AN IMPROVE- MENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAYS
Year: 1835

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
DAY, of York Terrace, Peckham, in the County of Surrey, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King William the Fourth, by His
Letters Patent under the Seal appointed to be used instead of the Great Seal
of Scotland, bearing date at Edinburgh, the Tenth day of April now last
past, did give and grant unto me, the said John Day, His especial license,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John Day, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Day, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term of
years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within that part of His said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, called Scotland, aforesaid, my Invention of "AN IMPROVE-
MENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAYS;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said John Day,

page_text: by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe
and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His said Majesty's
Chancellary in Scotland within four calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Day, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and ascertained by
the Drawings hereunto annexed, and as follows, that is to say:-
My improvement or improvements in the construction of railways is or are
applicable to that description of iron railways which are commonly called edge
railways, because the wheels of the carriages which are to travel along such
railways apply and bear upon the uppermost edges of the iron rails, and the
said wheels have projecting flanges around their circumferences, in order to
retain the wheels in place upon the edges of the rails, by applying laterally
against the upright sides of the rails whenever there is any tendency for the
wheels to depart from or run laterally off the edges of the rails. And whereas
such edge railways have been hitherto usually made of iron bars of small
dimensions, which are fixed in and supported by iron bearers, called chairs,
which support the rails at intervals of between three and four feet apart, and
which chairs are based upon detached bearing blocks of stone or of wood
embedded in the earth or soil, and also in the ballasting of gravelly or other
covering whereof the railroad is constructed, the chairs being spiked down to
such stone or wood bearers. My said improvement or improvements consists
or consist in constructing the iron rails for edge railways with a sufficient
breadth of horizontal surface at the under side of the rail, to be supported upon
the earth or ballasting throughout the whole length of the rail, the earth or
ballasting being made sufficiently solid beneath the rail to bear the same,
wherefore the iron rails, according to my improvement or improvements, will
be equally supported by the earth or ballasting beneath every part of the
length thereof instead of being supported at intervals, leaving hollow un-
supported parts of the rails between their several points of support, as in the
The said broad horizontal surface at the
manner commonly practised.
under side of the iron rails, which, according to my improvement or improve-
ments, is to bear upon the earth or ballasting, as aforesaid, being a flat flange
or base plate, which is to be buried in the ballasting of gravel or other
covering of the railroad, in the same manner as the stone or wood bearers
usually employed are surrounded with the ballasting, the said flat horizontal

page_text: flange having an upright edge plate rising up from it in a vertical plane, and
formed in the same piece of metal as the flat horizontal flange, so as to pass
up through the ballasting in which that flat horizontal flange is embedded and
buried, in order to stand up above the surface of the ballasting or gravelly
covering at the usual height that the rails of edge railways stand above the
same, and the uppermost edge of the said upright edge plate being of a
suitable form and substance for the wheels of the railway carriages to travel
upon in the usual manner of edge railways. The said rails are to be cast in
iron, in such lengths as will be convenient for casting and for transporting, and
the ends of the several lengths may abut end to end, with suitable interlocking
pieces formed at the adjoining ends of each casting, and adapted to each other
so as to retain the joined extremity of each length from sinking or rising
independently of the joined extremity of the next length. And in order to
hold the said joined extremities firmly together in contact, bolts may bo
inserted through holes in suitable lugs or prominences of each casting, and
drawn up tight by wedge keys driven through across such bolts, and the
uppermost surface upon which the wheels of the railway carriages are to run
may be of cast iron in the same piece with the aforesaid vertical edge plate;
or, if wrought iron is preferred for. e surface upon which the wheels are to
run, a slight wrought-iron bar or rail oi suitable form may be inlaid with the cast
iron at the upper part of the edge plate at the time of casting in the mould, so
as to be firmly united like one piece with the edge plate, and forming an upper
surface thereto, or otherwise the upper part of the said edge plate may be cast
with a dovetailed groove extending all the length thereof, and adapted to re-
ceive an edge projection at the under side of the wrought-iron bar which is to
form the surface whereon the wheels are to run, and which projection may be
fastened into the said dovetailed groove by inserting thin flat wedges into the
groove by the side of the said projection beneath the wrought iron, in which case
the wrought iron may be in very long lengths, extending over several of the
shorter lengths of the cast iron, and thereby diminishing the frequency of
the joints in the surface over which the wheels are to travel. The edge plate
and horizontal base plate above mentioned are to be fortified at intervals by
brackets, which extend therefrom to the horizontal flange or base plate, and
which brackets being edgeways upwards and all cast in the same piece with
both the base plate and the edge plate will mutually strengthen the whole
casting. Or, instead of the above mentioned mode of joining the ends of the
several lengths of rails which are constructed according to my improvement
or improvements as aforesaid, each of the rails may be made in two parts,
applying to each other side by side, their junction being the vertical surface

