IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY CHAIRS, AND IN THE MEANS OF SECURING BRIDGE AND FLANGED RAILS TO THEIR SLEEPERS
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Bridgewater, of Watford, in the County
of Herts, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY
CHAIRS, AND IN THE MEANS OF SECURING BRIDGE AND FLANGED RAILS TO
THEIR SLEEPERS."
Sealed the 9th November 1869, and dated the 3rd September 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Bridgewater at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd September 1869.
I, HENRY BRIDGEWATER, of Watford, in the County of Herts,
5 Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for " IM-
"IM-.
PROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY CHAIRS, AND IN THE MEANS OF SECURING BRIDGE AND
FLANGED RAILS TO THEIR SLEEPERS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates, firstly, to a novel mode of driving the spikes,
bolts, screws, or trenails used in securing railway chairs and bridge and

page_text: flanged rails into their supporting timbers or sleepers; and, secondly, to
an improved mode of securing the wooden keys or wedges used on
railways in their place in the chairs. To attain the first object I cast the
chairs with spike or trenail holes running at an inclination from the
vertical, and by preference inclining towards a vertical line drawn
through the centre of the chair, and around these holes I form an
inclined shoulder, upon which the head of the spike may bed. These
holes will give the spikes or trenails as they are driven in such a
direction into the supporting timbers or sleepers as will enable them
effectually to resist all tendency to vertical motion in the chairs, to
which spikes or trenails when driven in vertically are liable to yield. In
order to fix bridge and flange rails on their supporting timbers I employ
the like contrivance of inclined spikes, bolts, or screws, guided by corre-
spondingly inclined holes punched through the flange of the rails, and
I roll the rails with inclines for the heads of the spikes, screws, or bolts
to bed on. Or I may cant the heads of the spikes and omit the inclines.
In order to secure the wooden keys or wedges in the chairs I cast on
that face of the jaw of the chair with which the key is brought in
contact horizontal ribs or projections, the tendency of which is, when the
key is driven in to indent and corrugate the contact surface of the key,
and thus hold it firmly in place.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry Bridgewater in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 3rd March 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
BRIDGEWATER, of Watford, in the County of Herts, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Third day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Henry Bridgewater, Her special licence
that I, the said Henry Bridgewater, my executors, administrators, and

page_text: assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry Bridgewater, 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
BAILWAY CHAIRS, AND IN THE MEANS FOR SECURING BRIDGE AND FLANGED RAILS
TO THEIR SLEEPERS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Henry Bridgewater, my exccutors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
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 Henry Bridgewater, 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):-
This Invention relates, firstly, to a novel mode of driving the spikes,
bolts, screws, or trenails used in securing railway chairs and bridge and
flanged rails into their supporting timbers or sleepers; and, secondly, to
an improved mode of securing the wooden keys or wedges used on
railways in their place in the chairs. To attain the first object I cast
the chairs with spike or trenail holes running at an inclination from the
vertical, and by preference inclining towards a vertical line drawn
through the centre of the chair. By this means I am enabled to direct
the spikes, bolts, &c., diagonally into the supporting timbers, and
thereby to obtain a firmer holding in the timbers than when inserted
vertically as heretofore.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 shews in sectional elevation a
chair for a double-headed rail constructed and secured to a supporting
timber according to my Invention. This chair is supposed to be secured
by two trenails a (one only being shown) and by a spike b. Around

page_text: the diagonal or inclined holes through which the spike and trenails are
passed I form an inclined shoulder c; these shoulders provide a flat bed
for the head of the spike to rest upon. The inclined holes it will be
readily understood will give the spikes or trenails as they are driven in
such a direction into the supporting timbers or sleepers as will enable
them effectually to resist all tendency to vertical motion in the chairs
to which spikes or trenails when driven in vertically are liable to yield.
In order to fix bridge and flange rails on their supporting timbers I
employ the like contrivance of inclined spikes, bolts, or screws, guided
by corresponding inclined holes punched through the flange of the rails,
and I roll the rail with inclines for the heads of the spikes, screws, or
bolts to bed on. This arrangement is shewn in transverse section at
Figures 2 and 3, Fig. 2 representing a bridge rail, and Fig. 8 a flange
rail held down by screws d, d, which enter the supporting timbers at
corresponding angles to but on opposite sides of a vertical line drawn
through the centre of the rail. In some cases I propose to cant the
heads of the spikes as shewn at Fig. 4, and to omit the inclines for
receiving the heads of the spikes. The canted heads will admit of the
spikes being driven in at an angle to the vertical, and yet bed upon the
flanges of the rail. In order to secure the wooden keys or wedges in
the chairs I cast on that face of the jaw of the chair with which the key
is brought in contact horizontal ribs or projections, as shewn at Fig. 1
and also at Figures 5 and 6, which represent cross sections of a ribbed
chair. These ribs or projections are wedge shaped in cross section, and
are chamfered off at their extremities. They may either be continuous,
as shewn at Fig. 6, or divided up transversely, as shown at Fig. 5, into
lines of projections. The tendency of these ribs or projections when the
wooden key is driven in is to indent and corrugate the contact surface of
the key, and thus to increase the bite or hold of the key to the chair.
Fig. 7 shews a wedge before insertion into the chair, and Fig. 8 the form
it takes on being driven home.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of improvements in
railway chairs and in the means of securing bridge and flanged rails to
their sleepers," and having 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,-
First The improved construction of chair ahova desovihod

page_text: And, secondly. The improved means above described for securing the
rails of railways.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Bridgewater, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the First day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
H. BRIDGEWATER. (L.S.)