CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAIL AND TRAM ROADS OR WAYS, WHICH RAIL OR TRAM WAYS OR ROADS ARE APPLICABLE TO OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1824

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
JAMES, of the City of Westminster, Land Agent and Engineer, send greeting..
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of that part of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland called England, bearing date at Westminster, the
Twenty-eighth day of February, One thousand eight hundred and twenty-four,
in the fifth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said William James,
my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said William James, my exors, adññors, and assigns,
during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION
OF RAIL AND TRAM ROADS OR WAYS, WHICH RAIL OR TRAM WAYS OR ROADS
ARE APPLICABLE TO OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso that if I, the said William James, shall not
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties
and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and

page_text: become void, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, will more
fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William James, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in the following description thereof (that is to say):-
-
My improvements is the construction of rail and tram roads consist,-
First, in making the rails hollow of any form that may be desired, the object
of which is to reduce the quantity of metal in the rails, and at the same time
to retain the required strength.
Secondly, in producing a rail with a double roadway, to be firmly fixed as
the centre of two lines of railway, thereby saving one rail in four.
Thirdly, in affording the means of conducting water, gas, or other fluids
from place to place through the hollow tube of the rail; and,
Fourthly, by employing the hollow rail as a trunk to receive ropes, chains,
or rods passing from a standing engine or other machine, for the purpose of
protecting them from external injury; and,
Fifthly, in attaching to such rail or tram ways certain rods, wheels, and
endless chains, for the purpose of drawing carriages allong the said railway by
means of standing engines.
My first improvement, viz, the making of rail or tram ways hollow, I
effect by any of the following means:-I either cast my rails in a mould
with a suitable core within, as metal casting is usually done, or I roll, draw,
or weld them to the required external form, leaving a hollow or recess
within; or 1 form the tube partly of metal, and connect it to stone, wood, or
other suitable material at the sides or at bottom as a base, leaving the internal
part of the rail hollow. The first of these modes, viz, casting, I prefer, and
consider that iron will be the metal most eligible.
I do not claim any external form of rail as exclusively my Invention, but
adapt ny contrivance of a hollow rail to such of the usual forms of rails as
may under existing circumstances be found desirable, considering that the
hollow rail will save a very great portion of metal, and at the same time afford
a greater degree of strength than the solid rails heretofore made, and that by
the increased breadth of these hollow rails they may lay more solid and firmly
upon the bearers or upon the ground.
My second improvement, viz, the constructing or forming of a double line
of railway with three rails only, is effected by making the middle rail of
sufficient breadth to allow two carriages to pass each other, as shewn in the
Drawing hereto annexed, in which a Fig. 1 is the broad middle rail shewn in

page_text: section, and formed with a hollow passage through it, as above said. This
plan may be extended to a treble line of rail, which may be formed by four
rails instead of six, the two inner rails being made broad enough to allow the
carriage to pass. Four lines of road may be thus made by five rails, or five
lines by six rails, and so on, by which means a very great saving of expence
will accrue in the cost of the rails, in the labour of laying down the lines, and
also in the time required for constructing the railways. The advantages of
the broad rails for the purpose of reducing the number of lines of rails, upon
the principle last described, may be obtained without adopting the hollow rail
which forms the first feature of my Patent. I can construct the central line
of rail by joining pieces of stone only of suitable height, or stones coated with
maleable or cast-iron plates or timber, and various other materials.
I therefore claim under this second head of my Invention the constructing
of several lines of railways by making the inner rails broad enough to bear
the wheels of two carriages.
My third improvement consists in employing such hollow railways, when
laid as above described, to the transmission of water or of gas, or any other
fluid, from one place to another, when such may be desirable, without the
expence or inconvenience of additional pipes or tubes.
My fourth improvement is the employment of the aforesaid hollow railways
as trunks for conducting and also for protecting chains, rods, or ropes passing
from standing engines or other machines, for the purpose of drawing or
propelling the carriages along the roads so formed, the inconvenience of
exposing such chains, rods, or ropes to the weather and other casualties being
too obvious to need particularizing.
I do not claim any particular external form of rail, as my improvement
in rendering the rails hollow will apply to various kinds of rails, whether
their surfaces are plain or cogged, or whether the wheels of the carriages
which are to pass over them have flanges or lips on one or both edges, or
whether the rails be formed with a groove, as Fig. 2, adopted to wheels of
such carriages as run upon ordinary roads, or of any other shape which
fancy or convenience may dictate. I also claim the said hollow rail, of
whatever external form, if adopted to a single line of railway where the
carriages swing or are suspended upon central wheels.
such contrivance of a suspension rail, or such carriages, nor any other things
mentioned in this my Specification, except as aforesaid, and particularized
under the four heads above mentioned..
But I do not claim
My fifth improvement, viz, the attachment of rods, wheels, and endless
chains to such rail or tramways, for the purpose of drawing or propelling

page_text: carriages thereon by the agency of standing engines, consists in placing a line
of rods along the railway, connected together at their extremities by sockets,
coupling boxes, clutches, or other attachments, so as to enable the whole line
of rods, or any part thereof, to turn as an axle by the actuating power of a
standing engine at the extremity or in any other convenient part. (This power
may be applied immediately to the rods or to toothed wheels under the
railway, which wheels, being made to revolve horizontally, and taking into
endless screws or pinions upon the rods, cause the rods to turn. The endless
chains pass along the railway and round the peripheries of drum wheels upon
the axles of the horizontal toothed wheels above mentioned, by which means
the actuating power applied to turn the rods on the toothed wheels in the first
instance causes the endless chains to pass along the railway, and the carriages,
being attached by any convenient mode of coupling to these chains, will by
that means be drawn forward upon the railway. Under some circumstances
it may be found eligible, instead of employing the rods, toothed wheels, drum
wheels, and endless chains last described, to make a thread, worm, screw, or
combs upon the rods passing along the railroad, with hollow screws or nuts
embracing the worm, or a clutch with a tooth, to which the carriages may be
attached, when, as the rods turn round, the carriages will necessarily be drawn
forwards. One mode of adapting these principles is shewn in the Drawing at
Fig. 3, a horizontal view or plan of part of a railway, and Fig. 4, a side view
of the same, the letters referring to the same parts in both Figures. The
plan represents a double railway, along the centre of which (they are shewn
by dots) runs the several lengths of rods a, a, a, coupled together; below the
rods the toothed wheel 6 is placed, which works into the pinion C fixed upon
the rod. Supposing the power of the standing engine to be communicated to
the toothed wheel 6, by means of the shaft and pinion d, d, the revolution of
wheel b would cause the rods a, a, a, to turn, and other tooth wheels, similar
to b, being situated at different distances under the railway, would also be
made to revolve in a horizontal direction by means of the several pinions upon
the central rods. c, e, e, is a large drum wheel affixed to the toothed wheel b,
and revolving with it; round this and similar drum wheels situate on the axles
of the toothed wheel at certain distances apart, the endless chains fare
distended, and by the revolution of the drums these chains are carried forward
and the carriages with them.
In witness whereof, I, the said William James, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourth day of August, One thousand eight hundred
and amber San
W (L.S.) JAMES.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourth day of August, in the
year of our Lord 1824, the aforesaid William James came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute made for that purpose
Inrolled the Fifth day of August, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and twenty-four.