Improved Rail Joint for Railways and the like.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 6th Sept., 1898-Accepted, 12th Nov., 1898
Improved Rail Joint for Railways and the like.
I, JOHAN CHRISTIAN HÖNEN, of Ostre Aker, near Christiania, in the Kingdom
of Norway, Head Overseer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement:
As is well known, all rails are exposed to more or less severe blows at their
ends, caused by the passage of the waggon and engine-wheels from one rail to
the other as the end of the rail section passed is depressed with relation to the end
of the following one, which causes a push or jog by each wheel passing over.
These pushes are felt as a continual series of regular strokes. These strokes or
blows may be more or less violent by one and the same speed of the train, and
are caused by imperfect rail joints.
Several attempts have been made to produce a rail-joint by which the said
hammering or strokes may be reduced to a minimum, but all the arrangements
proposed have shewn that either the connection has become loose after a pro-
portionally short time on account of the continual strain of the weight of the
train, and therefore the object aimed at is not attained, or the arrangement
employed resulted in unfortunate effects in other ways.
By the improved rail-joint, however, hereinafter described results are gained,
much better than those gained by previous inventions for the same purpose.
The arrangement is shewn in the accompanying drawing, which represents a
sectional view of a rail joint, constructed in accordance with the present invention.
On both sides of the rail a are arranged in usual manner the fish-plates b¹, 12,
which connect the ends of the rail sections. The novelty of this arrangement
consists in the one fish-plate 61 being provided with a smooth hole c, while the
other fish-plate 62 has a screwthreaded hole and the connection is effected by
the bolt d, which is put in through the corresponding holes e in the plate 61
and h in the rail a, while the bolt with its screwthreaded part f is screwed into
the fish-plate 62 until the head e bears well against the plate b¹. By screwing
down a nut g on the screwthreaded end of the bolt close up to the plate 62 a
connection is obtained, which in itself is not only stiff and solid as long as the
connection is new, but it will stand for a long time. By the screwthreaded con-
nection between the bolt d and the fish-plate 62 a rigid connection between both
the fish-plates is hereby obtained; this connection is further secured by the nut g
and the fish-joint has hereby become as perfect as it ever can be.
It is evident that a considerable turning of the bolt d in proportion to the
fish-plate 63 must take place, before the connection gets loose; but such a turn-
ing is prevented partly by the rigid plate bª and partly by the nut g.
With the usual device with a nut and smooth bolt a slight turning, which
frequently takes place owing to the continual strains causes the whole connection
to become loose. It is just the arrangement of the screwthreads in the one
plate that causes the connection not to become loose. Even if the nut gets
loose, the connection will still be permanently rigid. Merely screwing tight the

page_text: nut g from time to time will secure the permanent connection, as long as the
connecting parts do not become slack on account of veritable wear and tear.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:
An improved rail-joint in which the one fish-plate ¹ possesses a smooth hole
for the connecting bolt, while the other fish-plate 62 has a screwthreaded hole in
which the screwthreaded part of the bolt engages, said bolt preferably also secured
by a nut at its end.
W. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
322, High Holborn, London, W.C., Patent Agents for the Applicant.