IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Price Williams, of No. 9, Great George
Street, Westminster, and James Price, of Highfield House, North
Circular Road, in the City of Dublin, for the Invention of
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Price Williams
and James Price at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 12th October 1871.
We, RICHARD PRICE WILLIAMS, of No. 9, Great George Street,
Westminster, and JAMES PRICE, of Highfield House, North Circular
Road, in the City of Dublin, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS,”
to be as follows:-
=
This Invention has for its object the use and application of certain
materials to be interposed between the rails and their supports on tho
permanent way of railways, wherever these supports are of a rigid
nature, as wrought-iron or other metal or stone.

page_text: For this purpose we employ a material herein-after described that we
call wood asphalte, or we employ other compounds of gas tar, or
bitumen, or asphalte. The material we call wood asphalte is made
by mixing dry sawdust or peat with boiled tar, pitch, bitumen, or
asphalte compounds, the sawdust or peat to take the place of sand t
in ordinary tar asphalte, into which may be introduced shavings, chips,
or other vegetable or animal waste.
We purpose to employ wrought-iron sleepers of a U section, or of
any suitable trough section, with or without flanges, along their top
edges. The sleepers may be placed either longitudinally or trans- 1
versely of the line of rail.
If the sleepers are placed longitudinally, we fill in the trough-shaped
sleeper with wood asphalte, or other compound of gas tar, bitumen, or
asphalte, so as to form a solid filling.
If a rail with a flat base is used, the base of the rail may be made to 1
rest on the surface of the filling and be held down thereto by clip
pieces drawn down on to the base of the rail by nuts screwing on to
the ends of a curveḍ rod, which is passed under the sleeper, and up
through holes in its side flanges, and through the clip plates themselves.
The filling may be made to project over the side flanges of the sleeper, 2
if desired, and other methods of holding down the rail on to the surface
of such filling than that above described may be adopted.
=
Where the rails are fish jointed to one another, the fish plates in
addition to being bolted to the rails, may also be secured by bolts to
the sleepers. Portions of the side flanges of the iron sleepers may 2
also if desired be turned, over at intervals to overlap the base of the
rail.
If the sleepers are placed transversely of the lines of rail, a filling of
wood asphalte, or other compound of gas tar, or bitumen, or asphalte
may likewise be employed, and the base of the rail made to rest on 3
such filling, and be held down to it by bolts passed through the side
flanges of the sleepers, or chairs may be fixed on to the filling, and rails
be held in such chairs. The filling also of wood asphalte, or gas tar,
asphalte, or bituminous compounds need not extend from end to end
of each transverse sleeper, but may be applied under each of the chairs 3
or rails, and so as to extend somewhat beyond them, or in addition to

page_text: or in place of the filling of wood asphalte, or other asphaltes, strips of
vulcanized india-rubber or other elastic material might be placed
between the base of the rails and the side flanges of the sleepers, and
the rails be secured by bolts passed down through the elastic strips
and the flanges of the sleepers.
When india-rubber is used it may be attached by what is known as
Sterne's process to the flanges of the sleepers, or to a thin plate of.
metal of the size required for each packing piece, or mere strips of
vulcanized india-rubber may be employed. By thus interposing elastic
material between the base of the rail and the flanges of the sleepers, all
jarring and rattling between the rail and sleepers is prevented, and the
nuts of the screw bolts which connect them together are less liable to
become loose. Sleepers rest in the ballast in the ordinary manner, and
when strips of elastic material are between the rails and sleepers, the
sleepers are by preference also filled internally with ballast where not

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Richard Price Williams and James Price in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 12th April 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, RICHARD
PRICE WILLIAMS, of No. 9, Great George Street, Westminster, and &
JAMES PRICE, of Highfield House, North Circular Road, in the City of
Dublin, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of October, in the year.
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-ono, in the thirty- 1
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give.
and grant unto us, the said Richard Price Williams and James Price,
Her special license that wo, the said Richard Price Williams and
James Price, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as we, the said Richard Prico Williams and James Price, our executors, 1
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 2
THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAys," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said Richard Price Williams and James Price, our exccutors
or administrators, 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 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 Richard Price Williams, on behalf
of myself and the said James Price, do hereby declare the nature of 3
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 the use and application of certain
materials to be interposed between the rails and their supports on the 3

page_text: permanent way of railways, wherever these supports are of a rigid
nature, as wrought iron or other metal or stone.
For this purpose we employ a material herein-after described that we.
call wood asphalte, or we employ other compounds of gas tar, or
bitumen, or asphalte. The material we call wood asphalte is made by.
mixing dry sawdust or peat with boiled tar, pitch, bitumen, or asphalte
compounds; the sawdust or peat to take the place of sand in ordinary
tar asphalte, into which may be introduced shavings, chips, or other
vegetable or animal waste.
We purpose to employ wrought-iron sleepers of a U section or of any
suitable trough section with or without flanges along their top edges.
The sleepers may be placed either longitudinally or transversely of the
line of rail.
If the sleepers are placed longitudinally, we fill in the trough-shaped.
sleeper with wood asphalte or other compound of gas tar, bitumen, or
asphalte, so as to form a solid filling.
:
i
F
If a rail with a flat base is used, the base of the rail may be made to
rest on the surface of the filling, and be held down thereto by clip pieces:
drawn down on to the base of the rail by nuts screwing on to the ends of>
a curved rod, which is passed under the sleeper, and up through holes in.
its side flanges, and through the clip plates themselves.
The filling may be made to project over the side flanges of the sleeper,.
if desired, and other methods of holding down the rail on to the surface
of such filling than that above described may be adopted.
Where the rails are fish jointed to one another, the fish plates in
addition to being bolted to the rails may also be secured by bolts to the
sleepers. Portions of the side flanges of the iron sleepers may also, if
desired, be turned over at intervals to overlap the base of the rail.
}
}
If the sleepers are placed transversely of the lines of rail, a filling of
wood asphalte, or other compound of gas tar, or bitumen, or asphalte
may likewise be employed, and the base of the rail made to rest on such
filling, and be held down to it by bolts passed through the side flanges
of the sleepers, or chairs may be fixed on to the filling, and rails be held
in such chairs. The filling also of wood asphalte, or gas tar, asphalte, or
bituminous compounds need not extend from cud to end of such
transverso sleeper, but may be applied under each of the chairs or

