IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILS FOR RAILWAYS, AND IN THE MODE OF SECURING THE ENDS OF RAILS FOR RAILWAYS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Henry Johnson, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in
the County of Middlesex, and of Glasgow, North Britain, Gentleman, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILS FOR
RAILWAYS, AND IN THE MODE OF SECURING THE ENDS OF RAILS FOR RAILWAYS."
-A communication.
Sealed the 24th October 1856, and dated the 9th June 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Henry Johnson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th June 1856.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, and of Glasgow, North Britain, Gentleman, do liereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILS
FOR RAILWAYS, AND IN THE MODE OF SECURING THE ENDS OF RAILS FOR RAILWAYS,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a new construction of rail, whereby such rail may
be more readily and effectually secured than those of the ordinary construction,
and the use of chairs obviated.
According to this Invention, the rails, which may be of the flat-bottomed or
girder form, or of the ordinary H or T shape, or other convenient pattern, are
rolled with slide lugs or flanges at each end and at suitable intervals along the
rail, and these flanges at the ends of the rails rest on and fit accurately into
dished plates of wrought or cast iron, which are recessed or hollowed in a
dovetail form to receive them; or the ends may be secured by a plate of
wrought iron beneath the joint, plain, or turned up at the lateral edges, and
secured by pins or bolts, with or without bridle pieces, or with dog bolts passed

page_text: through the lugs or flanges, and through the plates, and through or into the
sleeper or timber bearing, thus binding the whole together; or the tail ends
may be fastened down to the timber bearers without the intervention of an iron
plate. The intermediate lugs or flanges are also pinned or bolted to the
timber bearers or sleepers, boles or key ways being made in them for that
purpose.
Also to a mode of securing rail ends, by dovetailing or interlocking the same,
in combination with a chair, in one or two parts, either of wrought or cast iron,
and which chair may be so formed as to secure as well as support the rail ends
together, in some cases with, in others without, the intervention of screwed
bolts, keys, or hollow plugs, which, when screwed up, or driven hot, will, by the
contraction of the metal in cooling, bind together, and render the whole moro
secure and safe than by the ordinary process adopted.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Henry Johnson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
9th December 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex, and
of Glasgow, North Britain, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her reign, did,
for Ierself, Iler heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Henry Johnson, Her special license that I, the said John Henry
Johnson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said John Henry Johnson, my exccutors, administrators, or 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILS FOR RAILWAYS, AND IN THE MODE OF SECURING
THE ENDS OF RAILS FOR RAILWAYS," a communication from abroad, upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Henry Johnson, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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

page_text: Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Henry Johnson, do hereby
declare the nature of the 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 accompanying Drawings, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
The said Invention relates to an improved construction of rail for the per-
manent way of railways, whereby such rail may be more readily and effectually
secured than those of the ordinary construction, and the use of chairs and keys
are dispensed with.
According to this Invention, the rails, which may be of the flat-bottomed or
girder description, or of the ordinary H or double-headed, or other convenient
form between the points of bearing, are rolled with lugs or flanges on each
side, at suitable intervals, and with half lugs at the ends, spreading out
into a broad base, thereby giving lateral stiffness as well as vertical support
and affording an efficient mode of attachment to the sleepers or timber
bearing; or the same arrangement may be effected by hammering out the
bottom table of ordinary double-headed rails, where the web or connecting
part between the top and bottom tables is strong enough not to require
the lateral support of chairs, or of the upper part or stengthening feathers of
the lugs or flanges, before described. The half lugs or flanges described as
formed at the rail ends rest on and fit accurately into dished connecting plates
of wrought or cast iron, which are recessed or hollowed in a suitable form to
receive them, having a layer of thin felt laid between the rail and plate, to
insure a uniform bearing, and obviate the effect of concussion. To give the
proper tilt to the rail, the plates are bevilled, or one side let sufficiently into
the sleeper or timber bearing; or, the ends of rails, so formed, may be secured
by a plate of wrought iron placed beneath the joint, plain, or turned up at the
lateral edges, and secured, with or without bridle pieces, by pins or bolts passed
through the base of the lugs or flanges and plates, and through or into the
sleeper or timber bearing, thus binding the whole together; or the rail ends
may be fastened down by pins or bolts directly to the sleepers or timber
bearing without the intervention of an iron plate. The rail is secured inter-
mediately between the joints by pins or bolts, passed through holes made in the
base of the lugs or flanges, and through or into the supporting sleepers or timber
bearing. This form of rail may also be conveniently manufactured in cast iron
or steel annealed, and of suitable dimensions for the strength required; or it
may be manufactured in two or three parts of rolled iron, which, when brought

page_text: vertically together with one part overlapping the other, and breaking joint,
being rivetted or bolted through at intervals, will form a combined rail of great
strength; but when so applied it will be desirable that every joint where the
half lugs or flanges comic together should be secured by the dished connecting
plate, before described.
And in order that the said Invention may be fully understood, I shall now
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose I shall
refer to the several Figures on the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, the
same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts throughout all the
Figures.
Figure 1 of the Drawings represents a portion of a permanent way, shewing
the improved form of rail A, in general plan, with the intermediate lugs or
flanges B, B, resting upon and bolted down to ordinary cross sleepers C, C, and
with the half lugs D, D, at the ends fixed into the dished connecting plates
E, E. Figure 2 is an enlarged plan of the joint and dished plate, with the
half lugs or flanges fixed in it; and Figure 3 is a cross section of the rail,
taken through the half lugs D, D, and the dished connecting plate E at the
rail joint, the lugs or flanges resting upon the intermediate layer of felt F.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into
effect, I would observe, in conclusion, that I do not confine or restrict myself
to the precise details or arrangements which I have had occasion to describe
or refer to, as many variations may be made therefrom without deviating from
the principles or main features of the said Invention; but what I consider to
be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by
the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
First, the general construction and arrangement and mode of securing the
the rails of railways to the sleepers, as herein-before described.
Second, the system or mode of securing the ends, or joints, or rails by means
of dovetailed lugs or flanges let into correspondingly recessed or dished con-
necting plates secured to the sleepers.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Johnson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Ninth day of December, Oue thousand eight
hundred and fifty-six.
J. HENRY JOHNSON. (L.B.)