IMPROVEMENTS IN FASTENINGS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Louis Désiré Aubert, of Paris, in the Empire of
France, Mechanician, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN FASTENINGS
"
Sealed the 10th November 1857, and dated the 25th May 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Louis Désiré Aubert at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
25th May 1857.
I, LOUIS DÉSIRÉ AUBERT, of Paris, in the Empire of France, Mechanician,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
FASTENINGS POR SECURING RAILS IN THE CHAIRS," to be as follows:-
My improvements in rail fastenings consist, first, in uniting the rails end
to end by means of iron dowel or other pins, which project beyond the end
of the one rail, and are received into corresponding holes or recesses formed
in the abutting rail for their reception. Instead of both pins projecting from
one rail, one may project from each rail to be jointed, and each furnished
with corresponding recesses or holes for the reception of the pins so disposed.
Instead of two or more such dowel pins being used, a deep flat projecting
piece may be formed on the one rail, and a corresponding recess formed in
the other.
In joining or disconnecting these rails, they are slid when loose in their
chairs in the direction of their length.
Further improvements in fastening rails in their chairs consist in the use
of a fish plate, fitted between the wedge and the side of the rails at the joint,

page_text: which fish plate is furnished with projecting parts on the inside, which pro-
jecting parts are received into holes or recesses formed in or through the rib
of the rail, and which are held firmly therein by the wedge when it is driven
tight in the chair. Instead of these projecting parts pins or bolts may be
driven through this plate and the rail. The plate is curved to the form of
the rail, and in the hollow side receives the wedge, and prevents it rising out
of the chair.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Louis Désiré Aubert in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
24th November 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LOUIS
DÉSIRÉ AUBERT, of Paris, in the Empire of France, Mechanician, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Louis
Désiré Aubert, Her special licence that I, the said Louis Désiré Aubert,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Louis
Désiré Aubert, 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
FASTENINGS FOR SECURING RAILS IN THE CHAIRS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Louis Désiré Aubert, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, 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 Louis Désiré Aubert, 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 Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-

page_text: My improvements in rail fastenings consist, first, in uniting the rails end
to end by means of iron dowel or other pins, which project beyond the end of
the one rail, and are received into corresponding holes or recesses formed in
the abutting rail for their reception. Instead of both pins projecting from
one rail, one may project from each rail to be jointed, and each furnished
with corresponding recesses or holes for the reception of the pins so disposed.
Instead of two or more such dowel pins being used, a deep flat projecting
piece may be formed on the one rail, and a corresponding recess formed in
the other.
In joining or disconnecting these rails, they are slid when loose in their
chairs in the direction of their length.
Further improvements in fastening rails in their chairs consist in the use
of a fish plate, fitted between the wedge and the side of the rail at the joint,
which fish plate is furnished with projecting parts on the inside, which pro-
jecting parts are received into holes or recesses formed in or through the rib
of the rail, and which are held firmly therein by the wedge when it is driven
tight in the chair. Instead of these projecting parts, pins or bolts may be
driven through this plate and the rail. The plate is curved to the from of
the rail, and in the hollow side receives the wedge, and prevents it from

page_text: These studs are intended to fit tight into the corresponding recesses c, c, made
in the opposite rail d. The depth of these recesses c should be greater than
the length of the studs 6, by from one-eighth to one-quarter of an inch, to
allow of the expansion of the rail. By fastening the dowel pins into the
corresponding recesses, continuous rails are formed, which are sustained at
certain distances by ordinary chairs. In Figs. 9 and 10 the same jointing is
shown modified. Each of the rails a and d has a dowel or stud pin b and a
recess c, corresponding with each other.
In order to take up the rails, it suffices to use the force of a lever to make
one of the rails slide in the chairs deprived of their wedges. The two rails
can also be jointed by means of a flat tenon rising nearly the whole height of
the rail, and fixed to one of them. This tenon enters into a groove made for
its reception in the abutting rail. This jointing, as applied to American rails,
is represented at Figs. 5 and 6; such joints can also be applied to single and
double-headed rails. In order to take up the rail in this case, it suffices to
raise it vertically. The dowel pin jointing is also applicable to American
rails.
Instead of two studs a greater or less number can be used, which are
received in a corresponding number of recesses; the line, being thus made
continuous, is connected every fifteen yards by a jointing chair and fish, which
I am about to describe.
An oval hole, Figs. 8, 9, and 10, is pierced through the rib at the extremity
of each of the two rails; these two holes each receive one of the cylindrical or
other shaped studs f (Fig. 4), made of wrought or cast iron, which should be
about seven-eights of an inch in diameter and four and a half inches apart
(these dimensions may vary), and they are adjusted in the direction of the
length of the hole e. These studs ff, are fixed in or formed on the con-
necting part or fish g. This fish is convex on one side in order to adapt itself
to the hollow side of the rails, and concave on the other side in order to give
room for the wooden or other wedge h, which fixes the parts between the
rails a, d, and chair i; the fish is also furnished with ribs or flanges j and k
in order to hold the wedge. The upper rib or flange may cover the wedge
and shelter it from the rain. Instead of the tenons f, f, I can substitute
studs or bolts to be driven through the fish and the rails.
It will be understood that with this arrangement, if care be taken to place
the extremities of the two rails a and d from one-eighth to one-quarter of an
inch apart in the fish chair, the bolts or studs f, f, can play in their oval holes
e, e, according to the expansion and contraction.
The wedges h, when made of wood, are about the size of ordinary wedges,

page_text: and may be fastened or hooped at their ends in order to facilitate their entry,
and that the blow of the hammer may not split them.
A groove or furrow may be hollowed out in the concavity of the fish and
along its whole length, but deeper at the centre than at the two extremities,
so as to facilitate the swelling of the wedge and produce more powerful
pressure.
The expansion, which according to this Invention is free to take place, is a
condition not fulfilled in other systems of jointing with fish plates having bolts;
consequently, inflections and bulgings of the rails take place, which may
throw trains off the line and cause a movement in the fish calculated to
disarrange them.
Having described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I declare that what I claim, as the Invention intended to
be secured by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
First, joining all kinds of railway rails, end to end, by means of tenons and
grooves, or projections and cavities, the one entering the other, as herein-
before described.
Secondly, the system of fastening rails at their joints by means of a jointing
chair, a pressing wedge, and a fish, having projections or bolts, these latter
entering corresponding cavities or holes made at the extremities of each of the
two rails, all as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Louis Désiré Aubert, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
LOUIS DESIRE AUBERT. (L.S.)