IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PERMANENT WAY OF BAILWAYS
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Ewing Pye Colquhoun and John Pardoe Ferris,
both of No. 1, Laurence Pountney Hill, Cannon Street, in the City of
London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PERMANENT WAY OF
BAILWAYS."
Sealed the 28th July 1865, and dated the 31st January 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Ewing Pye Colquhoun
and John Pardoe Ferris at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 31st January 1865.
We, EWING PYE COLQUHOUN and JOHN PARDOE FERRIS, both of No. 1,
Laurence Pountney Hill, Cannon Street, in the City of London, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PERMANENT
WAY OF RAILWAYS," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to make a road elastic and durable, which
we purpose to effect in the following manner:-The sleepers or blocks are of
cast iron, of a form and size best suited to the soil in which they are to be
placed; in the centre of the sleeper or block is a recess or chamber in which
the lower portion of the chair works; the sleepers or blocks are connected
transversely by tie rods; the chair is also of cast iron, the root of the jaws
terminating in a plate having on the under side a projecting rim which works
up and down freely in the recess or chambered part of the sleeper, and which
serves to keep the chair in position. On the upper surface of the plate, of the
chair are cast the ordinary jaws of a main line chair to carry the rail in the

page_text: usual manner.
Between the sleeper and the chair, and surrounding the pro-
jecting rim on the under side of the chair, is an india-rubber ring or washer
which acts as a spring and produces the desired elasticity.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed by
the said Ewing Pye Colquhoun and John Pardoe Ferris in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 29th July 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, EWING
PYE COLQUHOUN and JOHN PARDOE FERRIS, both of No. 1, Laurence Pountney
Hill, Gannon Street, in the City of London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said Ewing Pye Colquhoun and John Pardoe Ferris, Her special
licence that we, the said Ewing Pye Colquhoun and John Pardoe Ferris, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Ewing
Pye Colquhoun and John Pardoe Ferris, our 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 THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said Ewing Pye Colquhoun and John
Pardoe Ferris, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under our, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Ewing Pye Colquhoun and John
Pardoe Ferris, 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 and accompanying Drawings
that is to say:-
The object of this Invention is to make a road at once elastic and durable.
This we purpose to effect in the following manner :-The sleepers or blocks are

page_text: of cast iron, of a form and size best suited to the soil in which they are to be
placed; in the centre of the sleeper or block is a recess or chamber in which
the lower portion of the chair works; the sleepers or blocks are connected
transversely by tie rods; the chair is also of cast iron, the root of the jaws
for holding the rails terminating in a plate having on the under side a pro-
jecting rim which works up and down freely in the recess or chambered part
of the sleeper, and which serves to keep the chair in position. On the upper
surface of the plate, which forms the base of the chair, are cast the jaws of an
ordinary chair to carry the rail in the usual manner. Between the sleeper
and the chair, and surrounding the projecting rim on the under side of the
chair, is an india-rubber ring or washer which acts as a spring and produces
the desired elasticity.
Fig. 1, half-size longitudinal section of the sleeper or block and chair, with
the elastic ring and the ordinary jaws, rail, and wood key; Fig. 2, half-size
transverse section of the same.
A, A, A, sleeper or block with recess or chamber B for receiving the ring on
the under side of the chair; C, C, base of chair with the jaws of a common
chair cast thereon; D, D, ring cast in the under side of the base of the chair
serving to keep it in gauge and retain the elastic ring in position; E, E, elastic
washer or ring between the block and chair and encircling the ring D, D.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and the manner iu
which the same is to be performed, we wish it to be understood that we do
not confine ourselves to the precise details of construction, as the same may
be modified without departing from the principle or main feature of our
Invention, but what we do claim is, the producing an elastic permanent way
in the manner herein described and illustrated by the annexed Drawings.
In witness whereof, we, the said Ewing Pye Colquhoun and John Pardoe
Ferris, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-ninth day
of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-five
EWING PYE COLQUHOUN. (L.S.)
JOHN PARDOE FERRIS.
(L.S.)