IM- PROVEMENTS IN FASTENING RAILWAY RATTO
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Thompson, of Manor House, 124,
Camberwell Road, and John Thompson, of 46, Camberwell
Green, both in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN FASTENING RAILWAY RATTO "
Sealed the 21st July 1868, and dated the 18th February 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Thompson
and John Thompson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 18th February 1868.
We, JOSEPH THOMPSON, of Manor House, 124, Camberwell Road,
and JOHN THOMPSON, of 46, Camberwell Green, both in the County of
Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN FASTENING RAILWAY RAILS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in fastening railway
rails. At the present time the ends of railway rails are usually
connected the one to the other by means of fish plates and screw
bolts passing through the fish plates and the web of the rail, and
receiving screw nuts upon them. These nuts at the present time

page_text: require to be frequently screwed up, the traffic on the line causing a
vibration which turns them on the screw bolts. The object of the
present Invention is to prevent the nuts so turning, and so to save the
cost of the superintendence which is now necessary. For this purpose
each bolt is filed or formed. flat on one or more sides at the part
where the screw thread is cut, and the screw nuts are each formed
with a mortise or key way into which when the nut is screwed home
a taper key is driven, and this bearing against the flattened side of
the bolt effectually prevents the nut turning upon it. Or the nut
may have a notch cut in it on one side extending down into the bolt
hole in the nut; this notch is wider at the bottom than the top,
so that a key or wedge of corresponding form driven into it endwise
or in a direction at right angles to a radius of the bolt hole in the nut
cannot escape outwards from the notch, and the key or wedge locks the
bolt and nut together as in the former case, the key or wedge bearing
against a flattened side of the bolt. In either arrangement the key
or wedge may be split at its smaller end, and opened out when it has
been driven to prevent its return.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Joseph Thompson and John Thompson in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 18th August 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOSEPH
THOMPSON, of Manor House, 124, Camberwell Road, and JOHN
THOMPSON, of 46, Camberwell Green, both in the County of Surrey,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent bearing date the Eighteenth day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs, and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Joseph Thompson and John Thomp-
son, Her special licence that we, the said Joseph Thompson and John
Thompson, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as we, the said Joseph Thompson and John Thompson, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with and no

page_text: 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
FASTENING RAILWAY RAILS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we,
the said Joseph Thompson and John Thompson, our executors or ad-
ministrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and
seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what man-
ner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Joseph Thompson and John
Thompson, 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 :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in fastening railway
rails. At the present time the ends of railway rails are usually con-
nected the one to the other by means of fish plates and screw bolts
passing through the fish plates and the web of the rail and receiving
screw nuts upon them. These nuts at the present time require to be
frequently screwed up, the traffic on the line causing a vibration which
turns then on the screw bolts.
The object of the present Invention is to prevent the nuts so turning
and so to save the cost of the superintendence which is now necessary.
For this purpose each bolt is filed or formed flat on one or more sides
at the part where the screw thread is cut, and the screw nuts are
each formed with a mortise or key way into which when the nut is
screwed home a taper key is driven, and this bearing against the flat-
tened side of the bolt effectually prevents the nut turning upon it.
Or the nut may have a notch cut in it on one side extending down
into the bolt hole in the nut, this notch is wider at the bottom than
the top so that a key or wedge of corresponding form driven into it
endwise or in. a direction at right angles to a radius of the bolt hole
in the nut cannot escape outwards from the notch and the key or
wedge locks the bolt and nut together as in the former case, the key
or wedge bearing against a flattened side of the bolt. In either

page_text: and readily carried into effect we will proceed to describe the Drawings
hereunto annexed..
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is a side view, and Figure 2 is a plan shewing the ends
of two railway rails mounted in chairs and connected with fish plates,
all in the usual way except that the bolts and nuts employed are so
constructed that when the nuts are screwed up they can, as above
described, be locked upon the stems of the bolts in the positions to
which they have been brought. Figure 3 shows separately and full
size or thereabout one of the bolts with its nut locked upon it. Figure 4
is an end view of the same, and Figure 5, shows a side view of
the bolt with the nut upon it and the locking key in section; as
will be seen a mortice is cut through the nut at right angles to
the length of the bolt, the mortice enters the bolt hole to a depth of
about one-sixteenth of an inch. The mortice is, by preference, made
taper as is shewn to receive a key or wedge of a corresponding taper
form. The threaded portion of the bolt is (for a part of its length),
as the Drawing represents, flattened or filed away on one or other
number of sides to the extent of about half the depth of the screw
thread. The Drawing only represents one flattened side to each bolt,
but in practice it will usually be flattened on four sides. In securing
the fish plates the nuts are screwed up tight, but taking care to
leave the mortice to correspond with one or other of the flattened
sides of the bolt, the locking key is then inserted and driven home,
this key may advantageously be split at its end so that the two ends
may be spread or opened out, as is shown in Figure 1, in such manner
that no shaking or accidental blows can dislodge the key but it may
yet nevertheless be readily removed if desired by again closing together
the split ends.
Figures 6, 7, and 8 show a bolt, nut, and locking key similar to
those shown at Figures 3, 4, and 5 except that the key way in the
nut is circular and the key is of corresponding form. The formation
of the circular key way is somewhat more easy than the angular key
way as it can readily be drilled, and this is best done when the nut

page_text: is screwed on its bolt. If the key way be required taper as the
Drawing represents it will be necessary to rime out the hole, but for
facility of construction the key way may be left parallel, and a parallel
key or locking pin is then used, but it may advantageously be flattened
or filed away in any inclined direction more at the point than at the
head. Figures 9, 10, and 11, show another similar bolt with its nut
and locking key, but here the hole for the key is replaced by a groove
cut in the side of the nut down to the bolt hole formed through it.
The groove, as is shown, is cut wider at the bottom than at the top so
that it may securely retain the key.
In witness whereof, we, the said Joseph Thompson and John
Thompson, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Fifteenth
day of August, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-eight.