A METHOD OR METHODS OP FACILITATING THE CONVEYANCE OF CARRIAGES AND ALL MANNER OF GOODS AND MATERIALS ALONG RAILWAYS AND TRAMWAYS, BY CERTAIN INVENTIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE MACHINE, CARRIAGES, CARRIAGE WHEELS, RAILWAYS, AND TRAMWAYS FOR THAT PURPOSE
Year: 1816

page_text: TO AL
REDEN
LLIAM
LOSH, of the Town and County of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Iron Founder, and
GEORGE STEPHENSON, of Killingworth, in the Parish of Long Benton, in the
County of Northumberland, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirtieth day of September, in
the fifty-sixth year of His reign, did give and grant unto us, the said William
Losh and George Stephenson, our executors, administrators, and assigns, His
special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority that we, the said William
Losh and George Stephenson, our executors, administrators, and assigns, and
every of them, during the term of fourteen years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, the Dominion
of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to us, the
said William Losh and George Stephenson, our executors, administrators, and,
assigns, or any of them, should seem meet, our Invention of "A METHOD OR
METHODS OP FACILITATING THE CONVEYANCE OF CARRIAGES AND ALL MANNER OF
GOODS AND MATERIALS ALONG RAILWAYS AND TRAMWAYS, BY CERTAIN INVENTIONS
AND IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE MACHINE, CARRIAGES, CARRIAGE
WHEELS, RAILWAYS, AND TRAMWAYS FOR THAT PURPOSE;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso obliging us, the said William Losh and
George Stephenson, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals,

page_text: to cause a particular description of the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within two calendar months after the date of the
said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto
had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said William Losh and George Stephenson,
in compliance with the said proviso, do hereby describe and ascertain the
nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, as follows, reference being had to the Drawings in the Schedule
hereunto annexed (that is to say):-
In order that our Specification may be clearly understood, it may be
necessary to state that there are two kinds of railways in general use, the one
consisting of bars of cast iron, generally of the shape of that described by a,
Figure 25, and the other of the shape of that described by Figures 23 and 24
in the Schedule. That shewn at a, Figure 25, is known in different situations
by the denomination of the edge rail, round-top'd rail, fish-backed rail, et cetera.
That shewn at Figures 23 and 24, by the denomination of the plate rail,
tramway plate, barrow-way plate, et cetera. The first we shall distinguish by
the name of the edge railway, the second by that of the plate railway. In
the construction of our edge railways our objects are,
First, to fix-both the ends of the rails; or separate pieces of which the ways are
formed, immoveable in or upon the chairs or props by which they are supported.
Secondly, to place them in such a manner that the end of any one rail shall
not project above or fall below the corresponding end of that with which it is
in contact, or with which it is joined.
Thirdly, to form the joinings of the rails with the pedestals or props which
support them, in such a manner that if these props should vary from their
perpendicular position in the line of the way (which in other railways is often
the case), the joinings of the rails with each other would remain as before such
variation, and so that the rails shall bear upon the props as firmly as before.
The formation of the rails or plates, of which a plate railway consists, being
different from the rails of which the edge railways are composed, we are
obliged to adopt a different manner of joining them, both with each other and
with the props and sleepers on which they rest; but in the joining these rails
or plates upon their chairs and sleepers, we fix them down immoveable, and in
such a manner that the end of one rail or plate does not project above or fall
below the end of the adjoining plate, so as to present an obstacle or cause a
shock to the wheels of the carriages which pass over them; and we also form
the joinings of these rails or plates in such a manner as to prevent the possi->

