A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF IRON RAILWAYS
Year: 1832

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HARRY
SCRIVENOR, of New Broad Street, in the City of London, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Sixth day of November, in the third year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Harry Scrivenor, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Harry Scrivenor, my
exors, adiňors, and assigns, and every of them, should, by myself and them-
selves, or by my or their deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others
as I, the said Harry Scrivenor, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend my Invention of "A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF IRON RAILWAYS," within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to me, my exors, admors,
and assigns, or any of them, should in my or their discretion seem meet; in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Harry
Scrivenor, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, and to cause the same to be inrolled
in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, as in and
by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Harry Scrivenor, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to consist
in constructing those parts of railways usually called chairs or pedestals of
wrought iron instead of cast iron heretofore used for that purpose, and either
in one single piece or more pieces as may be thought best, for the particular
railroad on which they are intended to be used; and in further compliance
with the said proviso, I, the said Harry Scrivenor, do hereby describe the
manner in which my said Invention is to be performed by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawing annexed, and to the
figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say :-
In Figure 1, A, B, represent a pair of cast-iron rolls or rollers which must
be mounted in proper frames or bearings, as usual in iron works. These said.
rolls or rollers must have a series of grooves or indentations in their peripheries
corresponding with the several shapes which the metal is intended to take in
its progress through these rollers until it at length attains the exact shape
required to form the chairs or pedestals; thus, for example, the grooves or
indentations at C, D, must be adapted to receive an ordinary short thick bar
of wrought iron, say, about two feet long and about six inches square, properly
heated for rolling, and in fact of a size adapted for these said grooves or
indentations, all which is well understood by persons accustomed to roll iron.
The bar is first passed through the rollers at C, D, which causes it to assume
the shape shown at J. It is then passed in succession through the other
grooves on the rollers at K, K, L, L, M, M, and N, N, whereby it succes-
sively takes the forms shewn at E, F, G, and H. Having thus obtained a long
bar or length of iron of the form shewn in section at H, I next proceed to
cut it into lengths for chairs, which I perform by means of a pair of mill
shears, shewn at Figure 2. These shears may be worked in the ordinary
manner, but must be provided with steelings or jaws to receive the chair, as
shewn at V, W, otherwise the action of the shears in cutting off the lengths
would be apt to force the chair out of shape. It may be as well here to observe,
that, as the form of the chair would necessarily vary to suit the form of rail to
be used with it, and it would lead to describing an unnecessary variety of
shapes if I did not take one as a standard for the purpose of describing my
Invention, I have selected that form of rail which I believe to be one of the
most approved and most generally in modern use, and need only state that
chairs may be made of wrought iron on the same principle which I am now
describing to suit any of the ordinary forms of rails now in use, but for the
purposes of this Specification I shall confine my description to the form of
chair required for the form of rail shewn in section at Figure 3. Having, in

page_text: manner herein-before described, cut the rolled bar into proper lengths
for chairs, they will assume the form shown at Figure 4, which is a
transverse section, a, a, being the holes for the spikes or fastenings which
hold it to the block or support; and I next proceed to shape the cheeks
O, P, more accurately to fit the under of the rails, which, if placed in the
chair in its present state, would have the appearance shown at Figure 5,
and would be too unsteady for their purpose. In order to effect this, and
to form at the same time a proper recess in the cheek O for the wedge or key
which is used to wedge or key up the ends of the rails tight in the chair, I
make use of a cold wrought or cast iron mandrill, as shewn at Figures 6
and 7, in the following manner-Having heated the chair again in the
furnace, I place the mandrill between the cheeks O, P, of the chair, and
present it with the mandrill in it to pass through another pair of rollers, as
shewn at Figure 8, which rollers press the cheeks O, P, close upon the
mandrill I; and when the chair leaves these rollers it is complete, and if the
mandrill be withdrawn, and the rail now inserted in it, it will have the
appearance shown at Figure 9, R being the recess or aperture into which
the wedge or key is to be driven to fix the rails firmly and steadily in their
places. The dotted lines in this Figure show the alteration of form which
the chair has experienced by passing through the rollers shown at Figure 8.
Figure 10 represent a wrought-iron chair made of more than one piece, and
on this chair the cheeks of the chair are made to fit the rail by rivetting
pieces of iron rollers to the proper shapes to the cheeks of the chairs after
they leave the rollers at N, N, Figure 1, in which case they will not require
to be passed through the rollers shown at Figure 8. Figure 10, which is now
under description, represents a chair in the state in which it is left by the
action of the rollers at N, N, Figure 1, and as shown at Figure 4, the cheeks
O, P, having plane sides or being parallel to each other. This Figure 10
exhibits a section of the chair, in which S, T, represent pieces of rolled iron
firmly secured to the insides of the cheeks O, P, by rivetting, as aforesaid.
Figure 11 exhibits it in this latter state with a wrought-iron rail placed
within it and secured firmly by means of an iron wedge or key driven tightly
in underneath the overhanging piece S, and pressing upon the shoulder of the
rail at Q. This plan of wrought-iron chair will be found useful when the
lower part of the rail for which it is intended may be of any shape differing
from the ordinary kind. Figure 12 is a plan of a chair of the full size, and
Figure 13 a side view of it with part of a rail placed in it, and Figure 14 is
the plan, and Figure 15 the elevation, of another and broader chair, calculated
to receive the ends of two rails, and to hold them more firmly than the narrower
one before shown.

page_text: Now whereas I claim as my Invention the substitution of wrought or mal-
leable iron in place of cast iron in the construction of those parts of iron
railways called chairs or pedestals, whether the same be made in one single
piece or of separate pieces rivetted or otherwise fastened together, as herein-
before described; and such my Invention being, to the best of my knowledge
and belief, entirely new, and never before used within that part of His said
Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His
said Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby
declare this to be my Specification of the same, and that I verily believe this
my said Specification doth comply, in all respects, fully and without reserve or
disguise, with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent contained; wherefore I hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and
privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Harry Scrivenor, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Third day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-three, and in the third year of
the reign of King William the Fourth.
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the
within-named Harry Scrivenor, in the
HARRY (L.S.) SCRIVENOR.
Sol™³.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Third day of January, in the
year of our Lord 1833, the aforesaid Harry Scrivenor 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.