CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY CHAIRS
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Bentley, Manager of the Holyhead Gas Tube
Works, at Wednesbury, in the County of Stafford, and John Stringer,
Licensed Victualler, also of Wednesbury, in the same County, for the
Sealed the 22nd May 1860, and dated the 14th December 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Bentley and John
Stringer at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Peti-
tion, on the 14th December 1859.
We, SAMUEL BENTLEY, Manager of the Holyhead Gas Tube Works, at Wed-
nesbury, in the County of Stafford, and JOHN STRINGER, Licensed Victualler,
also of Wednesbury, in the same County, do hereby declare the nature of
our said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY CHAIRS," to be as
follows (that is to say):-
Our improvements in railway chairs consist in forming, forging, or casting
one side or lateral bearing on the seat or base of the chair, and the other we
connect by a hinge joint, and holding the two together for clipping the rail by
a screw bolt or bolts passing through them and the rail, and screwed up by
nuts and washers in the usual way, holes being formed in the seat for spikes
or screw bolts to pass down for securing the chair to the sleeper below; by this
arrangement the rail may be removed for the better adjustment, or to reverse
it, or for any other purpose. When using these chairs for receiving the two

page_text: ends of rails, we use two bolts and screws, one to pass through the end of each
rail, but for intermediate ones, one screw bolt will be found sufficient. In
manufacturing these chairs from wrought iron, we purpose bending them into
the desired shape in a hot state by suitable tools, nevertheless they may be cast
in the ordinary way.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel Bentley and John Stringer in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 14th June 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, SAMUEL
BENTLEY, Manager of the Holyhead Gas Tube Works, at Wednesbury, in the
County of Stafford, and JOHN STRINGER, Licensed Victualler, also of Wednes-
bury, in the same County, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Samuel Bentley and John Stringer, Her special license that we, the said
Samuel Bentley and John Stringer, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said Samuel Bentley and John Stringer, our execu-
tors, administrators, or 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN RAIL-
WAY CHAIRS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Samuel
Bentley and John Stringer, by an instrument in writing under our 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 we, the said Samuel Bentley and John Stringer, do
hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement (that is to say) :-
Our improvements in railway chairs consist in forming, forging, or casting
them in a general way, in such a form that one side or jaw for clipping the

page_text: rail shall be connected with and form a permanent part with the base or seat
of the chair, and to connect the other jaw by a hinge joint, and causing the
two jaws to clip and hold the rail between them by a bolt or bolts passing
through the rail and the jaw, such bolt being formed with a head on one end
and tapped or screwed at the other for receiving a nut and washer. And such
chairs may be secured to their respective sleepers by spikes or bolts in the
ordinary way; but in some instances it may be beneficial to have both jaws to
work on hinge joints, so that by throwing them back the rail may be freely
placed in position to be held by the jaws being closed and bolted, and the chair
bolted or secured to the sleeper. This plan of making railway chairs admits of
being readily cut up and bent into the desired shape from suitable strip or flat
bar iron, and when applied will will possess equal strength with the heavy
cumbersome cast-iron chairs now generally in use, thereby rendering such
chairs of essential value in exporting them for foreign railways, for in that
case when worn out as chairs they will be valuable as scrap iron, and may be
used up for a variety of purposes; nevertheless this same principle admits of
such chairs being cast when desired.
But as our Invention will be best understood and it advantages more
appreciable as seen from the Drawings hereunto annexed, we will proceed to
describe the same, reference being made to the figures and letters marked

page_text: each rail, or this description of chair may, if preferred, be used for intermediate
chairs, but in a general way we believe that chairs with one bolt going through
the rail, the chair being properly secured to its respective sleeper, will be all
that will be required. The strengthening-up flange, referred to in Figure One,
is here exhibited marked b, b.
Fig. 3 represents a side view of a railway chair made according to our
improvements, of flat bar iron, which may, by the aid of any suitable machinery
or appliances, be made and bent up into form in a hot state with great rapidity
and consequent little cost; the permanent jaw commencing at N, terminates
in a circular joint at O, for receiving the pin P, which forms the hinge joint
or axis for the jaw Q, Q, to work on; these jaws are held and made to clip the
rail U, by the bolt and nut R and S. Chairs thus made we purpose holding
down to the sleepers, as here shown, the bolt or spike T going through the
moveable jaw, the dotted lines c, c, representing the jaw Qopen or thrown
back. Fig. 4 is simply a top view of Figure Three. It may be objected to
that chairs thus made will be found weak at the joint, but we are not bound
to terminate such joints in the manner described at Figure Three, as will be
seen by referring to Fig. 5, which represents a side view of a railway chair,
also made of flat bar iron, showing that both jaws may be constructed to work
on hinge joints, the one marked V working on the axis or pin W, which is
the same description of joint as described at Figure Three, but placed or formed
within the bolt X, by which the chair is secured to the sleeper. And for
diversity, the jaw Y is made by bending the iron of which it is composed
around so as to form the joint with the pin or axis Z, returning again to the
top at Y, the two straps of the jaw being held together when in use, as here
shown, with the rail by the bolt A' and nut B', and in carrying out this
principle of double strapping the hinge joint, the part C¹ continues also around
the pin or bolt Z to D', and from there around to form the side and seat of
the chair, terminating at E¹ on the other side, the strap C and the two lower
parts being all held together down on the sleeper by the bolt F. Between
the jaw V and the side of the rail in this Figure, we have represented a thin
piece of lead or other suitable metal or material to counteract the vibration of
rolling stock moving over such chairs, and to ensure a uniform bearing
of contact between the inner surface of the jaw and the side of the rail,
not that the use of such material forms any part of our Invention; which
having now described, and the manner in which the same may be carried
into effect, we wish it understood that we do not purpose confining our-
selves to the exact form or details herein described and exhibited, as they
may be greatly varied without departing from the spirit of our Invention; but

page_text: what we claim and wish protected by these our in part recited Letters Patent
is, the making or forming of railway chairs with moveable jaws as herein
described and exhibited.
In witness whereof, we, the said Samuel Bentley and John Stringer,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Thirteenth day of June,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
Witness,
JAMES S. COCKINGS,
Patent Agent, Birmingham.
SAMUEL BENTLEY. (L.S.)
JOHN STRINGER.
(L.S.)