IMPROVEMENTS IN SECURING THE RAILS IN RAILWAYS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Lewis Normandy, of 67, Judd Street, Brunswick
Square, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Lewis Normandy at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 1st
November 1855.
I, LEWIS NORMANDY, of 67, Judd Street, Brunswick Square, in the County
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SECURING THE RAILS IN RAILWAYS" to be as follows:-
The Invention consists in substituting railway chairs of rolled instead, of
cast iron, the intermediate chairs of this kind serving like the cast-iron ones
to support the rail, the joint chairs being made long enough to maintain
securely, the ends of the adjoining rails, so that splints may be dispensed with.
The base or foot of the rail a or R¹, however, is firmly clamped by both. In
the annexed Drawing, several dispositions of this improved system are repre-
sented in cross section, as applied to single "or double edged rails, the same
parts being represented by the same letters in all the Figures.
Fig. 1 and 2, rolled iron chairs formed of two pieces A. and B, fastened to
the rails either by bolts (C, D,) or by rivets; Fig. 3 and 4, chairs A made in
one piece, fixed either like the former ones, or merely fastened by placing it
on the rail red hot and letting it cool; Fig. 5 and 6, chairs made of one piece
and fastened to the rail by a wedge M, as is usually done. This chair may be

page_text: substituted for those ordinarily used as intermediate chairs. These different
chairs are rolled in long bars by means of suitable rollers, and cut of the
required length, either for intermediate or for joint chairs. The chairs made of
one piece are rolled in the shape seen on the annexed Drawing by means of the
last groove of the rollers through which they are drawn, which
groove bends
in the required shape the clamp or jaws e, e, which had been at first rolled at
right angles to their foot P. The form of these chairs vary, of course, as the
rail to which they are to be fitted is a single or double edged rail.
The chairs above described a d represented in the annexed Drawing may
be fixed on any kind of under bearing, and even on the balast, or directly on
the ground. I do not describe any particular mode of fixing, as some one or
other of the means at present in use on railways may be resorted to for the
purpose.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Lewis Normandy in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
15th April 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LEWIS
NORMANDY, of 67, Judd Street, Brunswick Square, in the County of Middlesex,
Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Lewis Normandy, Her special license that I, the said Lewis Normandy,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Lewis
Normandy, 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
SECURING THE RAILS IN RAILWAYS," a communication, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Lewis Normandy, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Lewis Normandy, do hereby declare,
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-,
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained 'in and by the following
statement:-
ones.
The Invention consists in substituting rolled iron railway chairs to cast-iron
The intermediate chairs of the said system serve to support the rail,
and the joint chairs are long enough to unite firmly together the joining ends
of rails, so as to dispense with the use of splints. Each of the said chairs fits
perfectly the mushroom-shaped base of the rail.
Figure 1 of the annexed Drawing is a transverse section of either an inter-
mediate or of a joint chair. a, b, is the rail, and the chair is a sort of box
composed of two jaws c, c, and a sole d. This box being made of a single
piece can be inade to fit the rail with sufficient accuracy to form a solid whole.
For this purpose, the piece should be rolled of nearly the required size, and
then put red hot in situ. The required tightening may also be obtained by
means of the screw bolt e, f, represented in dotted lines, uniting together
both the jaws of the chair and the rail. Instead of a screw bolt, a rivet
may be used.
For manufacturing the chairs according to the above-mentioned plan, bars
of iron are rolled in the required shape between suitable rollers: The bars
thus obtained have a sole and two straight jaws, as represented at g, h, g, h,
by dotted lines, Figure 1. The said bars are then cut into pieces of the
required length, either by means of a circular saw, when still hot, or by placing
them on a lathe similar to those used for utting the rails. When this first
operation is finished, the pieces are put again in the fire, if necessary, and
they are shaped by means of a tilt or of a steam hammer, or of a press,, on
a mandril, so as to give the jaws the form c, h, c, h, so that they may clasp
accurately the footing of the rail. The jaws g, h, g, h, might also be brought
to the shape c, h, c, h, by passing under the rollers. To effect this, before
cutting the bars into pieces they should be passed between grooved rollers to
bring them progressively to the required shape. Some kinds of iron can
neither be rolled nor stamped with sufficient precision to be able to be brought
in close contact on the rail merely by cooling or by the tightening of the screw
bolt or rivet, and yet the solidity of the joint depends upon this close contact;
in that case the flexibility of the sole should be increased in order to allow a
little play in the interior of the chair so as to be able to place the rail in it
with ease.
This may be done by the disposition represented in Figure 2 and 3,
and which consists in shaping the sole of the chair in the rolling operation so
as to weaken it in the middle by a groove. The thickness, and consequently