page_text: bility of the nails which are employed in fixing them in their chairs from
starting out of their places from the vibration of the plates, or from other
canses.
.
In what relates to the locomotive engines and their carriages which may be
employed for conveying goods or materials along edge railways or plate rail-
ways, or for propelling or drawing after them the carriages or waggons
employed for that purpose, our Invention consists in sustaining the weight, or
a proportion of the weight, of the engine upon pistons moveable within
cylinders, into which steam or the water of the boiler is allowed to enter in
order to press upon such pistons, and which pistons are, by the intervention of
certain levers and connecting rods, or by any other effective contrivance, made
to bear upon the axles of the wheels of the carriage upon which the engine
rests.
In the formation of our wheels it is our object to construct them in such a
manner, and to form them of such materials as shall make them more durable
and less expensive in the repairs than those hitherto in use. This Inven-
tion we accomplish by forming our wheels either with spakes of inalleable
iron, and with cast iron rims, or by making the wheels and spakes of cast
iron, with hoops; tires, or trods of malleable iron; and in some instances, par-
ticularly for wheels of very small diameters, instead of spakes of malleable
iron, we employ plates of malleable iron to form the junction between the
naves and the cast iron rims of the wheels.
The advantages gained by our method of constructing railways are,
First, that the seperate pieces of which they consist are, ceteris paribus;
rendered by our mode of joining them capable of sustaining a much greater
pressure than those which are joined in the usual way.
Secondly, by our mode of joining the rails we remove the liability to which
rails joined in the usual plan (where the end of one rail is seldom in the same
plane with the correspondent end of the next) are exposed of receiving blows
and shocks from the carriages which move over them, and to which blows and
shocks the great breakage which ofter occurs in railways, when not made of
enormous weight, may generally be referred; and as action and reaction are
mutual and contrary, if we prevent the communication of shocks to the rails;
we at the same time preserve the wheels, the carriages, and engines whichi
move over them from the reaction which is often destructive to them. As the
centre of gravity in a loaded coal waggon is from its shape much elevated,
there is generally a great waste of coal from the shaking of the waggons, to
which that circumstance (namely the position of the centre of gravity) makes
them more liable when they encounter obstacles, as they do at the junction

page_text: a
of almost every two rails on the common railways. On our railways the loss
thus arising is, if not entirely prevented, at least considerably diminished by
the steady and regular motion of the waggons. The usual method of affixing
down the plates, of which the plate railways employed in coal mines, and there
called tram and rolley ways, are formed, is by a single nail nearly at each end
of each plate, which nail passes through a hole in the plate and fixes it to a
sleeper of wood. These nails, from the vibration of the plate or the motion of
the sleeper, or some other cause, generally very soon start up, and consequently
the plates work loose, and very frequently the nails come entirely out. The
delay of work, the breakage of plate wheels, et cetera, and the injury which
the horses receive from the loose nails, which result from the mode of fixing
the plate railways, are generally complained of, and therefore the advantages of
plan which will remove these inconveniences must be apparent. When loco-
motive steam engines are employed as the moving or propelling power on rail-
ways, we have from much practice found it of the most importance that they
should move steadily, and as free as possible from shocks or vibrations, which
have the effect of deranging the working parts of the machinery, and lessening
their power. It is, therefore, to produce that steadiness of motion, and to
prevent the engines from receiving shocks, and to preserve their equilibrium,
that we employ the floating pistons, which, acting on an elastic fluid, produce
the desired effect with much more accuracy than could be obtained by employing
the finest springs of steel to suspend the engine. The wheels which are con-
structed on our plan will be found, when compared with those already in use,
(the weights of both being equal) to be inore durable; for the arms, when
made of malleable iron, being infinately less liable to be broken by shocks or
concussions than those of cast iron, may be employed of less weight and in
fewer numbers, so that the excess of weight of the extra arms of the cast iron
wheels may be applied on the rims of our wheels, and thus we add to the sub-
stance of that part which alone suffers from the friction of the rails. The
rims of wheels thus constructed can also be case-hardened, without risk of
breaking either in cooling or afterwards, which is not the case when wheels are
cast in one piece. The advantages of hooping cast iron wheels with malle-
able iron tires or trods are, that when such tires or trods are worn through, they
can very easily be replaced at a small expence; and that the tire, which is not
liable to break, receiving the shocks from the reaction of the rails, preserves
the cast iron wheel by considerably lessening the effect of such shocks on the
cast metal. As it is perhaps impossible to cast the bars or plates of metal, of
which railways and plateways are composed, perfectly streight and correctly
even and smooth on their surfaces, and equally difficult to fit the joints with

