IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SLEEPERS OR SUPPORTS FOR PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Valentin Silvestre Fombuena, of No. 3, Rue Paillet,
Paris, in the Empire of France, Mechanical Engineer, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SLEEPERS OR SUPPORTS FOR
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Valentin Silvestre Four-
buena at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 13th April 1866.
I, VALENTIN SILVESTRE FOMBUENA, of No. 8, Rue Paillet, Paris, in the
Empire of France, Mechanical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SLEEPERS OR
SUPPORTS FOR THE RAILS OF RAILWAYS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES," to be as
follows:-
The chief object of this Invention is to facilitate the connecting of the
rails of railways to their sleepers. At present it is customary to secure
the chairs which carry the rails to the sleepers by means of spikes, and then

page_text: I
by bolts and nuts to fix the rails firmly in their chairs. By the present
Invention the rails may be held firmly by pressing laterally against clips
rivetted to or forming part of the sleepers, or by a peculiar form of chair
which forms a clip and is capable of being slipped onto the placed rail and
made to bind thereon in the act of being brought into position. The sleepers
I form of rolled iron of any approved section, such as a trough with wide
and lipped flanges, or an inverted trough, but in general I prefer a T-shaped
section of sleeper. The sleepers I roll with thickened metal at the parts
where the clips for the rails are situate when the clips are to be raised by
punching, and I form the clips in pairs so as to embrace the foot of the rails
on either side thereof. When the rails are in place the sleepers are intro-
duced below them obliquely or at such an angle thereto as to admit of the
clips at one end of a sleeper being hitched onto the foot of, say, the near
rail, the other end of the sleeper is then moved round to bring the clips at
the other end to embrace the off rail. By forcing the sleeper into its proper
position, that is, at right angles to the rails, the clips will bind them firmly,
and the sleepers are then to be secured by ramming ballast below them.
find it convenient to make the overlapping edges of the clips at one end of
the sleepers deeper than at the other, and to place the deep and narrow clips
alternately at opposite sides of the line. In punching up the clips I at the
same time incline the bed (between the clips) on which the rail is to rest at
the required inclination, and to the ends of the sleepers I also give an inclina-
tion downwards. The object of this last measure is to take advantage of the
tremulous movement caused by the passage of the trains for maintaining the
the ballast under the sleepers, the ballast having a tendency to work out from
under a horizontal sleeper. In case any clips formed by punching up the metal
of the sleeper should be broken I provide for their replacement by rivetting
other clips thereto. In using sleepers or supports constructed as above
explained for the reception of the abutting ends of rails the rails are to be
fished in the usual way, and the sleeper where the joint passes is to be bored
or tapped to allow of a bolt with a nut or a simple conical trenail being inserted
in the sleeper so as to confine the end of the rail between it and the clip. In
some special cases I may use joint sleepers with chairs rivetted thereto that
will serve by the aid of screw bolts and nuts to form with the fished rail a
double fish as at present practised. I also propose to adapt my novel
system of securing rails to their sleepers by fitting the sleepers with chairs
rivetted thereto, but formed with lips that extend over rather more than half
their width for clipping the rail, such lips being situate one towards the right

page_text: and the other to the left-hand end of the chair; these chairs will therefore
allow, like the punched-up clips of the sleeper, being applied obliquely to the
rails, and binding against them by the mere act of placing the sleepers as
before explained.
The Invention applies chiefly to foot rails, and the clips or lips should
be sufficiently near to the rail bed to bind tightly on the foot of the rail as
the sleeper is forced into position. From the above description it will be
understood that the laying of the improved sleepers or supports requires the
use of no special tools, those which the workmen use for ballasting being
sufficient for laying or taking up the permanent way.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Valentin Silvestre Fonibuena in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 13th October 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE. PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, VALENTIN
SILVESTRE FOMBUENA, of No. 3, Rue Paillet, Paris, in the Empire of France,
Mechanical Engineer, send greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Valentin Silvestre Fombuena, Her special licence that I, the
said Valentin Silvestre Fombuena, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Valentin Silvestre Fombuena, 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 ex-
pressed, 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 CONSTRUCTION OF SLEEPERS
OR SUPPORTS FOR THE RAILS OF RAILWAYS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Valentin Silvestre Fombuena,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascer
tain 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

page_text: Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Valentin Silvestre Fombuena, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, 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):-
The chief object of this Invention is to facilitate the connecting of the
rails of railways with their sleepers. At present it is customary in laying
down rails to secure the chairs which are to carry them to the sleepers by
means of spikes, and then by bolts and nuts to fix the rails firmly in their
chairs.
By the present Invention the rails may be held firmly by pressing laterally
against clips which form a substitute for the chairs, and which clips are
rivetted to or form part of the sleepers, or by using a peculiar form of chair
which forms a clip and is capable of being slipped on to the placed rail and
made to bind thereon in the act of bringing into position the sleeper which
carries the chair. The sleepers I form of rolled iron of any approved section,
such as a triangle with wide clipped flanges or an inverted trough, but in
general I prefer a T-shaped section of sleeper.
In the accompanying Drawing the manner of carrying out the objects of
my Invention is shewn under several modifications.
Fig. 1 is a plan view of a portion of a railway shewing several forms of
chairs and clips for holding the rails in place, and also illustrating the manner
of applying the sleepers to the rails; Fig. 2 is a cross section of the same,
.shewing a sleeper in side view, and illustrating the mode of forming the clips
. or substitutes for the chairs out of the metal of the sleeper; Figures 3 show
in detail the form of clip chair applied to the sleepers A, B, & C, Fig. 1,
and which chair is secured by rivets to the sleepers; Fig. 4 shews in end
.section the sleepers D, E, F, of Fig. 1 with the respective clips or chairs
which they carry in side elevation. A joint sleeper D, or that which supports
the abutting ends of the rails, is shewn in side view at Fig. 5, with a pair of
joint chairs applied thereto; Fig. 6 shews a modification of the joint chair;
Figure 7 shew in elevation, plan, and cross section the mode of providing
for the breakage of a clip or clips from the sleeper, and thus utilizing the
injured sleeper. As bolts and nuts are required for securing the rails to the
joint chairs shewn at Fig. 5 the sleepers carrying these chairs will have the
rails applied to them in the usual way. When therefore these are used it