page_text: the stiffness of the iron, being thus lessened at this point, the groove may be
cut under the sole, as seen at i, Figure 2,'or within the chair, as seen at k,
Figure 3. In these two Figures the letters' a, b, c, d, e, f, h, have the same
meaning as in Figure 1.
On account of the weakening of the sole resulting from the presence of the
groove just mentioned, the use of a bolt or rivet is obligatory. Lastly, instead
of the groove i or k, the chair may be composed of two separate pieces, as
shown, Figure 4. a, b, the rail; c, h, c, h, the two independent jaws, each of
them rolled with half of the sole d. When set on the rail they are separated
at m; and e, f, is the tightening bolt; a rivet might be used instead of a bolt.
The rolling of such chairs presents no difficulty; the round shape of the jaws
may be directly rolled up without using any special mandril or groove, because
each half chair has an open profile in reference to the axis of the rail, and
when iron of a common quality is employed, I consider that this arrangement
is preferable.
Instead of making the solution of continuity of the jaws under the axis of
the rail, it may be made laterally, in which case the jaws will no longer have
a similar shape, as seen in Figure 5, in which the same letters have the same
meaning as in Figure 4. In the two last dispositions, as in the two preceding
ones, the jaws are fastened on the rail either by means of the bolts or
rivets e, f.
Figure 6 is the front view of an intermediate chair of rolled iron, fixed on
a cross sleeper; Figure 7 is a similar front view of a junction chair, also on a
cross sleeper. In these two Figures the same pieces are represented by the
same letters.
a, b, rail; c, jaws of the chair; d, soles; e, tightening bolts; o, crooked
spike for fastening the chair on the wooden sleeper p. The junction chair,
Figure 7, is made fast on the rail by four screw bolts; they might be
fastened only with three or with two bolts, according to the degree of stiffness
required between two contiguous rails. According to the nature of the wood
sleeper, the chairs might be fastened either by screws or common spikes passed
through suitable holes bored through their sole.
Figures 6 and 7 are front views of any of the chairs represented in cross
sections in Figure 2, 3, 4, and 5; they may also represent the chair, Figure 1,
except the bolt to fix it to the rail, which may sometimes be dispensed with.
The chairs above described, instead of being fixed on cross sleepers, might
be fixed on longitudinal wooden sleepers; they might also be fixed on cast-iron
blocks or sole plates, as seen in Figure 9. a, b, rail; c, h, d, c, h, d, rolled iron
chair, of any of the sorts described before, and seen in the annexed Drawing,

page_text: Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; e, f, tightening bolt of the chair on the rail; g, g,
cast-iron resting block or plate; t, t, rolled iron cross piece; r, s, r, s, bolts for
fixing the chair on the cast-iron or wood blocks or sole plates.
By a slight modification the several chairs represented, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7,
might be so made as to lie directly on the ground or on the ballast; for that
purpose the soles should be made wider, so as to form a footing of sufficient
size. Figure 10 represents a chair of that description. a, b, rail; c, h, d,
c, h, d, chair with a wide sole; e, f, bolts for tightening the chair on the rail;
r, s, r, s, rivets or bolts for fixing the chair on the cross sleepers t, t, made of
angle or T-shaped rolled iron.
Figure 8 represents another system of chair, which can also be easily made
by passing under the rollers; such chairs do not require any bolt passing
through the rails. There is a moveable jaw, which is pressed against the rail
by means of a bolt or wood screw entering the cross sleeper or block. a, b,
rail; c, h, d, d, rolled iron chair; u, crooked heel of the sole d, d; v, v, the
moveable jaw, as aforesaid; x, x, wood screw or bolt, fastening the moveable
jaw, and pressing it on the rail.
Lastly, the rolled iron chairs, as aforesaid, may be made to grasp the rail by
means of a wooden wedge, as usually practised with the common cast-iron
chairs. Figure 11 is the transverse section of such a chair. a, b, rail; c, h, d,
c, h, d, rolled iron chair; the jaw c¹, h', does not fit the rail, but it is
separated from it, and a wedge z is placed in that space for tightening the rail.
In all the chairs represented on the annexed Drawing the sole is in a plane
parallel to the axis of the rail, and the inclination of the rail is obtained by
setting the sole in the cross sleeper. The chairs might also be rolled up, so as
to have the sole in the required slanting direction, and the letting-in would be
in a horizontal plane; but in that case the chair could not be reversed, so as
to place it at the other end of the sleeper. For such a purpose the first or
second disposition should be employed, as the case may be.
In witness whereof, I, the said Lewis Normandy, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of April, One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-six
Signed, sealed, and delivered in the
presence of
A. NORMANDY.
LEWIS NORMANDY. (L.S.)