IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF RAILWAY CROSSINGS
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Price Williams, of 9, Great George
Street, in the City of Westminster, Civil Engineer, for the Inven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF RAILWAY CROSSINGS "
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Price
Williams at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his.
Petition, on the 20th August 1875.
1
I, RICHARD PRICE WILLIAMS, of 9, Great George Street, in the City,
of Westminster, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF RAILWAY
CROSSINGS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the construction of
continuous railway crossings, such as are described in the Specification
of a former Patent granted to me, and dated 22nd February 1869,
No. 556.
ر

page_text: In the Specification of the said Patent it is proposed to construct
these crossings from solid rails in order that the grooving of the table
of the rail for the passage of the wheel tyre which my system requires
may be performed without unduly weakening the rail or reducing the
section to an inconvenient form.
According to my present Invention in place of using solid rails I
employ rails of ordinary section, and I fashion them whilst hot by
pressure, displacing the metal from the tyre groove and compelling it
to thicken the lower part of the rail below the groovè, so as to bring
this part of the rail to the same section nearly that it has in a solid rail
from which a tyre groove has been cut out as heretofore.
In this way
I am able to make my continuous crossing lighter, cheaper, and better
than when I employ solid rails.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Richard Price Williams in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 19th February 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
PRICE WILLIAMS, of 9, Great George Street, in the City of Westminster,
Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of August, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in. the thirty-
ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Richard Price Williams, Her special license
that I, the said Richard. Price Williams, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Richard Price Williams, my
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 MANUFACTURE OF RAILWAY CROSSINGS," upon the.
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard Price Williams, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or

page_text: 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 I, the said Richard Price Williams, do hereby
declare the nature of 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 improvements in the construction of
continuous railway crossings, such as are described in the Specification
of a former Patent granted to me, and dated 22nd February 1869,
No. 556.
In the Specification of the said Patent it is proposed to construct
these crossings from solid rails in order that the grooving of the table
of the rail for the passage of the wheel tyre which my system requires
may be performed without unduly weakening the rail or reducing the
section to an inconvenient form.
According to my present Invention in place of using solid rails I
employ rails of ordinary section, and I fashion them whilst hot by
pressure, displacing the metal from the tyre groove and compelling it ·
to thicken the lower part of the rail below the groove, so as to bring
this part of the rail to the same section nearly that it has in a solid rail
from which a tyre groove has been cut out as heretofore. In this way
I am able to make my continuous crossing lighter, cheaper, and better
than when I employ solid rails.
In order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the Drawings
hereunto annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.

page_text: the rail to be fashioned, which is marked b, the rail being then at a
welding heat. c is a plunger, which is brought down upon the upper
table of the rail to displace, the metal in such manner as to form an
oblique passage for the tyres of the wheels to pass from side to side of
the rail.
Figures 4 show a series of cross sections of the mould, plunger, and
rail taken in the positions indicated on Figure 3. The mould and
plunger are so proportioned throughout, as these sections show, that
little or no change is made in the amount of sectional area of the rail
at any point by the operation of fashioning, but the metal, which in any
transverse section is displaced from the tyre groove, finds provided in
the same section space sufficient, or at least approximately sufficient, to
receive it; this is a point of much importance.
In order to force down the plunger on to the rail I prefer to employ
a powerful hydraulic press, adequate to give at one operation the
required form to the rail; or a smaller press may be used, the plunger
being then made in sections or lengths, as shown by the vertical dotted
lines on Figure 1, which the press forces down in succession on to the
table of the rail; or the rail being contained in the mould the metal in
the tyre groove may be forced down by hammering with a steam
hammer, the place of the plunger being then taken by a series of
swages of suitable forms, and each of comparatively short length.
These swages are then applied in succession beneath the steam hammer
until the entire tyre groove from end to end has been worked down to
its full depth.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention and the
manner of performing the same, I would have it understood that what I
claim is, fashioning the rails of continuous crossings, substantially as
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Price Williams, have herc-
unto set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of February,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
seventy-six.