IMPROVEMENTS IN CONSTRUCTING THE PERMANENT WAYS OF RAILWAYS
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Wilhelm Friedrich Braun at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 27th August 1874.
I, WILHELM FRIEDRICH BRAUN, of Carlsbad, Bohemia, in the Empire.
of Austria, but temporarily residing in Salisbury Square, in the City of
London, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CONSTRUCTING THE PERMANENT WAYS OF RAILWAYS," to
be as follows :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in constructing the
permanent ways of railways, and relates,-
First. To the adaptation and use for securing and holding the rails in
the chairs of a metal wedge or inclined key taking into an inclined
recess in an abutment of the chair, and formed or provided with a
screwed. part furnished with a nut and spring check washer, or with a
check nut or equivalent device, so that when the wedge is driven home
it shall tighten against the rail or against a jaw or piece interposed
between the wedge and the rail, thereby holding the rail securely in its
place. The wedge is retained in position by the nut on its screwed part

page_text: which nut is prevented from moving by the spring check washer or by a
suitable check nut.
Secondly. The Invention relates to a method of combining the chairs
with the sleepers, so as to produce a simple, durable, and elastic road,
whether the sleepers be of stone, wrought iron, or other material. To
this end the sleeper is formed or provided with a socket or chamber in
which is placed a spiral spring, on whose upper end rests the bottom of
a plunger-shaped projecting portion of the chair, which enters the socket
or chamber somewhat as a pump plunger enters the pump cylinder.
1.
Figures 1 and 2 illustrate my Invention applied to a double headed rail.
The wedge a takes into a recess in the abutment 6 of the chair, which
recess is inclined from the horizontal, but in plan runs parallel to the
longitudinal centre line of the rail. The incline of the wedge is at the
inner or rail side, where it takes into a correspondingly inclined recess
in a jaw or metal piece c, so that when the wedge is driven home it
presses the jaw or piece c against the web of the rail, which is thereby
held with a firm pinch between the jaw or piece c and the opposite
abutment d of the chair. The part e of the wedge is screwed to form a
bolt which is fitted with a correspondingly screwed nut fretained in
position by a spiral spring washer g, or a check nut or other device may
be used for this purpose. The lower part of the chair is cast or formed
with a cylindrical projection / which takes into a corresponding socket
or chamber i formed in or attached to the sleeper k. In this socket or
chamber is a spiral spring which I prefer to make of gradually
increasing thickness, or cross sectional area so as to accommodate its
movements to the weights from time to time placed upon it, as described
in my Provisional Specification, Number 2356, filed the 6th day of July.
1874.
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11.
Figures 3 and 4 illustrate the application of the first part of my
Invention to chairs arranged for ordinary wood sleepers.
Figures 5, 6, and 7 shew the application to a single headed rail. In
this arrangement vibration of the lower part of the rail is prevented by
the part 6 of the abutment 6.
: Figures 8 and 9 shew an arrangement in which the moveable jaw or
piece c is dispensed with. In this case the recess in the abutment c is a
in plan inclined to the longitudinal centre line of the rail instead of
being inclined from the horizontal, and the wedge is inclined at its_