page_text: will be the intermediate sleepers only that are to be slidden into their place
beneath the rails, as illustrated at Fig. 1, and secured in the manner to be
presently explained.
The clip chairs a, b, Figures 1 and 3, are formed of rolled trough metal,
as shewn at a', Fig. 3, with the edges bent over inwards to form lips for
embracing the foot of the rail; these lips extend over rather more than half
the length of the chair, and they are bevilled off in opposite directions, as
shewn in the plan view, to allow of the insertion of the rails vertically into
the chairs prior to their being secured beneath the lips by the lateral
movement of the sleeper, as indicated by the arrows applied to the sleeper C;
these chairs are formed in pairs, having different proportions of lip, and they
are rivetted to the sleepers, and thus form a portion thereof. When the clips
for holding the rails are to be raised by punching up metal from the sleepers
I prefer to roll the sleepers with thickened metal at the parts where the clips
will occur, as shewn at c, c, Fig. 4, and I form the clips in pairs so as to
embrace the foot of the rails on either side thereof. These pairs of clips d, e,
I do not make to correspond in form, but I make the clip at one end of the
sleeper with broader lips or more overlapping flanges than at the other end,
as shewn on the sleeper E, Fig. 1. When the rails are in place, their ends
having been secured in the joint chairs, the clip sleepers are introduced below
them obliquely, as shewn at C, Fig. 1, or at such an angle thereto as to
admit of the broad-lipped clips at one end of a sleeper being hitched onto
the foot of, say, the near rail; the other end of the sleeper is then moved
round to bring the clips at the other end to embrace the off rail. By forcing
the sleeper into its proper position, that is, at right angles to the rails, the
clips will bind them firmly, and the sleepers are then to be secured by
ramming ballast below them. I find it convenient to make the overlapping
edges of the clips at one end of the sleepers deeper than at the other, and to
place the deep and narrow clips alternately at opposite sides of the line, in
order that the sleepers may be brought into position by alternately reversing
the direction of the lateral motion required to bring them into position. In
punching up the clips I at the same time incline the bed (between the jaws
of the clips), or that part on which the rail is to rest at the required
inclination to suit the foot of the rail, as shewn at Fig. 2, and to the ends of
the sleepers I also give an inclination downwards, as shown by the dotted
lines in Fig. 2. The object of this last measure is to take advantage of the
tremulous movement caused by the passage of the trains for maintaining the
ballast under the sleepers, the ballast having a tendency to work out from

page_text: under a horizontal sleeper. Although I prefer to form the clips from the
thickened metal above referred to, as shown, yet I may punch them up from
metal of uniform thickness, as shown at d, Fig. 4. In case any clips formed
by punching up the metal of the sleeper should be broken I provide for their
replacement by rivetting other clips thereto, as shown at Figures 7, or all
the clips may be formed by rivetting them on the sleepers in the manner
represented in the Figures.
In using sleepers or supports constructed as above explained for the
reception of the abutting ends of rails, which is the plan considered most
desirable, the rails are to be fished in the usual way, and the sleeper where
the joint passes is to be bored or tapped to allow of a bolt with a nut or a
simple conical trenail being inserted in the sleeper, as shown at f, sleeper E,
Fig. 1, so as to confine the end of the rail between it and the clip.. When,
however, I use joint sleepers with the chairs rivetted thereto, as shown at
Fig. 5, I secure the rails to the chair by the aid of the screw bolts and nuts
which secure the fish plate to the rails, and I at the same time form with the
fished rail a double fish, as at present practised. The like effect is produced
with the advantage of additional strength by the arrangement shown at Fig. 6,
where the joint chair is provided with two jaws, the one being rivetted to the
sleeper, and the other secured by bolts and nuts.
The Invention, it will be understood, so far as it relates to railways, applies
chiefly to foot rails, which in order that they may be firmly secured.require
that the clips or lips should be sufficiently near to the rail bed to bind tightly
on the foot of the rail as the sleeper is forced into position.
From the above description it will be understood that the laying and
adjusting of the improved sleepers or supports requires the use of no special
tools, those which the workmen use for ballasting being sufficient for laying
or taking up the permanent way, and that the operation of connecting the
rails and sleepers may be expeditiously effected.
The present Invention applies to various forms of sleepers, but also to all
iron fittings for floors, bridges, &c. whenever they are to be laid or fixed in
accordance with the principles above explained with reference to the
accompanying Drawing.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "Improvements in
the Construction of Sleepers or Supports for the Rails of Railways, and for
other Purposes, and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect,
I wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited Letters
Patent I claim, forming or fitting iron sleepers or supports with clips or chairs,

page_text: as above described, for the purpose of holding rails or bars securely in position
without the aid of bolts and nuts.
In witness whereof, I, the said Valentin Silvestre Fombuena, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the Fourth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
VALENTIN SILVESTRE FOMBUENA. (L.S.)
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the
above-named Valentin Silvestre
Fombuena, in the presence of
WALTER BARING,
Attaché to H.B.M. Legation,
Madrid.