page_text: inathematical accuracy, the wheels of the engines and waggons will always
have some inequalities and obstacles to encounter from these circumstances;
therefore we are induced to employ the improvements which we have made in
the construction of the locomotive engine, and in the wheels of carriages upon
edge railsways and plate railways constructed according to our own plans, but
it is apparent that their adoption on the rail and plateways on the usual con-
struction is of still more importance. We therefore claim, as a method of
facilitating the conveyance of goods, and all manner of materials along edgé
railways or plate railways, the use of any of the plans we have described
singly as well as the whole of them collectively. We have no hesitation
in saying (for we speak from the experiments we have already made), that on
a railway constructed on our plan, and with a locomotive engine and carriage
wheels on our principle, the expedition with which goods can be conveyed with
safety will be increased to nearly double the rate with which they are at present
usually taken along railways, and with less interruption from the breakage of
wheels, rails, &c., than at present occurs, and with much less injury to the
working parts of the engine.
:
In the annexed Schedule we have delineated twenty-six Drawings, represent-
ing a locomotive engine and carriage, edge and plate railways, wheels of
carriages, and coal waggons.
Figure 1 represents a longitudinal view of the locomotive engine on the edge
railway. a, a, a, are the cylinders containing the floating pistons b, b, which
are more fully described in the next Figure.
:
Figure 2 represents a cross section of Figure 1 at the middle cylinders a, a:
b, b, are the floating pistons connected with the wrought iron rods c, c, the
ends of which rest upon the bearing brasses of the axles of the wheels d, d.
These pistons press equally on all the axles, and cause each of the wheels to
press with an equal stress upon the rails, and to act upon them with an equal
degree of friction, although the rails should not all be in the same plane,
for the bearing brasses have the liberty of moving in a perpendicular direction
in a grove or slide, and, carrying the axles and wheels along with them, force
the wheels to accommodate themselves to the inequalities of the railway.
Figure 3 represents a carriage for carrying a cistern of water to feed the
boiler, and coals for the furnace.
Figure 4 are coal waggons.
Figure 5 is a view of the wheel, with wrought iron arms. a, a, a, a, a, a,
shew the arms cast in the nave 'b, and dropped into the mortise holes
c, c, c, c, c, c, in the rim, which are dovetailed to suit the dovetailed ends of the
arms d, d, d, d, d, d. The arms are heated red hot previous to dropping them

page_text: into the holes, in order to cause them to extend sufficiently for that purpose,
for when cold they are too short. In doing this we take advantage of that
quality which iron possesses, of expanding on the application of heat, and of
contracting again to its former dimensions on cooling down to the same tem-
perature from which it was raised. The arms therefore, on cooling, are drawn
with a force sufficient to produce a degree of combination between their dove-
tailed ends and the mortises of the rim, which prevents the possibility of their
working loose. They are afterwards keyed up. The mortise holes are also
dovetailed from the tail side of the wheel (a, a, Figure 6), to the crease side
(b, b, on the same Figure).
Figure 6 is a cross section through the centre of the wheel, with wrought
iron arms.
Figure 7 is an end view of Figure 6.
Figure Eight represents a view of our edge railway, shewing a rail a, con-
nected with the two adjoining rails, the ends of which are shewn by b, b, and
also with the props or pedestals on which they rest. d, d, shew the metal chairs,
and c, c, the stone supports. The joints e, e, are made by the ends of the rails
being applied to each other by what is denominated a half lap, and the pin or
bolt g which fixes them to each other and to the chair in which they are
inserted, is made to fit exactly a hole which is drilled through the chair and
both ends of the rails, at such a height as to allow both ends of the rails to
bear on the chair, and the bearance being the apex of a curve they both bear
at the same point. Thus the end of one rail cannot rise above that of the
adjoining one, for although the chair may move on the pin in the direction of
the line of the road, yet the rails will still rest upon the curved surface of
their bearance without moving.
Figure 9 is a cross section of our edge railway through the middle of one
of the chairs, a, and across the ends of two adjoining rails c, d, and the pin
e, f, is the stone support or sleeper.
Figure 10 is a cross section of a rail a at the centre, and shews the s
carriage c behind.
Figure 11 is a plan of the railway described at Figure 8, shewing the half
lap joinings of the rails c, c, placed in their carriages d, d.
Figure 12 is a view of the cast-iron wheel with the malleable iron tire. This
wheel is made with curved spokes, as shewn at a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, in the
Drawing, and with a slit or aperture in the rim, shewn at b, into which a key
is inserted. The reason of this is, that on the application of the hot tire, the
cast metal expands unequally, and the rim is liable to be cracked, and the
arms drawn off unless the first is previously slit or opened, and the latter

