CERTAIN IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CHAIRS FOR RAILWAYS
Year: 1849

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
TORKINGTON, of Bury, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twelfth day of
October (One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine), in the thirteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Torkington, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John
Torkington, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Torkington, my exors, adñors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the
Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her said
Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CHAIRS FOR RAILWAYS;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said John Torkington, shall cause
a particular description of 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, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery.
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being there-
unto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Torkington, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the present specification thereof, reference being had
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say:-
My Invention has for its object to obviate more effectually than has yet
been done the many serious inconveniences which have been found to arise
from the yielding of the rails of railways at the joinings or points where the
different lengths of rail meet or cross during the passage of trains over the
same, and consists of certain improvements in the chairs used to support
such rails, which improvements are embodied in what I call, from its peculiar
and distinctive features, "The uniformly supporting joint chair." This chair
consists of an iron rib or beam about three feet in length, on the upper side
of which are three holders or chairs cast on or attached thereto, similar in
form to the detached chairs now in use. Two of these holders or chairs are
situated at the ends, and the third in the centre of the length of the rib or
beam, the upper side of which rib or beam forms a support for the ends of two
adjacent rails, which meet at the centre of the middle holder or chair, and
are there held by a key or wedge in the usual manner. Similar keys or wedges
are inserted in the two end holders. By this arrangement the bearing of the
ends of the rails on the chair, which now seldom exceeds two inches, is
increased to about eighteen, and the unyieldingness of the rails under pressure
and steadiness of the carriages passing over them are encreased in the same
proportion. The arrangement is one combining at once all the advantages of
the longitudinal system of laying sleepers with those attending the use of
transverse sleepers or blocks.
Figure 1 on the accompanying sheet of Drawings represents a side eleva-
tion of one of these "uniformly supporting joint chairs;" Figure 2 a plan
thereof; Figure 3 an end elevation; and Figure 4 a cross section, a and b
represent portions of two lengths of rail meeting at c, and resting on the
upper surface of the rib or beam d, on to which are cast the three holders
or chairs, e, f, and g, wherein the rails a and b are firmly secured by keys
or wedges, h, h¹, and h². The two ends of the rib or beam d are secured to
the sleepers i, k, by spikes in the ordinary manner. The holders or chairs
may be either cast upon the rib or beam d, as represented at Figure 5, or 3
they may be attached by iron wedges, as represented in Figure 6. And
instead also of employing three holders only, five may be used, as shewn
in Figure 5.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what

page_text: manner the same is to be performed, I declare that the improvements which I
claim as constituting the said Invention are as follows:-
Firstly, the giving to the ends of the rails by means of the "uniformly
supporting joint chair" before described) a greater length of bearing on the
chairs than has hitherto been done.
Second, the distribution by means of the said chair of any pressure coming
upon the joints over two sleepers at one and the same time.
Third, the securing the ends of two adjacent rails by holders or chairs at
three or more places on one rib or beam, as before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Torkington, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine.
JOHN (L.S.) TUKKINGTON.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-eighth day of December,
in the year of our Lord 1849, the aforesaid John Torkington came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Speci-
fication 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.
Enrolled the Twelfth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty.