A NEW METHOD OF FORMING A CAST-IRON RAIL OR PLATE WHICH MAY BE USED IN MAKING IRON RAIL ROADS OR WAYS FOR THE WORKING AND RUNNING OF WAGGONS, DRAYS, AND OTHER CARRIAGES ON PUBLIC AND OTHER ROADS; AND ALSO A NEW METHOD OF FIXING, FASTENING, AND SECURING SUCH CAST-IRON RAIL OR PLATE ON SUCH ROADS
Year: 1803

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, JONATHAN
WOODHOUSE, of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in the County of Leicester, Civil Engineer,
sendeth greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day
of February, in the forty-third year of His reign, give and grant unto the
said Jonathan Woodhouse, His special licence, that the said Jonathan Wood-
house, his exors, adiñors, and assigns, and every of them during the term of
fourteen years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, and
exercise, and vend, within that part of the said United Kingdom called
England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, his
Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF FORMING A CAST-IRON RAIL OR PLATE WHICH
MAY BE USED IN MAKING IRON RAIL ROADS OR WAYS FOR THE WORKING AND
RUNNING OF WAGGONS, DRAYS, AND OTHER CARRIAGES ON PUBLIC AND OTHER ROADS;
AND ALSO A NEW METHOD OF FIXING, FASTENING, AND SECURING SUCH CAST-IRON
RAIL OR PLATE ON SUCH ROADS;" in which said Letters Patent is a proviso,
obliging the said Jonathan Woodhouse by an instrument in writing under his

page_text: hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of his said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in
His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calender month after the
date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation being
thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that the said Jonathan Woodhouse, in and by this his
instrument in writing under his hand and seal pursuant to and in compliance
with the terms of the said in part recited proviso, doth hereby declare that the
said Invention is described in manner following (that is to say):-
The rail or plate is made of cast iron, and the upper part or surface thereof
is concave, the width of which rail or plate may be increased or diminished as
may best suit the size of the wheels of the carriages that may be worked upon
the particular roads where the rails or plates are used. The method of fixing,
fastening, and securing the cast-iron rails or plates is to place them on bearings
at convenient distances which are to be fixed firm and solid in the earth, and
to fasten the rails or plates to such bearings with wrought-iron screws or
cutter bolts, the bearings for the rails or plates may be made of timber,
stone, cast iron, or wood piles, and if the rails or plates are properly fixed to
such bearings with wrought-iron screws or cutter bolts, and the road is made
even with the surface of the external or outer edges of the rails or plates
either with stone, gravel, or wood, or any other road materials, the rails or
plates will be immoveable, and the wheels of the carriages used thereon will
pass over the same with facility, and by reason of the concave form and
manner of fixing of the said rails or plates no shock which they can receive
(except some wilful force is maliciously used) can injure or break them.
Those rails or plates may be used on private as well as on public and other
roads with great advantage, where a multiplicity of business is to be carried
on; and by reason of such the concave form and manner of fixing them, they
admit of the wheels of carriages to get upon or from them with facility in any
direction, and the wheels working on those rails will move with great
smoothness and ease. The above or annexed Plans or Drawings shew the
cast-iron rails or plates, and the method of fixing, fastening, and securing
them, of which the following are the explanations.
The Plans or Drawings numbered 1 shew the upper surface of the rails or
plates upon which the different carriage wheels are intended to run. The
Drawings numbered 2 shew the elevation, or end view of the rails or plates,
and likewise the concavity of their upper surface, and their form at the ends
and sides, and how they are fixed to the bearings. The Drawings numbered 3
shew the side view of the rails, with the bearings under them. The parts

page_text: in which Drawings marked a, a, a, a, shew the ends of the feet, or the bases
of the metal which rest on the bearings, and the letters b, b, b, b, b, on the
Drawings numbered 2 and 3 shew the bearings upon which the aforesaid bases
or feet rest. The Drawings or sections numbered 4 shew the section of the
base or under side of the rails or plates, distinguishing the recesses in the feet
of the rails as at c, c, c, C, C, C, C. C, C, C. c, c. These recesses are pur-
posely made to receive the wrought-iron screws or cutter bolts, which serve
the double purpose of preserving and securing the cast-iron rails or plates in a
direct line with each other, and of firmly securing them on their respective
bearings; d, d, d, d, in the same Drawings or sections shew the stays cast
between the sides of the rails or plates which brace them together at the
bottom edges. The Drawings or sections of the plate numbered 5 shew the
upper surface of a diced or chequered rail or plate, which will be convenient
and proper to be laid in sheets, and where roads meet or cross each other,
as they will prevent the horses' feet from slipping, and will therefore be more
particularly useful in such roads or streets as have a declivity or descent. The
two Drawings numbered 6 shew the surface of the iron rails or plates when
fixed in a road or street, when a road or street is paved with stone. The two
Drawings numbered 7 shew the iron rails in a public or common road made
with the usual materials of gravel and stones, or other road materials, with this
difference, that with a view to keep the rail or plate as free from gravel, sand,
and other things as possible, a course of stones is placed on each side of the rail
or plate, but which may be used or not as is found most convenient. And the
said Jonathan Woodhouse doth here declare and affirm that the particulars
above set forth do contain a full, true, and perfect description of the nature of
the said Invention.
In witness whereof, the said Jonathan Woodhouse, bath hereunto set
his hand and seal, the Twelfth day of March, in the forty-third year
of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the grace of
God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King,
Defender of the Faith, and in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and three.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventeenth day of March, in
the year of our Lord 1803, the aforesaid Jonathan Woodhouse 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 stampt according to
the tenor of the Statutes made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Nineteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and three.