IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO RAILWAYS OR TRAMWAYS
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Floride Heindryckx, of Brussels, in the Kingdom of
Belgium, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO
RAILWAYS OR TRAMWAYS."
Sealed the 14th February 1860, and dated the 12th September 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Floride Heindryckx at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
12th September 1859.
I, FLORIDE HEINDRYCKX, of Brussels, in the Kingdom of Belgium,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE
MENTS APPLICABLE TO RAILWAYS OR TRAMWAYS," to be as follows:-
My Invention of improvements applicable to railways or tramways relates
to a novel mode of constructing the chairs or supports of the permanent way.
These chairs or supports are usually made of cast iron, but I propose to
construct them of flat or other suitably shaped bars of wrought iron.
In carrying out my Invention, the bars of iron are first cut up into suitable
lengths, which are heated in a furnace, and then bent up into the required
shape by machines specially constructed for the purpose, and provided with
dies of the proper form. The rails are secured in these chairs or supports by
means of wooden keys or wedges in the usual manner, and the supports

page_text: or chairs are secured to the wooden cross pieces or longitudinal bearings
by means of spikes or bolts, or in any other convenient manner. For railways
or tramways of narrow gauge, such as in mines or collieries, the chairs or
supports for both rails may be made on the same bar of iron, care being of
course taken that the two chairs are made the proper distance apart to main-
tain the true and correct gauge.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Floride Heindryckx in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
12th March 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FLORIDE
HEINDRYCKX, of Brussels, in the Kingdom of Belgium, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of Her reign
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Floride Heindryckx, Her special license that I, the said Floride Heindryckx, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Floride
Heindryckx, 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 APPLI-
CABLE TO RAILWAYS OR TRAMWAYS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Floride Heindryckx, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, 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 Floride Heindryckx, 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 Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
My Invention of improvements applicable to railways or tramways relates
to a novel mode of constructing the chairs or supports of the permanent way.

page_text: These chairs or supports are usually made of cast iron, but I propose to
construct them of flat or other suitably shaped bars of wrought iron.
In carrying out my Invention, the bars of iron are first cut up into suitable
lengths, which are heated in a furnace, and then bent up into the required
shape by machines specially constructed for the purpose, and provided with
dies of the proper form. The rails are secured in these chairs or supports by
means of wooden keys or wedges in the usual manner, and the supports or
chairs are secured to the wooden cross pieces or longitudinal bearings by
means of spikes or bolts, or in any other convenient manner.
For railways
or tramways of narrow gauge, such as in mines or collieries, the chairs or
supports for both rails may be made on the same bar of iron, care being of
course taken that the two chairs are made the proper distance apart to
maintain the true and correct gauge. For many of the purposes for which
tramways are used in mines and collieries, it will be found that if the chairs
for both rails are made from the same bar of iron, as above mentioned, and
which bar will thus be made to extend across the line from side to side, it will
not be necessary to employ sleepers or cross pieces to support the chairs,
provided the ground be sufficiently hard to prevent the bars from sinking in.
It will only be necessary on such occasions to level the ground and consolidate
it a little, and then the combined chair and cross pieces can be laid down
ready to receive the rails..
In the accompanying Drawings I have shewn different views of some of
my improved wrought-iron chairs. Fig. 1, Sheet I., is an end view or section
of one of my wrought-iron chairs, and Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same.
It will be seen that the chair a is fastened down by bolts 6 in the usual way
to a wooden cross sleeper c, and having an ordinary double-headed rail d
secured therein by means of a wooden key e and cross bolts f. On referring
to Fig. 2, it will be seen that the chair is such as is to be employed for
securing the joints of the rails. The same letters of reference are marked
upon both these Figures; and as the section of the chair and rail is shewn in
Fig. 1, it may be supposed to represent not only the same chair as Fig. 2,
but also an intermediate chair, and therefore it is only necessary to remark
that to secure the joints of the rails, the chair for this part of the road should
be made (as in Fig. 2) double the width of those chairs which are employed
as intermediate supports. Fig. 3 is an end or edge view, and Fig. 4, a side
elevation of a pair of chairs combined with a cross piece. It will be seen
that the chairs are made by turning up or bending the ends of a single flat
bar of iron into the required shape. This light and inexpensive combined
chair and sleeper will be found exceedingly convenient either for mines or

