IMPROVEMENTS IN TRAMWays and RailwaYS
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Alexander Lyttle, of the Grove, Ham-
mersmith, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TRAMWays and RailwaYS."
Sealed the 10th December 1872, and dated the 17th June 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Alexander
Lyttle at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 17th June 1872.
I, WILLIAM ALEXANDER LYTTLE, of the Grove, Hammersmith, in the
County of Middlesex, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TRAMWAYS AND RAILWAYS," to be as
follows:-
I form the tramway by means of two parallel lines or trams made of
any existing asphalte laid upon a bed of concrete in the usual way, but
the asphalte which I prefer is that described under my Letters Patent,
Number 31, of the present year, entitled "Improvements in the Preparation
and Laying Down of Bituminous Asphalte for Pavement." These asphalte

page_text: trams may each be of any desired width, so long as there remains
between them a space, either macadamized or paved in any desired way,
upon which the horses of the vehicles using the tramway may travel.
The surface of each asphalte tram may either be laid perfectly flat in
the level of the roadway, or it may be slightly hollowed along its middle
in the direction of its length. On either side of this slight hollow the
asphalte should swell upward and then bevel downward, so that the
surface of each tram may present to the wheels a longitudinal hollow
of slight depth, with a longitudinal ridge or undulation on either side.
Again, the asphalte tram may be laid flat along one side or half, with a
longitudinal undulation occupying its other half. This configuration
of surface will give direction to wheels, where such is needed, without
causing much lodgement of water in wet weather.
When traffic is heavy and the roadway is not well paved, it may
sometimes be desirable to lay the asphalte in a longitudinal trough of
iron, the sides of which rise almost to the level of the roadway surface.
These sides should have their rims or edges serrated so as to prevent
their being slippery.
Serrated iron sides of angle iron, one flange of which underlies the
asphalte or the roadway on either side, answer almost as well as a 2
complete iron trough for protecting the edges of the asphalte. Concrete
or any other desired foundation may underlie the iron and asphalte.
In macadamized or gravelled roads a line of paving along each side of
each tram may sometimes be found necessary to protect the edges of
the asphalte instead of iron.
Asphalte in longitudinal trams as described, or in detached blocks,
may be employed as a substitute for existing sleepers on railways.
When blocks are used it is desirable to provide them with bottom plates
of iron through which the chair bolts should pass. When greater elas-
ticity is required for any of the foregoing purposes, the asphalte prepared
according to any existing mode may have added to it, in combination
with pitchy, waxy, or bituminous matter, either dry powdered peat,
spent tan, or sawdust.
2

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Alexander Lyttle in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 16th December 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ALEXANDER LYTTLE, of the Grove, Hammersmith, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said William Alexander Lyttle, Her special
licence that I, the said William Alexander Lyttle, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Alexander Lyttle, 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 IN TRAMWAYS AND RAILWAYS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Alexander Lyttle,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 William Alexander Lyttle, 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 :——
I form the tramway by means of two parallel lines or trams made of
any existing asphalte laid upon a bed of concrete in the usual way, but
the asphalte which I prefer is that described under my Letters Patent,
Number 31, of the present year, entitled "Improvements in the Preparation
and Laying Down of Bituminous Asphalte for Pavement." These asphalte
trams may each be of any desired width so long as there remains

page_text: between them a space either macadamized or paved in any desired way,
upon which the horses of the vehicles using the tramway may travel, as
shown in Figure 1, where A and A' are the lines of asphalte.
The surface of each asphalte tram may either be laid perfectly flat in
the level of the roadway, or it may be slightly hollowed along its middle
in the direction of its length. On either side of this slight hollow the
asphalte should swell upward and then bevel downward, so that the
surface of cach tram may present to the wheels a longitudinal hollow
of slight depth, with a longitudinal ridge or undulation on either side.
Again, the asphalte tram may be laid flat along one side or half, with a
longitudinal undulation occupying its other balf. A cross section of two
trams of this kind is shewn at Figure 2. This configuration of surface
will give direction to wheels, where such is needed, without causing much
lodgement of water in wet weather.
When traffic is heavy and the roadway is not well paved, it may
sometimes be desirable to lay the asphalte in a longitudinal trough of
iron, shewn at Figure 3, or in one made of wood, as at Figure 4, the
sides of which rise almost to the level of the roadway surface. These
sides should have their upper edges serrated in the case of iron, so as to
prevent their being slippery if exposed by the wearing down of the
roadway.
Iron sides, consisting of long flat plates, similar to the wooden
boards W shewn at the sides of the asphalte in Figure 5, and angle iron,
one flange of which underlies the asphalte, or the roadway on either side
of the asphalte, answer almost as well as a complete iron trough for
protecting the edges of the asphalte. This protective function is also
discharged by the wooden trough, shewn at Figure 4, which consists of
two slips or ledges of wood joined to and projecting upward from the
two sides of a wooden bottom of the same width as the required asphalte
strips or trams.
A wooden board or slab set on edge also forms a good intervening and
protecting medium between the asphalte and the macadam or gravel on
either side, see Figures 5 and 6. These pieces of wood should be as long
as possible, so that any crushing strain tending to burst out the edges of
the asphalte at any point may be distributed over a considerable length
of wooden bearing and so be neutralized. Concrete or any other desired
foundation may underlie the iron, or wood, and the asphalte.

page_text: In macadamized or gravelled roads a line of paving along one or both
sides of cach tram may sometimes be found necessary to protect the
edges of the asphalte when iron is not used for that purpose, see Figure 5,
and this arrangement may be adopted either with or without the use of
an intervening wooden board between the asphalte and such protective
pavement.
In the several Figures the asphalte is denoted by the letter A, the
pavement by P, the concrete by C, the ordinary road material or gravel
by R, and the wooden troughing or side guards by W.
Asphalte laid in longitudinal strips, as described, or in detached blocks,
may be employed as a substitute for timber sleepers under the rails of
tramways laid as at present, or railways. When blocks are used it is
desirable to provide them with bottom plates of iron, through which
the rail or chair bolts should pass. When greater elasticity is required
for any of the foregoing purposes, I prefer to employ an asphalte pre-
pared with peat, spent tan, or sawdust, according to the Specification of
my Letters Patent, Number 1264, of the present year, entitled "Im-
provements in the Preparation and Utilization of Bituminous Asphalte."
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the best means
known to me for carrying the same into effect, what I claim is, the
manufacture and use of tramways consisting of strips of asphalte laid in
the public streets or roadways, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Alexander Lyttle, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of December,
in the year of our Lord 1872.
In the presence of
A. E. Twiss,
Euston Square,
N.W.
W. A. LYTTLE. (L.S.)