page_text: curved, which allows them to accomodate themselves to the increased diameter
of the wheel. By this formation of the wheel the tire might be forced on
when cold and keyed up afterwards.
:
Figure 18 is a cross section of Figure 12, through the centre. a, a, shew the
tire; b, b, b, b, shew the metal rim. This cast metal rim is dovetailed, so
that when the tire, which is dovetailed to suit it, is put on hot, it contracts
and applies itself to the rim with a degree of adhesion which prevents its
coming off from the motion of the wheel on the railway. This wheel is of
the form to suit an edged railway; and to make it answer for a plate rail, it
only requires the rim to be round or flat.
Figure 14 is an end view of Figure 12 without the malleable iron tire.
Figure 15 represents a view of a rolley or tram wheel calculated to move
upon a plate railway. a, a, a, a, shew the malleable iron arms fastened to the
projections b, b, b, b, on the inside of the rim c, c, c, by the bolts d, d, d, d.
Figure 16 is a cross section of Figure 15 through the centre of the wheel.
a, a, shew the arms; c, c, the rim; d, d, the bolts.
Figure 17 represents a view of a rolley or tram wheel, with a plate of
malleable iron a, a, a, a, to form the junction between the nave b, b, and the
cast metal rim c, c, c, c.
Figure 18 is a cross section of Figure 17. a, a, shew the plate upon which
the nave b, b, is cast; c, c, shew the cast iron rim which is cast upon the plate,
the edges of which plate are previously covered with a thin coating of loam
and charcoal dust, or other fit substance, to prevent the too intimate adhesion
between the iron plate and metal rim, so that if the rim should. break it can
easily be taken off and replaced by casting another on the plate.
Figure 19 represents the plate railway on our plan.. At the end of each
plate are projections a, a, a, a, to fit into the dovetailed carriage b, b, and at
each end of each plate are projections or tenons c, c, c, c, which fall into the
mortise hole (d, in Figures 20 and 21) in the carriage b, b, and secure the
rail from an end motion, and when the pin or key e, is driven into its place,
it secures the plates.from rising. Thus they are fixed immoveable in the
carriage.
Figure 20 is a front view of Figure 19.
Figure 21 is a plan of the carriage in which a, a, shew-the nail holes through
which the nails are driven to secure it to the sleeper. When the rails are laid
in this carriage, and secured by the pin or key, they keep these nails from
starting up by resting upon them.
Figure 22 is a cross section of the carriage and the end of one of the plate

page_text: Figures 23 and 24 are a plan and front view of a rail of the common plate
railway.
Figure 25 represents a front view of the.common edge railway.
Figure 26 shews a rail of the common way inclining out of the horizontal
position,
as they very often do, from the yielding of the props or pedestals,
and of course. a shock is sustained by the waggons in passing the joining to
the next rail.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Losh, and George Stephenson,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-sixth day of
November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
sixteen.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, (being
first duly stamped), in the presence of,
W (L.s.) LOSH.
GE° (L.S.) STEPHENSON.
THOMAS CARR,
Attorney, Newcastle.
NATHI GRACE,
JOHN ROBERTSON,.
His Clerks.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-sixth day of
November, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid William Losh and
George Stephenson came before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and
acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid
was stamped according to the tenor of Statute in that case made and
provided.
Inrolled the Thirtieth day of November in the room shove written.