page_text: collieries, or for other situations where the loads intended to run on the rails
will be comparatively light.
It is intended to manufacture my improved wrought-iron chairs by means
of suitable machinery so arranged and contrived, that it will only be necessary
to place the bars of red-hot iron in the machine, and keep it regularly supplied
with such bars, and the several parts of the machine being actuated by
mechanical means will double or bend up the red-hot bar into the required
form, and will thus with facility turn out several hundred complete chairs per
diem. A simple and cheap form of apparatus may, however, be employed for
assisting in the production of my improved chairs by hand.
The construction and operation of the principal working parts of the
apparatus will be understood by reference to Sheet II. of the Drawings, in
which Figs. 5 and 6 represent edge and plan views of a length of bar iron a,
suitable to be converted into a chair. This length of bar iron, when properly
heated, is placed on the bed plate g of the apparatus, as shewn at Fig. 7. A
moveable core h is then brought down on to the central part of the red hot
bar a, which will be forced down from its normal position (as shewn by dots in
the Figure) into the position represented by colour. It will be seen that two
raised projections i, i, are made on the bed plate 9, and when the core h is
brought down it will force the central part of the bar a into the hollow between
the projections i, i; the side dies j, j, are then brought forward, as shewn in
Fig. 8, and the ends of the bar a will be pushed up towards the centre, and
by this means the intermediate parts of the bar will be bent upwards pre-
paratory to forming the sides of the chair. Upon continuing the advance of
the side dies j,j, until they reach the central core h, the chair will be pressed
up against the central core and completed, as seen at Fig. 9. The side dies
may then be drawn back, and the finished chair knocked off the central
core h. Figs. 10 and 10° represent side and end views of one of these chairs,
with a double-headed rail secured therein by means of a wooden key in the
ordinary manner. It will be evident that the movement of the central core h
and the side dies j,j, may be effected by means of hand levers, and that a
machine so constructed and arranged would be very simple and inexpensive.
For continuous working, and for making large quantities, however, a self-
acting machine would be required. An arrangement of parts for effecting this
object is shewn in Sheet III. Fig. 11 is a front elevation of the machine;
Fig. 12 is a plan view as seen from above; and Fig. 13 is a sectional end
view. In this machine the central core his worked by means of a lever k,
which turns on a pin as its fulcrum. The upper end of this lever passes
through a slot at the back of the core piece h, and the lower end of the lever

page_text: These levers r, r,
is provided with a bowle or antifriction roller m, against which works a cam n
on the main shaft o of the machine. A bar of red hot metal a having been
placed edgewise against the bed plate of the machine, the lower end of the
lever k is, by the rotation of the cam n, pushed back, and the core piece h
above is driven forward, and made to force the central part of the red hot
bar a into the hollow between the projections i, i, of the bed plate, at seen in
Fig. 12, and also in Figs. 7, 8, and 9, Sheet II. In the meantime the
cams p, p, on the main shaft o, and shewn detached at Fig, 14, will be made
to act against the bowles or antifriction rollers q, q, of the forked levers r, r,
and force these latter forward, as seen best in Fig. 11.
turn on shafts 8, 8, which are mounted in bearings at the lower part of the
framing. The normal position of the forked levers r, r, that is, when they are
drawn back, is shewn by dots in Fig. 11, and their upper ends are inserted in
slots made in the side dies j, j. By the rotation of the cam shaft o, the forked
levers will be pushed forward, and will therefore carry forward the side dies j,j,
and crowd or bend up the bar of red hot metal a, as seen in Fig. 12 and
Figs. 8 and 9, Sheet II. These several motions must of course be properly
timed by a suitable arrangement of the cams n and p, and the toothed
gearing t, t, t, as is well understood. The dies and core piece having operated
upon one piece of metal, and formed it into a chair, the cams n and p will
release their respective levers k and r, r, which will be drawn back by the
counterbalance weights k' and r¹, r¹. The newly formed chair will thus be
relieved from the pressure of the side dies j, j, and will either fall off the
central core piece h, or may be easily knocked therefrom by a slight tap of a
hammer. It will be seen that the red hot bar, when put in the machine, is
set on its edge, and that the core piece moves horizontally forward against it,
the other working parts of the machine being suitably arranged in combi-
nation. This arrangement is made for the purpose of facilitating the delivery
of the newly formed chair from the machine; but it will be evident that if
preferred the machine may be so arranged that the red hot bar may be placed
flat in the machine, and the core piece h brought down vertically on it; the side
dies j,j, may also be worked by means of screws or other equivalent mecha-
nical contrivances instead of cams and levers, as shewn. I do not, therefore,
mean or intend to confine myself to the mechanical arrangements herein set
forth for actuating the central core piece h and side dies j, j, as these arrange-
ments may be considerably varied without departing from the nature and
object of my Invention.
Having now described my Invention of improvements applicable to railways
or tramways, and having explained the manner of carrying the same into

page_text: effect, I claim, as the Invention secured to me by Letters Patent, as aforesaid,
the improved mode herein set forth of constructing the chairs or supports of the
permanent way of railways or tramways.
In witness whereof, I, the said Floride Heindryckx, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Tenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
F. HEINDRYCKX. (L.s.)