IMPROVEMENTS IN CHAIRS FOR SUPPORTING THE RAILS OF RAILWAYS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edwin James Grice, of Newport, in the County.
of Monmouth, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
CHAIRS FOR SUPPORTING THE RAILS OF RAILWAYS."-A communication.
from abroad by R. S. Kirkpatrick, of Brussels, in the Kingdom of
Belgium.
Sealed the 16th April 1875, and dated the 26th November 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edwin James Grico at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 26th November 1874.
I, EDWIN JAMES GRICE, of Newport, in the County of Monmouth,.
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN CHAIRS FOR SUPPORTING THE RAILS OF RAILWAYS," to be as
follows:-
The said Invention consists in constructing the said chairs in the.
manner herein-after described whereby the bearing areas on either side.
of the rail are adjusted to the load weight or pressure they respectively.

page_text: bear during use, and the chair otherwise improved, as herein-after
described.
Instead of making the base of the chair of uniform breadth throughout,
the said base is made of a wedge or tapering form in plan, the breadth
of the chair at that end which in use is situated between the rails being
about double that of the end situated on the outer side of the rail. The
same distribution of the iron is adopted in the bearing surfaces of the
chair, and great solidity and firmness combined with economy in material
are secured.
The seat of the chair, that is the part on which the rail rests, is slightly
curved at and near its edges, the result of which curvature is that as the
rail undulates under the weight of a passing load it is not brought
against a shoarp edge as in chairs of the ordinary kind, and there is no
cutting action of the edge of the seat on the rail as occurs in ordinary
chairs.
In order to prevent the wood key by which the rail is secured in the
chair from working out, a notch is made in the top inner edge of the
chair. A nail driven into this notch takes into the wood key and
prevents it from working out under the influence of the jarring to which
it is subjected.
•
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edwin James Grice in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 19th May 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWIN
JAMES GRICE, of Newport, in the County of Monmouth, Manufacturer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Edwin James Grice, Her
special license that I, the said Edwin James Grice, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Edwin James
Grice, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time

page_text: agrec 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 CHAIRS FOR SUPPORTING THE RAILS OF RAILWAYS," (a com-
munication to me from abroad by R. S. Kirkpatrick, of Brussels, in the
Kingdom of Belgium), upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Edwin James Grice, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and scals,
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 Scal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edwin James Grice, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thercof, that is to say :-
The said Invention consists in constructing the said chairs in the
manner hercin-after described whereby the bearing arcas on either side
of the rail are adjusted to the load weight or pressure they respectively
bear during use, and the chair otherwise improved, as herein-after
described.
Instead of making the base of the chair of uniform breadth through-
out, or similar on either side of the centre of the rail, the said base is
made of a wedge or tapering form in plan, the breadth of the chair at
that end which in use is situated between the rails being about doubled
at the end situated on the outer side of the rail. By this distribution of
the iron in the bearing surface of the chair on the sleeper great solidity
and firmness combined with economy in material arc secured.
The seat of the rail, that is that part of the chair on which the rail
rests, is slightly curved or chamfered at and near its edges, the result of
which curvature or chamfering is that as the rail undulates under thic
weight of a passing load it is not brought against a sharp edge as in
chairs of the ordinary kind, and consequently there is no cutting action
5 of the edge of the seat on the rail as occurs with ordinary chairs.
In order to prevent the wood key by which the rail is secured in the
chair from working out a notch is made in the top inner edge of the

page_text: Chair.
A nail or other like fastening is driven through this notch into
the wood key and prevents it from working out under the influence of
the jarring to which it is subjected.
Having explained the nature of the said Invention I will proceed to
describe with reference to the accompanying Drawing the manner in
which the same is to be performed.
Figure 1. represents in side elevation and Figure 2 in plan a chair for
supporting the rails of railways constructed according to the said Inven-
tion; Figure 3 represents a cross section of the chair taken on the line
a, a, of Figure 2, a rail being supported in the said chair.
The wedge or tapering form of the base of the chair is seen in
Figure 2, the breadth of the chair base at the end being about double
that of the end c. The broad end of the chair base when the chair is
in position is situated on the outer side of the rail, and the narrow end o
on the inner side of the rail, or in the gauge of cach pair of rails or
railroad. The seat of the rail is on the surface marked d, d; the curved
or chamfered edges of the seat of the chair are marked e, e, and are best
seen in the cross section, Figure 3, from an examination of which
Figure 3 it will be seen that as the rail fundulates under the weight of
a passing load it is not pressed down upon a sharp edge as in chairs of
the ordinary kind, and consequently there is no cutting action of the
edge of the chair on the rail as occurs with ordinary chairs. In the
.check of the chair a notch i is made, the said notch has the V shape
represented in Figure 2; a nail or like fastening driven through the
said notch i takes into the wood key used for securing the rail in the
chair, and prevents the said wood key working out under the influenco
of the jarring to which it is subjected.
By constructing railway chairs according to this Invention the
following advantages result, namely, the area of the scat or chair base
on either side of the rail travelled upon is adjusted or made approxi
mately proportionate to the pressure put on such areas respectively by
the travelling load or weight of the train, the effect of the said travelling
load or weight tending, as is well understood, to separate the rails, or
thrust or force them apart, and the pressure is much less on that part of
the chair base between the rails than on that outside the rails. The
distribution described of the arca of the chair base is made everywhere
approximately proportionate to the pressure to be borne by it without

page_text: unduly increasing the length of the chair and thereby rendering it more
liable to break under pressure. The increased bearing area of the chair
constructed according to this Invention prevents the chair cutting its
way into the sleeper. The bearing area of the base of the improved
chair described is greater in proportion to the weight of iron than in
ordinary chairs, and this increase arises from the tapering form of that
arca.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood
that I claim as the said Invention of improvements in chairs for
supporting the rails of railways,―
"
First. Making the base of the chair of a wedge or tapering form in
plan, the breadth or area of the chair at that end which in position is
situated outside the rail being about double that of the end situated on
the inner side of the rail, or within the gauge of cach, pair of rails or
railroad, substantially as and for the purpose herein-before described
and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing.
Secondly. Making the seat of the chair at and near its edges slightly
curved or chamfered, substantially as and for the purpose herein-before
described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing.
Lastly. Preventing the working out of the wood key used for securing
the rail in the chair by making a notch in the top of the said chair for
receiving a nail or other like fastening which is driven into the said
wood key, substantially as hercin-before described and illustrated in the
accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edwin James Grice, have here-
unto set my hand and scal, this Fifteenth day of May, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.
30 Witness,
WILLIAM F. JONES, j'.,
Cwm Bran,
Nr. Newport,
Monmouthshire.
EDWIN JAMES GRICE. (L.S.)