IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILS FOR RAILWAYS, AND IN THE WHEELS OF CARRIAGES TO RUN THEREON, ESPECIALLY ADAPTED TO STREET RAILWAYS."
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Mickle Fox, of the City and State of New
York, United States of America; for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
RAILS FOR RAILWAYS, AND IN THE WHEELS OF CARRIAGES TO RUN THEREON,
ESPECIALLY ADAPTED TO STREET RAILWAYS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Mickle Fox at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th
November 1860.
I, SAMUEL MICKLE Fox, of the City and State of New York, United States
of America, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN RAILS FOR RAILWAYS, AND IN THE WHEELS OF CARRIAGES TO RUN THEREON,
ESPECIALLY ADAPTED TO STREET RAILWAYS," to be as follows:-
I make use of grooved rails on the sides of the railway, and my. carriage
wheels adapted to such railways are made in pairs on an axle, as usual, but
instead of both wheels having a flange, there is but one flanged wheel to take
the grooved rail, and one plain cylindrical wheel to take the flat rail.
My Invention is especially adapted to horse-carriage railways in cities and
towns, where carriages travel in the same streets, for by having the outer rails
of the railways flat and level with the pavements no obstruction is offered to

page_text: the wheels of vehicles; and as the carriages, carts, and other vehicles usually
go up one side and down the other, the centre part of the street is com-
paratively little used, and hence my grooved rails at this part of the street are
no inconvenience to the general travel, and serve to guide the carriage in its
movement by one flange upon each pair of wheels.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel Mickle Fox in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 23rd May 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
MICKLE Fox, of the City and State of New York, United States of America,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto, me, the
said Samuel Mickle Fox, Her special license that I, the said Samuel Mickle
Fox, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the. said
Samuel Mickle Fox, 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
RAILS FOR RAILWAYS, AND IN THE WHEELS OF CARRIAGES TO RUN THEREON,
ESPECIALLY ADAPTED TO STREET RAILWAYS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said 'Samuel Mickle Fox, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, 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.
i
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Samuel Mickle Fox, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-".
Fig. 1 is a cross section of my improved tracks as laid in a street; and

page_text: Fig. 2 is a plan of the same. Similar marks of reference denote the same>
parts.
:
In the streets of cities the tracks for railroad cars become a great source of
inconvenience in driving carriages and other vehicles, because the wheels get
into the track, and if slightly wider than the space between the rails, become
wedged, often injuring the wheels or axles, and under all circumstances the
rails are a great inconvenience in turning out to pass other vehicles. In all-
crowded thoroughfares the vehicles go up one side and down the other, hence
the outer rails of double tracks are the most inconvenient for other travel.
The nature of my said Invention consists in an arrangement of tracks whereby
I am enabled to use a grooved rail as a guide for the cars, and a flat rail for
the outer wheel, so that by placing the two grooved guiding rails as near as
convenient to each other in the centre of the street, and the flat rails on the
outer sides of the track, there is no obstruction to other vehicles, because the
flat rails can be travelled on as well as any blocks of paving stones, while the
grooved rails near the centre of the street are out of the way of the respective
lines of travel up one side and down the other of the street, and occupy but
about two feet instead of about fourteen feet, as now used for the tracks; and
these grooved rails are no inconvenience in crossing, because a vehicle would
at the centre part of the street pass over these rails nearly at right angles, or
at a sufficient angle to be uninjured, and the groove is too narrow to admit
the tires.
In the Drawing, a is the roadway paved in any usual manner; b, b, are the
outer flat rails; and c, c, the inner grooved rails. This arrangement of rail,
however, would be useless if the car wheels were all made with flanges;
I therefore make the wheels d, d, with flanges, and the wheels e, e, plain
cylinders, as shewn, so as to travel on the flat rail.
I do not claim cylindrical or flanged wheels, and I am fully aware that
tracks have been formed of various kinds of grooved rails; and I am also
aware that tramways and flat rails have been used; I am also aware that a
grooved rail has been used with a flat rail in instances where the wheels both
had flanges, and edge of the flange travelled on said flat rail as in turning
curves, but I am not aware of any previous instance in which two grooved
rails have before been arranged in the centre part of the street, and flat rails
towards the sides, forming the outer rails of the track, when combined with a
flanged wheel and a cylindrical wheel on the same axle of the car, taking said
track as set forth. Therefore what I claim and desire to secure by Letters
Patent is, the arrangement of the grooved and flat rails for city railroads

page_text: combined with the cylindrical and flanged wheels for the cars, in the manner.
and for the purposes set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Mickle Fox, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of December, A.D. One
thousand eight hundred and sixty.
Witnesses,
LEMUEL W. SERRELL,
121; Nassau St., New York.
THO. GEO. HAROLD,
121, Nassau St., New York.
SAM. M. FOX. (L.S.)