IMPROVEMENTS IN CONNECTING AND IN FIXING RAILS IN RAILWAY CHAIRS
Year: 1852

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Oliver York in the Great Seal Patent
Office, on the 16th April 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JOHN OLIVER. YORK, of 110, Rue Neuve des Mathurins, Paris,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the six-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto mic, the said John Oliver York, Her special
licence that 1, the said John Oliver York, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Oliver York,
my exccutors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
luring 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 CONNECTING AND IN FIXING RAILS IN RAILWAY CHAIRS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Oliver
York, 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 Office within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Oliver York, 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 thereof (that is to say):
The Invention consists of substituting a cast or wrought iron wedge
piece, pin, and key for the wooden wedge usually employed for fixing a
rail in a chair; such wedge piece also answering the purpose of "a fish
piece," now employed by some engineers.
And in order that my said Invention may be more fully understood

page_text: and readily carried' into effect, I will proceed to describe the means
pursued by me.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1, shows a section of a rail fixed in a chair, according to my
said Invention. Figure 2, is a plan of the chair. Figure 3, shows
another section of a rail fixed in a chair, according to my Invention,
the parts being somewhat different in form, but acting on the same
principle. a, is the chair of the form I prefer, but its shape may be
varied. It is inade with only one jaw b, the other side of the rail being
held by a wedge piece c. which acts between the point bearing against
the rail at c', and its point of bearing c², as a lever moving on the point
, as an axis, as shown; and it is caused to wedge itself tightly between
the points c, c, by means of the key d, or by the pin and key d, as
are shewn respectively in Figures 1 and 2, and 3 and 4. When the
wedging picce c, is intended to act as a fishing piece for two rails in a
joint chair, then I prefer to make it at its upper end c', wider than that
shown.
Daving thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, I would have it understood, that what
I claim is, the mode herein described of combining wedging pieces and
pins and keys with chairs for connecting and fixing rails of railways.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Oliver York, have hereunto
set my hand and scal, this Fourteenth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
JOHN OLIV. YORK. (LS.)
Witness,
GEO. W. GARCY,
110, Rue Ne des Mathurins,
Paris.