Year: 1899

page_text: I, THOMAS JOSEPH MCTIGHE, a Citizen of the United States, and a Resident of
16, Cartland Street, New York, in the County of New York, and State of New
Yolk, Engineer do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement.―
The object of this invention is to produce a rail-bond for electie railways of a
generally-flat form with laterally-projecting solid terminals for attachment to the
ails to adapt the device, for use behind the fish-plates or splices and at the samo
time provide flexibility in all duections to accommodate the various motions to
which railway-1ails are subject in use
A further object of my invention 18 to construct such a rail-bond of a single
piece of wrought metal
A further object is to form the terminals in such a way as to facilitate thei
application to the diill-holes in the rails and effect a tight and permanent contact
therewith.
To these and other ends my invention consists in the construction and mode of
application, as hereinafter fully described and claimed
In the drawings which form part of this specification, Figures 1 and 2 are
1espectively a face view and transverse section of a rail-bond made after my
invention before the body has been made flexible Figures 3 and 4 are similar
views of the same bond after the slitting of the middle portion of the body or
strap Figures 5 and 6 are respectively a side elevation and transverse vertical
section of one kind of shitting-dies which can be used Figures 7, 8 and 9 are
face views of the finished bond with the strips bent laterally to allow for con-
traction and expansion of the nails. Figure 10 is an edge view showing the
slitted strap with transverse cumping for the same purpose Figure 11 a
transverse section of a modification, and Figure 12 shows the rail and one tei-
minal in section and the adjacent faces of the compressing-tool ready for operation
of upsetting said terminal in the hole dulled for it in the rail
Figure 1 illustrates the form. I prefer with the solid massive terminals A for
attachment to the rails, with flanges, or shoulders a wholly sui1ounding the said
terminals and the flat connecting body or strap B, the terminals A being designed
to pass a little more than through the rail to allow for upsetting therein. Such

page_text: a lail-bond may be made in various ways, but I prefer to make it of a single
piece of wie 01 10d by upsetting, shaping, and flattening, thus producing a rail-
bond all the parts of which are absolutely integral and in which the terminals are
massive and solid The bond is as yet practically unyielding to vertical and
longitudinal movement of the nails I therefore subdivide the stiap B into a
number of parallel strips in any suitable manner-such, for example, as the
slitting dies DE The slits do not extend to the terminals, as it is desirable to
leave an unbroken flange or shoulder a all around the head of the solid terminal.
This slitting may be done with saws or by other means The rail-bond thus
formed, Figures 3 and 4, 18 quite flexible and will yield to all lateral and vei-
tial movements of the rails, and if applied diagonally to the rails it allows for
contraction and expansion, but I propose to bend the strap or its low of strips,
as in Figure 7, or to spread and bend its two halves into oppositely-curved posi-
tions, as in Figure 8 or Figure 9, or cump the slitted strap tiansversely In
any of these forms the bond yields to vibration, contraction, and expansion of
the rails, can be applied under the fish-plates, and has the advantage of being
in a single piece of metal throughout The electric carrying capacity of such
a bond may be made very great If requued, the terminals may be made an inch
01 more in diameter of solid metal and the strap in proportion
Rail-bonds of this general class are usually attached to the rails by being upset
therein by a powerful complesso, either screw or hydraulic To facilitate buch
operation, to minimize the weight of metal requned for a given conducting and
contact capacity, and to insure a lateral flow of the metal of the terminals
adially outward against the walls of the holes in the rails, I proceed as follows-
In forming the solid terminals A, I form the conical countersinks s in the centie
of the outside or head of the terminal The sciew or ram 18 fitted with an end
piece having a conical pin p, projecting axially as in Figure 12, and fitting the
countersink After the pin 18 pressed home in the countershafts of the tei-
minal in the operation of forcing the latter into its hole in the nail the continued
application of the pressure causes the other side of the press to act upon the
farther or inner end of the terminal and compels the metal from that side to flow
down the conical face of the pin and spread out and completely fill all megu-
larities in the walls of the hole.
Where extreme flexibility is desued, the flat stiap of the bond may be made
relatively wider and thinner and the stups after slitting may be twisted up
nearly oi wholly at 11ght angles to the plane of the stap
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:
1. A rail-bond made of wrought metal in one integral piece comprising
shouldered solid 1ail-attaching terminals and an edgewise-yielding flat connect-
ing-strap.
2 A 1ail-bond made of wiought metal in one integial piece comprising a flat
conducting-strap, flexible edgewise, with solid terminals located wholly outside
the flexible section of the strap and connected therewith by rigid portions form-
ing shoulders foi the terminals.
3. A 1ail-bond made of wiought metal in one integral piece comprising solid
terminals with shoulders surrounding their bases and a flat, edgewise-flexible,
conducting-stiap connecting said shouldeis
4. A 1ail-bond made of wrought metal in one integral piece comprising a flat,
edgewise-flexible, conducting-stiap having upset solid terminals.
A rail-bond made of wrought metal in one integial piece comprising a flat,
longitudinally-slitted, conducting-strup with upset solid shouldered teiminals
formed at 1ight angles to the plane of the strap
6. A one-piece 1ail-bond of wrought metal, consisting of the solid rail-attach-
ing terminals A with heads or shoulders a surrounding the same and connected

page_text: between the shoulders by a flattened body or strap integral therewith and slitted
lengthwise between the said shoulders, substantially as described
7A 1ail-bond made of wrought metal in one integial piece consisting of solid
1ail-attaching terminals and a connecting-body of metal, such terminals being
cylindrical and having heads or shouldas surounding their outer ends, and
countersinks in the said outer ends, substantially as and for the purpose
described
Dated this 14th day of October 1899
THOMAS J McTIGHE
By Heny Skeriett,
24, Temple Row, Birmingham, Agent for Applicant.