CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MAKING OR MANUFACTURING METALLIC RAILS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILROADS
Year: 1832

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SHERMAN.
CONVERSE, of New York, in the United States of America, at present residing
in Ludgate Hill, in the City of London, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
did, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twenty-ninth day of September, in the third
year of
His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Sherman Converse, His especial
licence that I, the said Sherman Converse, my exors, admors, and assigns,.
and such others as I, the said Sherman Converse, my exors, admors, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of " CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MAKING
OR MANUFACTURING METALLIC RAILS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILROADS,"
communicated to me by a certain Foreigner residing abroad; in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Sherman Converse,.
shall cause a particular description of the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in the High.
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next immediately after the
date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Sherman Converse, do hereby describe the manner in which the said Inven-
tion is to be performed by the following description thereof (that is to say) :-

page_text: First, in the application of a rod, bar, or bolt of wrought iron longitudinally
under the common wrought-iron rail, which I call the tension rod, of such
length as to be attached to or firmly connected with two successive chairs, so
that the said rod may firmly secure the two chairs with which it is connected
from separating in the direction of the tension of said rod.
Secondly, in the form of the chair, which is to be adapted to the use of the
tension rod and braces to be herein-after described.
Thirdly, in the introduction of braces when the distances between the
chairs shall be so great as to require additional support to the crown of the
rail, said braces to consist of wrought-iron bars or bolts, of suitable length and
dimensions, and so applied that one end of each shall set into or rest firmly
against the insides of the two chairs, and just above where the tension rod is
connected with the chair, while the other end of each is elevated to the foot
or under side of the rail, so as nearly to meet in the middle between the two
chairs, and is there secured by being let into a solid piece of cast iron with
grooves or indentations to receive the ends of the braces, and which is attached
to the foot or under side of the rail, for the purpose as herein-after described..
Fourthly, in connecting or tying the two lines of rail in the road by means
of rods passing from rail to rail across the road, or from chair to chair across,
and attaching them to the rails or chairs, in any suitable manner, so as to
operate both as a tie and a brace.
I will now proceed to describe the best method of combining the several
improvements before mentioned, so as to form what I call a compound rail.
Take a wrought-iron rail of common form, say, eighteen feet long, and
weighing thirty pounds to the yard, more or less. Let each end be scarfed in
the usual way, so as to lap on the ends of other rails, which meet it in the
chairs. Let chairs be made of cast iron, say, one foot high, five or six inches
wide, and two inches thick. Let the top be so cast as to receive the foot of
the rail in the usual way, to be fastened in firmly with wedges, and with a
half-inch hole passing through it at right angles just above the grooves for
the wedges. Let the foot or basement of the chair be made twelve inches by
six or seven, so as to give it suitable standing, and with holes as usual to fix it
to blocks of, stone or wood, and let it be cast with two holes sufficiently
large to receive an inch and a quarter bolt near together, and both near the
bottom of the chair, and running directly through the upright part of the
chair, and in the same direction, in which the rail rests in the chair; just
above these holes let indentations be cast sufficiently large to receive the end
of an inch and a quarter bar of iron. Let the rail have a hole drilled through
the web or feather at each place where it is to rest in the chair, say, at every

page_text: six feet asunder, commencing at the end, so as to correspond with the hole
made in the chair at right angles through the top for the purpose of receiving
a pin. Now let the rail into the tops of the chairs in the usual manner, they
being placed in a proper manner to receive it. Fasten it in the chairs with.
the wedges in the usual way, and with the pins at right angles through the
web or feather of the rail. Let the tension rods be made of bolts of iron of.
suitable length to pass through two successive chairs each, and let them be
strongly headed on one end with screws of three or four inches in length, cut
on the other, and nuts to correspond, and let a rod be passed through cach two
successive chairs, and the respective nuts screwed on to the end of each, so
that the said rods will run from chair to chair in the same direction with the
rail, and, being brought properly into place by means of the nuts and screws,
will hold the chairs firmly together. If desirable to increase the strength of
the rail by means of braces, let a piece of cast iron be made to fit on to the
foot of the rail or under side, and fastened with a wedge or wedges, or in other
suitable manner. Let it be about four inches wide as it rests on the rail,
Let the solid part drop
attached to the rail, and
and be cast about two inches thick in the solid part.
about two inches below the foot of the rail where it is
in each end of the solid part let an indentation be cast, so as to receive the
end of an inch and a quarter bolt. Now attach this piece of cast iron, which
I call a slide, to the foot of the rail, in or near the middle between each two
chairs, and cut from an inch and a quarter bolt or bar pieces of such length
as will rest one end in the proper grooves in the chair to receive it, and the
other end in the cast-iron slide, and fasten the slide to the foot of the rail
with the wedge or wedges for the purpose, and the whole is completed. This
completes one rail. In the same manner, the whole line of railroad is to be
made, except that where the ends of rails meet they have a common chair,
and the pin passes at right angles through the two ends as they lap, and are
thus firmly held together. The chairs, rails, tension rods, and braces may be
varied in proportions and dimensions at pleasure, and to suit circumstances.
Now I declare that I do not claim as part of my Invention the form of the
rail, or the form of the chairs which the said rail is let into; nor do I claim
the mode of fastening said rail into the chairs, but only as connected, as is
herein-after mentioned, nor the connection of the two lines of rail by means of
rods passing from rail to rail, or chair to chair, across the road. But I do only
claim the tension rods as before described, and the braces as before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Sherman Converse, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-three.
S. (L.S.) CONVERSE.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Ninth day of February, in
the year of our Lord 1833, the aforesaid Sherman Converse came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Eighth day of March, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and thirty-three.