IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Henry Johnson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
7th January 1863.
1, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, and of 166, Buchanan Street. in the City of Glasgow, North
Britain, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS," a communication
from abroad by Alcide Louis Joseph Huber, of Paris, in the Empire of France,
to be as follows:-
This. Invention relates to certain improved constructions of sleepers
employed in the permanent way of railways, and consists, according to one
modification, in using lighter sleepers, whereby a considerable saving of timber
is effected whilst the proper stability of the way is retained by attaching on the
upper surface at those parts where the rails rest or the chairs are secured,
Price Sd.1

page_text: and which are most liable to decay, extra blocks of oak or other durable
wood of a suflicient length only to give a firm support to the rails.
According to another modification if is proposed to employ short blocks of
timber of the ordinary section of sleepers for supporting the rails, or rails and
chairs, and to connect these blocks by bars of iron on the upper and under
side. which bars form the intermediate portion of the sleeper between the rail-
hearing surfaces. It has been found that ordinary wooden sleepers deteriorate
rapidly at the rail-bearing portions, whilst the intermediate portion of the
sleeper remains comparatively sound, but is necessarily lost by reason of the
decay in the other parts.
By the adoption of this Invention the sound parts of old sleepers may
be turned to account by cutting them out and using them as blocks for sup-
porting the rails. connecting such blocks by tie-bars as herein-before described.
Or the old sleeper may be split so as to remove the unsound portions and used
as a light sleeper with oak blocks or shoes attached for the support of the
rails, as described in the first modification.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Henry Johnson in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 6th July 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex,
and of 166, Buchanan Street, in the City of Glasgow, North Britain, Gentle-
man, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and. sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Henry Johnson, Her special license that 1, the said John
Henry Johnson, my executors, administrators, and assigns. or such others
as I, the said John Henry Johnson, my executors, administrators.
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," a communication
from abroad by Alcide Louis Joseph Huber, of Paris, in the Empire of

page_text: France, upon the condition (amongst others) that I. the said John Henry
Johnson, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and scal, or under the hand and seal of one of them should par-
ticularly 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 John Henry Johnson, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is io
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and
to the letters and figures marked thereon. that is to say:-
.
The said Invention relates to certain improved constructions of sleepers
employed in the permanent way of railways. and consists, according to one
modification, in using lighter sleepers, whereby a considerable saving of timber
is effected whilst the proper stability of the way is retained by attaching on the
upper surface at those parts where the rails rest or the chairs are secured, and
which are most liable to decay, extra blocks of oak or other durable wood of a
sufficient length only to give a firm support to the rails.
According to another modification it is proposed to employ short blocks of
timber of the ordinary section of sleepers for supporting the rails. or rails and
chairs, and to connect these blocks by bars of iron, which bars form the inter-
mediate portion of the sleeper between the rail-bearing surfaces. It has been
found that ordinary wooden sleepers deteriorate rapidly at the rail-bearing
portions, whilst the intermediate portion of the sleeper remains comparatively
sound, but is necessarily lost or wasted by reason of the decay in the other
parts.
By the adoption of this Invention the sound parts of old sleepers may be
turned to account by cutting them out and using them as blocks for sup-
porting the rails, connecting such blocks by tic-bars as herein-before described.
Or the old sleeper may be split so as to remove the unsound portions and used
as a light sleeper with oak blocks or shoes attached for the support of the
rails as described in the first modification.
And in order that the said Invention may be fully understood. I shall now
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose shall
refer to the several Figures on the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, the
same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts in all the correspond-
ing Figures.
Figures and 2 of the Drawings represent, in side elevation and plan

page_text: respectively, the peculiar construction of sleeper herein-before first referred to.
A is the main body of the sleeper, which need not be more than one half
the thickness of the ordinary transverse sleeper. Upon this comparatively
thin and light sleeper are secured by means of screw pins a, a, or by bolts or
spikes, the shoes or blocks B, B. of oak, which constitute the rail-bearing
portions of the sleeper. When these locks which support the rail or the
chair, as the case may be, become worn out, they can be readily removed
and replaced by new ones without requiring the entire removal of the
sleeper.
Another advantage gained by using a sleeper of this construction is a saving
of ballast or road metal, as the surface between the rails may be made in a
concave form in place of convex. The dotted line shews the contour of the
ballast as usually laid, and the full line represents the surface which it may be
made to assume with the improved sleepers. such sleepers requiring a thinner
covering of ballast than the existing ones. Figures 3 and 4 represent respec-
tively a side elevation and plan of the second modification of sleeper herein-
before referred to. A. A, are two blocks of wood which may be formed from
old sleepers by using the sound parts only. These blocks are connected or tied
together by metal levers or rods B, B. placed on each side of or on the upper
and under surfaces of the blocks A to which they are united by bolts or long
screws or spikes b. b. I prefer. however, to employ screws or spikes, as in that
case the same length of screw or spike will answer equally well for sleepers of
greater width than those for which they may have been originally intended.
Figure 3 also shows the concave laying of the ballast between the rails. In
Figures 5 and 6 the blocks A, A, are made rather longer than is shown in the
two Figures last referred to, by which means the weight of the iron tie bars B
will be diminished by the shortening of such bars. Figures 7 and 8 represent
a sleeper composed of two halves A, A, of an old sleeper, having their worn
ends placed together, and their sound ends, which previously formed the middle
of the old sleeper, placed outside to receive the rails or chairs. B, B, are the
connecting bars which tie or splice the two halves of the sleeper together.
Figures 9 and 10 represent the application of this Invention to the triangular
form of sleeper. In the case of sleepers of a semicircular or half round section
it will be requisite to flatten the sides slightly by removing a small portion of
the timber in order to leave a flat junction surface or bed for the ends of the
tic bars to bear against.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the said
Invention and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to be novel and

page_text: original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent, is,
First. the general constructions of transverse sleepers for the permanent way
of railways as herein-before described.
Second, the application and use of sleepers composed of blocks of wood
for supporting the rail or chair. such blocks being connected or tied together
by metal rods or bars substantially as herein-before described.
Third, the system or mode of utilizing old or worn sleepers by manufacturing
the improved sleepers from the sound portions of such old sleepers as herein-
before described.
Fourth, the application and use of sleepers made thinner or less deep than
the ordinary sleeper, and having blocks of oak or other hard wood secured
to their upper surfaces, such blocks forming the surface upon which the rail or
chair is secured as herein-before described.
In witness whereof. I. the said John Henry Johnson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal this Nineteenth day of June. One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-three.
J. HENRY JOHNSON. (t.s.)