page_text: of the edge plate, which will therefore be composed of two thicknesses, those
two thicknesses being united together by bolts passing crosswise through both,
and drawn tight by wedge keys, and by causing the ends of the several
lengths of one of the said thicknesses to overlap the other the joints of one
thickness may be brought opposite to the middle of the length of the other
corresponding thickness, and suitable lateral projections being formed on both
the vertical surfaces of the two thicknesses of the edge plate where they came
in contact, which projections by interlocking one with the other will prevent
one part or thickness sinking or rising independently of the other cor-
responding thickness. In this mode the transverse section of each part will
be of the form of the letter L, two of which combined together (thus, 1 L)
will be of the form of the letter T inverted (thus 1), which is the form of the
transverse section of the first-mentioned mode, and in the latter mode the two
thicknesses of the vertical edge plate may leave an opening between their
upper edges to form the dovetailed groove before mentioned, which is to
receive the edge projection at the under side of the wrought-iron bar or rail,
which is to form the surface whereon the wheels are to run, and the same
keying-up of the cross bolts, by which the two thicknesses are united, may
also close the dovetailed groove, so as to bite the said edge projection of
the wrought-iron bar in order to fasten the same in its intended place at the
upper surface of the cast-iron rails.
And for the more complete explanation of the mode of carrying my said
Invention into effect, I, the said John Day, have hereunto annexed two
Sheets of Drawings, wherein are exhibited iron rails constructed according to
the two modes above mentioned of executing my improvements. The writing
on the several Figures in the Drawings will explain the directions in which
the several views are taken, and the same letters of reference are used to
denote the same parts wherever they appear.
Sheet I. represents the rails according to the first mode above mentioned.
A in all the Figures is the horizontal flange or base plate, which presents the
flat horizontal under surface which is to bear upon the earth, or else (in case
that the earth is not naturally hard and firm) upon a solid foundation of the
ballasting or other suitable hard materials wherewith the earth is covered,
that hard foundation being suitably formed for bearing the said flat surface A
at the under side of the rails. B is the vertical edge plate rising up from the
middle of the breadth of the flat horizontal plate A, and a is the dovetailed
groove along the upper edge of B to receive the corresponding dovetail part 6
of the malleable iron rail D, which is to form the bearing surface for the
wheels to run upon. When the dovetail part is inserted into the dovetail

page_text: groove a it is fastened therein by means of thin wedge-keys, inserted and
driven in tight by the side of the dovetail part at the end of every length of
the cast iron, and also at every end or junction of the wrought iron. d, d, d,
are the brackets by which the flat flange plate A and the vertical edge plate
Bare fortified. e is a short prolongation of the vertical edge plate B at one
end of the extreme ends of each length of rail, which enters into a cor-
responding deficiency of the edge plate B at the end of the adjoining length
of rail, in order to reach over the end of the flat flange plate B, and interlock
therein, so as to give the end of one length a good bearing on the end of the
next length; and f is a filling-up piece of wrought iron which is inserted
crossways over the top of the prolongation e and beneath an overhanging part
of the dovetail groove a, so as to confine the interlocking part e down upon
the end of the flange plate B, and cross wedge-keys being inserted horizon-
tally through mortice holes at the ends of the filling piece f, and being driven
tight will retain the same firmly in place, and at the same time keep the ends
of the two adjoining edge plates B in correct lateral junction. E, E, are lugs
which are formed on the ends of each length of the rails, with mortice holes
passing longitudinally through them, which holes through the lugs E of
adjoining lengths correspond exactly, one in continuation of the other, so as to
be adapted to receive broad flat bolts g, having keyholes across their ends
to receive wedge cross keys both at the top and at the bottom of each bolt,
and which keys being driven tight will fasten the ends of the several lengths
of the rails firmly together, as is shown in the Drawing, the contact being
at the flat faces of the lugs E and at the ends of the flange plates A, and
also at the ends of the dovetail groove part a. F, F, are cross bars of
iron which extend from one rail to the other parallel rail, and are firmly
fastened to both, in order to tie the two together, and keep them at
an invariable distance asunder suitably for the wheels of the carriages.
The dotted lines G, G, represent similar bars, which may be inserted, if
required, to tie the adjacent rails of two parallel lines of railway together.
And note. Instead of fixing the malleable iron rail D into a dovetail groove
a at the upper part of the vertical edge plate B, the malleable iron may
be composed of two bars applied at each side of the upper edge of the
vertical edge plate B, which edge may in that case be of equal thickness
with the lower part of the same plate, the two malleable iron bars must
in that case be rebated, so as to meet each other over the upper edge of the
edge plate B, and obtain a bearing thereon, in the manner shewn at 1, 1, in
the separate section, Sheet I.; and the said two bars 1, 1, must be united
together and fastened to the upper edge of B by rivet pins p inserted hori-

