IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILS EMPLOYED FOR THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS AND IN THE MEANS OF LOCKING NUTS UPON BOLTS EMPLOYED IN FIXING RAILS AND OTHER PARTS OF SUCH PERMANENT WAY, SUCH IMPROVEMENTS BEING PARTLY APPLICABLE ALSO TO RAILS GENERALLY AND TO ROLLED JOISTS AND ANALOGOUS ARTICLES AND PARTLY ALSO TO THE
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Howarth at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 30th August 1883.
ROBERT HOWARTH of Wolverhampton in the County of Stafford, Manager
"IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILS EMPLOYED FOR THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS
AND IN THE MEANS OF LOCKING NUTS UPON BOLTS EMPLOYED IN FIXING RAILS
AND OTHER PARTS OF SUCH PERMANENT WAY, SUCH IMPROVEMENTS BEING PARTLY
APPLICABLE ALSO TO RAILS GENERALLY AND TO ROLLED JOISTS AND ANALOGOUS
ARTICLES AND PARTLY ALSO TO THE MEANS EMPLOYED FOR LOCKING NUTS UPON
BOLTS GENERALLY
This invention relates chiefly to improvements in the permanent way of
railways, but is applicable also to other purposes as will be presently shewn.
Double-headed rails, and other rails having a single vertical web, as usually
constructed, have such web formed as a plain flat member joining the upper and
lower parts of the rail together, and such web has consequently to be of considerable
thickness to afford the necessary stiffness and strength to the rail.
Now the chief object of the first part of this invention is to form such web in a
manner as to economise very greatly the material employed and at the same time
give an equal or greater degree of stiffness and strength to the rail.
This object is effected, according to this invention, by rolling the said web
corrugated vertically or with vertical corrugations thereon such corrugations
joining also, the top and bottom parts of the rail. Parts of the corrugation,
projecting considerably beyond the central line of the web on either side, act in the
same manner as the vertical stiffening ribs so commonly riveted to the thin webs
of plate girders. This corrugated web, or web having corrugations thereon, may
be rolled so much thinner than the ordinary webs of rails that with the same or a
greater degree of stiffness and strength afforded to the rail than in the case of the
ordinary web a very great economy of material is effected.
This part of my invention is applicable also in the case of the vertical webs of
single-webbed tramway and other rails, rolled joists, and other sections of metal
having a single vertical web joining upper and lower flanges or booms, as will be
readily understood.
The chairs employed to hold the rails constructed as aforesaid may be made for
the nose to fit the corrugations, and be provided with a packing-piece on the other

page_text: side of the mail to fit such corrugations and receive the wedge between itself and
the horn of the chair on such side. The corrugations of the web hold thus securely
within the chair and prevent the rail from "creeping."
The spring or ratchet washors now usually employed to lock nuts upon bolts
(such being employed chiefly for the nuts and bolts used for fixing the rails and
other parts of the permanent way of railways, though applicable also for locking
nuts upon bolts generally) take the place of the ordinary washers and have the
disadvantage of being screwed up flat when the nut is tightened home; and there-
for the sharp or cutting edges of such washers lose altogether; or very largely,
their bite upon the inner face of the nut and' the metal against which they bear,
and consequently permit of the nut becoming alightly unscrewed before such edges
can act efficiently to stop further unscrewing of the nut
Now the object of the second part of my invention is to construct a ratchet or
spring washer, and, either by modifying the shape of the nut or not as required,
apply such washer in a manner that, it cannot be screwed flat, and consequently
will have its sharp or cutting edges always, and under all circumstances, operative
to prevent the nut from becoming unscrewed, or partly unscrewed, by any shaking
or jarring to which it may be exposed.
This object is effected, according to this invention, in the following manner (that
is to say)The ratchet or spring washer forms a supplementary or independent
washer and is not employed in place of the ordinary washer. The ordinary washer
is made of somewhat less diameter than usual so as to leave a margin around the
inner face of the nut projecting beyond such ordinary washer. The ratchet washer
is cut from flat steel of a less thickness than the ordinary washer and is preferably
square (though it may be of any convenient exterior shape) and has a central hole
punched therethrough of a diameter to allow the washer to just fit easily around
the ordinary washer. Ratchets or teeth are formed on the ratchet washer by
cutting the metal thereof in radial lines (preferably along the diagonals of a square
washer) from the hole therethrough outwards for a part of the way towards the
circumference, and the metal of the parts lying between the radial cuts is forced
downwards at the ends lying in one direction around the central hole therethrough
and upwards at the ends lying in the opposite direction. The ratchet washor is
placed around the ordinary washer, and as the nut is screwed up the teeth aforesaid
bear on one side of the ratchet washer against the part which receives the bolt
and on the other side against that part of the inner face of the nut which projects
around the ordinary washer. These teeth are of course set to yield as the nut is
screwed up but to bito against its return in unscrewing, and (in consequence of the
ratchet washer being thinner than the ordinary washor) remain sprung out to bite
after the nut is screwed home against the ordinary washer. The nuts may be
made with the usual circular projection at the inner face, of a diameter which will
leave a sufficient margin around for the bearing of the teeth, and the thickness of
this projection will lessen the thickness necessary for the ordinary washer; and,
if desired, this projection on the nut may be made of sufficient thickness to enable
the ordinary washer to be dispensed with, the nut in this case being screwed
tightly against the part which receives the bolt and yet leaving the teeth aforesaid
sprung out sufficiently to bite.
The ratchet washers are hardened after the teeth are formed thereon.