ON RAILWAY OR TRAMWAY SLEEPERS," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry William Dyer, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and scals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner tho
same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry William Dyer, 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, reference being had to the Drawing
hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that
is to say) :-
The object of this Invention is to facilitate the operation of fixing
railway chairs on their sleepers and to ensure a more accurate adjust-
ment of the chairs on their sleepers than heretofore so as to produce a
track of uniform width. To this end instead of employing the means
at present in use for gauging the distance between the chairs I provide
an apparatus which will at once determine their position and will
securely hold them in place on the sleepers while being spiked or fixed
thereto.
The apparatus may be adapted to the broad and to the narrow guage,
and it may also be constructed to suit the mixed guage.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 shews in side view partly in
section my improved guage constructed for use on a narrow guage line;
Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same shewing the guage applied to two
chairs which have just been spiked; and Fig. 3. is an end view of the

page_text: guage in position on the chairs. The guage consists of a rectangular
frame somewhat wider than the chairs to which it is to be applied and
fitted with guage blocks which are intended to enter between the jaws
of the chairs and hold them in position on the sleeper while the
'chairing" of the sleeper is being effected.
66
.
A, A, are two flat bars of iron braced together by stays B and
having formed upon their ends round handles C, C¹; D is a wrought
iron distance or guage block made fast to the bars A by screws or
otherwise, and D¹ is a similar guage block fitted to the other end of
the frame. This guage D¹ is formed with lugs through which the
handles C¹ (which serve also as guides) are passed to bring the block
into its proper position. On these handles are formed screw threads to
receive two pairs of nuts E, E, which embrace the lugs of the guide
block and hold it firmly in position. This arrangement for fixing the
guage block D' is adopted to allow for the adjustment of the block to
suit the different sections of rails and chairs and also for slightly varying
the guage for sharp curves. The nuts E, E, are lengthened so as to
cover and protect the screw threads formed on the handles C¹. The
guage blocks measure somewhat less in transverse section than the space
between the jaws of the chairs in order that wedges may be driven in
between them, as shewn at F, F.
The manner of employing the improved guage in "chairing" sleepers
is as follows:-The sleeper being laid in a flat position the chairs are
placed one at either end thereof, and the guaging applied so as to bring
the blocks D, D', between the jaws of the chairs. The wedges F are
then lightly driven in between the guage blocks and the inner jaw of
the chair. The blocks will then bite square and gauge the chairs with
accuracy to their proper places, and at the same time hold them firmly
in position relatively to each other while the boring and spiking is being
effected. In some cases it may be necessary to construct the gauge
blocks D to receive the wedges F, F, horizontally: An example of this
is shewn in the plan view, Fig. 4.
When adapting the improved gauge to the fixing of chairs on the
sleepers of railways which are provided with a mixed gauge I furnish the
gauge with a third or additional gauge block, and for that purpose I
extend the two flat bars of iron A, A, on the left of the fixed block D
to the length required, while the adjustable or distance block D¹ on the
right remains the same, as shewn in Figures 1 and 2. In other respects

page_text: the construction of the gauge and the mode of using it will be similar
to that above explained.
I would remark that I am aware that my improved gauge admits of
obvious modifications, I do not therefore limit myself to the form shewn,
as equivalent means may be adopted for applying the gauge blocks to
the chairs and causing them to hold the chairs in a gauged position
while being secured to their sleepers. The arrangement, however, which
I have shewn is well adapted to practical use.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of " Improved
Apparatus to be used in Fixing Chairs on Railway or Tramway Sleepers,"
and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it
to be understood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent
I claim, the means above described for adjusting the chairs of railways
and tramways to the required gauge and retaining the adjusted chairs
in position relatively to each other while being fixed on their sleepers.
In witness whereof, I,, the said Henry William Dyer, have
hereunto, set my hand and seal, the Twentieth day of July,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
seventy-one.