for Railway and other Purposes.
Year: 1888

page_text: for Railway and other Purposes.
I, CHARLES REINHOLD, of No 32 Clerkenwell Road, in the City of London,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same
1s to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
According to the present invention the bending of rails or bars to any desired
curvature is effected by temporarily connecting to each end of the length of rail a
rigid arm or bracket projecting at a right or other angle from the rail, the free ends
of the arms being connected together by a rod or chain with screw or other device
whereby they may be drawn inwards towards each other. By so drawing inwards
the ends of the arms or brackets it will be seen that the rigid connection of the other
ends thereof to the rail will cause this to be bent to a curvature corresponding to the
extent to which the arms are drawn inwards, as indicated diagrammatically at Fig. 1
of the drawings, where a, b, c and a¹ 6' c¹ represent the arms or brackets, which are
made to grasp the ends of the rail at a a¹ and to butt against its face at cc, while at
6 6' they are connected together by the drawing in device W S
The construction of the arms a b c and of the drawing in device W S may be
variously modified for the purposes of this invention
The constructions employed by preference are shewn at Figs 2 and 3 of the
drawing. In the perspective view shewn at Fig. 3, the arm consists of a bar a having
a loop formed to fit over the end of the rail, and connected at 6 to a strutt c that bears
with its other end against the side face of the rail, the strutt, being connected at this
end with the bar a by means of a suitable tie that will prevent the latter from slipping
off the rail
The apparatus employed for drawing together the ends 6 6' of the two arms consists
by preference of a casing d through which passes a screw spindle e having a longi-
tudinal groove into which fits a feather on the casing so that while the screw spindle
can slide longitudinally in the casing it cannot revolve therein. On the spindle e is
fitted a screw-nut f held by the casing so that it can revolve but not move longi-
tudinally, and this nut can be rotated by means of an endless pitch-chain g passing

page_text: over a pitch wheel on the nut and over a second pitch wheel h on a spindle having
two crank handles ii so that by rotating these the nut is turned, thereby causing the
spindle e to travel. The casing d being connected to the end of the arm a bc, while
the end of the spindle e is connected by a chain or rod S to the end of the arm a' b¹ c¹,
it will be seen that by the rotation of the nut the ends of the two arms will be drawn
nearer together
The rail being bent by the above described means to any desired degree beyond its
elastic limits, it can be made to retain a corresponding amount of permanent curvature
after the bending apparatus has been slackened and removed.
It will be obvious that the above described means may also be used for straightening
bent rails.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this invention and
in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :—
1. Effecting the bending of a rail or bar by temporarily securing to the ends
thereof two rigid arms or brackets, the free ends of which are connected together by a
screw or other device whereby they are made to approach each other and thus bend
the rail or bar, substantially as herein described.
2. The use for bending rails or bars in the manner referred to in the preceding
claim of apparatus consisting of two arms or brackets adapted to lay hold of the ex-*
tremities of the rail and to bear against the side face thereof, the free ends of such
arms being connected together by a screw mechanism or other device whereby they
can be made to approach each other, substantially, as herein described with reference
to the accompanying drawing.