IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF APPARATUS FOR LEVELLING THE RAILS OF RAILWAYS
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Theodore Dann, of 126, Stockwell Park Road, in
the County of Surrey, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE CONSTRUCTION OF APPARATUS FOR LEVELLING THE RAILS OF RAILWAYS."
A communication from abroad by Johannes Beugger, of Winterthur, in the
Republic of Switzerland.
Sealed the 12th January 1877, and dated the 13th November 1876.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Joseph Theodore Dann at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 13th November 1876.
JOSEPH THEODORE DANN, of 126, Stockwell Park Road, in the County of Surrey,
Civil Engineer.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF APPARATUS FOR
LEVELLING THE RAILS OF RAILWAYS." A communication from abroad by Johannes
Beugger, of Winterthur, in the Republic of Switzerland.
This Invention has for its object to enable rails of railways to be raised to and
adjusted at their proper level with greater accuracy than could be obtained by
any of the mechanical means hitherto employed for this purpose. To this effect I
provide a lever or cross head, by preference of a curvilinear shape, with an eye at
one end through which a vertical screw passes, and sustained at the other end by
an auxiliary lever, which has its fulcrum in the same bottom plate upon or within
which the spindle of the aforesaid screw is mounted. The auxiliary lever itself is
supported by two links, one on each side of it, which are connected with the cross
head at one end, and guided upon or within the bottom plate at the other. The
auxiliary lever has a kerb to it, which moves within a groove at the bottom of the
cross head, and the cross head being thus sustained by a folding cross consisting of
one lever and two links, the various positions it assumes successively when the
vertical screw is turned must necessarily be parallel to one another; thus if two or
more specimens of the apparatus constructed according to my Invention are placed
under a rail, or the rail placed on them and kept thereon while the ballasting is
being rammed under the rails or sleepers, and subsequently removed from beneath
them, the rails must necessarily, after the apparatus have been removed, preserve the
level at which they have been placed; and it will be further seen that the perfect
parallelism of the motion of the cross head, which is owing to the simultaneous
revolution of the screw and unfolding or collapsing of the cross of levers and links,

page_text: must obviate the drawbacks inseparable from those contrivances of the same kind
in which the obliquity of the position of the lever often renders the operation
extremely difficult.
In the accompanying Sheet of Drawings I have shewn in Figure 1 an elevation
of an apparatus constructed according to my Invention, with the various organs
closed or folded up; Figure 2 is a plan of the same apparatus; and Figure 3 repre-
sents an elevation partly in longitudinal section of the apparatus with the cross
head or lever in its highest position.
In all these views identical letters of reference denote identical parts or organs.
A is the main lever or cross head, shewn here of a curvilinear shape; B is the
auxiliary lever, having at one end its fulcrum in the axis of the pin a passing
though the bottom plate E, and being at the other end guided by a kerb or shoulder
piece within a groove formed at the bottom of the lever A. In the center of B an
axis c connects this lever with the links or arms B, C, which are hung on the cross
head A by means of the axis b, whilst their opposite ends slide within an opening x
in the bottom plate E. At the opposite end e of the identical bottom plate the
screw D is fitted, which passes through the eye of the main lever A. This screw D
being turned by means of a key, the lever A, and consequently the rail placed
thereon, is raised or lowered to the extent desired in each individual instance, and
being sustained by the combination of the lever B and the links B, C, any one of
its positions must needs be parallel to any other, provided the bottom plate E be
not shifted. At the extremities of the bottom plate E the handles F, F¹, are hung
on pins d, d¹, so as to admit of the apparatus being carried from one place to
another.
Instead of the duplex link B¹, C, a single link may be used, having its axis
within the plain of the axes of the levers A, B, and being made in the form of a fork
or staple as far as these levers are to be held in it, so that the lower part thereof
alone is solid, and guided within a groove made at x in the bottom plate E; or else
the whole or part of the lever B may be made fork or eye shaped, so as to close
around a solitary central link C, in which event the axes of A, B, and C will all fall
within the same plain.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and illustrated the same
in the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, I wish it to be understood that I do not
claim the use of levers for the purpose of levelling rails, nor do'I claim the use of
screws for raising and lowering levers employed for that purpose, such appliances
having been known and used heretofore; but what I claim is,-
First. The use or employment of a lever or cross head actuated by a screw and
furnished with a parallel motion formed by levers and links for the purpose of
placing rails at their proper level, in the manner herein set forth and illustrated in
the accompanying Sheet of Drawings.
Secondly. The use or employment of single in lieu of double links designed to
sustain the lever or cross head in conjunction with an auxiliary lever, for the purpose
and in the manner herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, Joseph Theodore Dann, have bereunto set my hand and
seal, this Seventh day of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-six.
Witness,
G. J. MARSHALL,
42, Clapham Road.
(L.S.) JOSEPH THEODORE DANN.