page_text: rails, and so as to extend somewhat beyond them, or in addition to
or in place of the filling of wood asphalte or other asphaltes, strips
of vulcanized india-rubber or other elastic material might be placed
between the base of the rails and the side flanges of the sleepers, and
the rails be secured by bolts passed down through the elastic strips and
the flanges of the sleepers.
When india-rubber is used it may be attached, by what is known as
Sterne's process, to the flanges of the sleepers or to a thin plate of metal
of the size required for each packing picce, or mere strips of vulcanized
india-rubber may be employed. By thus interposing clastic material
between the base of the rail and the flanges of the sleepers all jarring
and rattling between the rail and sleepers is prevented, and the nuts
of the screw bolts which connect them together are less liable to become
loose. The transverse sleepers rest in the ballast in the ordinary manner,
and when strips of elastic material are between the rails and sleepers,
the sleepers are by preference also filled internally with ballast where
not occupied by the asphalte.
The fish joints for connecting the rails end to end are arranged to be
over the gaps or hollows in the U shaped transverse sleepers, and thus
we are enabled to obtain a suspended fish joint with a very short 1
bearing.
In some cases we form metal sleepers with a box or cavity at the top,
to be partly filled with wood asphalte or other compound of gas tar,
or bitumen, or asphalte, sufficient room being left to receive the base of
a chair, which will fit accurately into the box, and will rest on the
surface of the filling, and be capable of playing like a piston in the
box.
When using stone sleepers a similar cavity is hollowed out of
sufficient depth to allow a good bed of asphalte, and the chairs fitted
into it as above described.
In the Drawings hereunto annexed we have shewn various examples
of permanent way constructed as herein-before described.
In the transverse section of a line of railway shewn at Figure 1,
the sleepers a, a, are of wrought iron of a U section, and are to be
filled with the material herein-before called wood asphalte, or with other
compound of gas tar, bitumen, or asphalte; the base of the rail & rests

page_text: upọn this filling, and clip pieces c are drawn down on to the top of the
base by bolts d, which are screwed on to curved rods e, these rods are
passed under the sleeper, and up through holes in its side flanges, and
through the clip plates; ff, are strips of felt or other like material
interposed between the clip pieces and the flanges of the sleepers, and
also between the clip pieces and the base of the rails; 9, 9, are
tie rods passed across, at intervals of a few feet apart, from one sleeper
to another, to keep the rails at a uniform distance from one another.

page_text: extend somewhat beyond them; the asphalte filling may also extend
over the side flanges of the sleeper, as shewn, so as to come between
the rails and these flanges. Figures 6, 7, and 8 also shew how the fish
joints for connecting the rails end to end aro arranged to be over the
hollows of the U shaped sleepers, by which a suspended fish joint with a 5
very short bearing is obtained.
In place of or in addition to employing a filling of asphalte with the
transverse trough sleepers, strips of vulcanized india-rubber might be
interposed between the flanges of the sleeper and the base of the rail,
as shewn at Figure 9, and as herein-before described, or other clastic 1
material might similarly be interposed. In this case, if a filling of
asphalte is not employed, the sleepers should be filled internally with
the ordinary ballast.
In place also of the transverse sleepers in the construction shown at
Figures 6, 7, 8, and 9, being of a U section they might be of other trough 1
section with side flanges for the rail to be secured to.
Figure 10 shews a vortacal section, and Figure 11 a plan view of a
metal sleeper formed with a box or cavity at the top to be partly filled
with asphalte compound, and to receive the base of a chair which is to
rest upon the filling. a is the box or cavity; b, the asphalte filling; 2
c the base of the chair resting thereon and fitting accurately into the
box, so as to bo capable of playing like a piston therein; d, d, are bolts
for holding down the chair.
...
At Figures 12, 13, and 14 is shewn a modification of this arrange-
ment, in which a rail with a flat base is employed, and the base of the 2
rail rests upon the top of the piston c, and is held down by clip pieces
and bolts and nuts, as shown. In a similar manner other forms of
sleeper may be constructed with boxes or cavities to receive a filling of
asphalto for a piston or the base of a chair to rest upon and support or
carry the rail.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, we would have it understood that we claim as
our improvements in the permanent way of railways,―
1. The various constructions of the permanent way of railway, sub-
tantially as homin dihad
30

page_text: 2. The employment of compounds herein-before called wood asphalte,
or other compounds of gas tar, bitumen, or asphalte, interposed between
the rails and sleepers or supports of iron, or stone, or other rigid
material, substantially as herein described.
In .witness whereof, I, the said Richard Price Williams, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of April, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
two.