page_text: zontally through all the thicknesses and rivetted fast. The said malleable iron
bars 7, 1, should be rolled in as long lengths as can be conveniently made, and
the two opposite bars should break joint with each other, that is to say, the
junctions of the ends of the bars at one side must fall opposite the middle parts
of the corresponding bars on the other side.
Sheet II. represents the rails according to the second mode herein-before
mentioned, and the same letters being used to denote the same parts, as in
Sheet I., a very brief explanation will be sufficient. The horizontal flange
plate is composed of two parts A and A', but they range together like one to
form the same flat bearing surface as A, in Sheet I. Also the vertical edge
plate is formed in two thicknesses B and B', united firmly together like one
by short bolts k, k, which are inserted crossways through mortice openings in
the two edge plates B, and drawn tight by cross wedge keys driven down
through holes in the ends of the cross bolts; m, m, are small projecting beads
upon the vertical surface of the edge plate B, and they enter into the space
between two corresponding projecting beads n, n, upon the vertical surface of
the edge plate B', by which means the two parts B and B are kept firmly secured
from rising or sinking one without the other. The upper part a, a, of the two
edge plates B and B form between them the dovetail groove for the reception
of the corresponding dovetail part 6 of the wrought-iron rail D, and the same
keying of the bolts k, k, which unites the two parts B and B' together, also
bites the dovetail 6 fast in its dovetail groove a, a. The several lengths of the
parts A, B, and A', B' overlap each other at the ends to break joint with each
other, as is clearly shewn in the Drawing. The cross bars F, F, and G are
the same as in Sheet I., but are more clearly shewn by separate Figures, their
ends are inserted through some of the mortice openings in the edge plates B
and B', and are retained therein by cross wedge keys driven down through
holes in the ends of the cross bars, wherefore those bars serve at the places
where they are inserted, in lieu of bolts k, k, to hold the two parts B and B¹
together. In laying railways according to my improvement or improvements,
the earth on which the flat surfaces A, A, at the under sides of the rails are to
bear must be well prepared with the ballasting or stony covering rammed
down very solid and rendered quite plain and even to suit the rails. If the
solid earth beneath is not of a firm consistency, a trench should be dug out
beneath the place for each rail about two feet wide, and a layer about nine or
twelve inches thick of concrete formed thereon of stone fragments and lime,
in sufficient quantity to become solid, and form a firm foundation for the rails.
The ballasting of the railroad is to be laid in the usual manner, and made
very solid, it will bury and cover up the flat base plate A, and by rising up on

page_text: each side of the edge plate B as high as to just cover the cross bars F, F, the
ballasting will firmly embed the rails laterally into the road.
Having now described the nature of my said improvement or improvements,
I, the said John Day, do hereby declare that the new Invention, whereof the
exclusive use is granted to me by the said Letters Patent, consists in the
modes herein-before described of forming the iron rails for edge railways with
broad bases to rest upon and be imbedded in the ballasting of the railroad, so
as to give support thereby to the rails beneath every part of their length,
instead of supporting the rails, as heretofore done, at intervals by iron chairs
placed upon stone or wood blocks without support to the rails in the intervals
between the chairs.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Day, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-five.