IMPROVEMENTS IN PORTABLE RAILWAYS TO FACILITATE THE MOVEMENT OF CARRIAGES ON COMMON ROADS AND OTHER SURRACA
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Welch, of Southall, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PORTABLE RAILWAYS
TO FACILITATE THE MOVEMENT OF CARRIAGES ON COMMON ROADS AND OTHER
SURRACA communication from abroad by James Welch, of Calcutta.
SURRAGES
"
A communication from abroad by James Welch, of Calcutta.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Welch at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th
December 1859.
I, ALFRED WELCH, of Southall, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PORTABLE
RAILWAYS TO FACILITATE THE MOVEMENT OF CARRIAGES ON COMMON ROADS AND
OTHER SURFACES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a former Invention patented by me in September
1857 (No. 2504), and consists of an improvement in the form of the links of
the chain composing the railway, and in the method of connecting them
together for the purpose of diminishing concussion and obtaining an easy and
rapid circulation of the railway round the carriage wheels.
Instead of uniting the links to each other by means of a hinge joint, as
described in my former Patent, I now merely connect or string them together

page_text: by means of an endless chain or flexible metal band, or other suitable con-
trivance, to which each link of the railway is fastened at the middle on its
upper side as it lies in position for the passage of the wheel over it.
The general form of the links of the railway as described in my previous
Patent is preserved, but in order to retain them in their proper position,
instead of the hinge joint one end of each link is shaped into a tenon so made
as to pass freely into and out of a corresponding mortice or socket formed in
the adjoining end of the next link, and so on in succession, thereby admitting
of their readily accommodating themselves to the constantly varying position
of the different portions of the railway in its progress round the carriage
wheels.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Welch in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 20th
June 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
WELCH, of Southall, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Alfred Welch, Her special licence that I, the said Alfred Welch, my exe-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alfred Welch,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree 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 PORTABLE
RAILWAYS TO FACILITATE THE MOVEMENT OF CARRIAGES ON COMMON ROADS AND
OTHER SURFACES," & communication from abroad by James Welch, of Calcutta,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alfred Welch, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,
or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be
performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Welch, 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 thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to a former Invention patented by the aforesaid
James Welch in September 1857 (No. 2504), and consists of an improvement
in the form of the links of the chain composing the railway, and in the method
of connecting them together for the purpose of diminishing concussion and
obtaining an easy and rapid circulation of the railway round the carriage
wheels.
Instead of uniting the links to each other by means of a hinge joint, as
described in the former Patent, they are merely connected or strung together
by means of an endless chain or flexible metal band, or other suitable con-
trivance, to which each link of the railway is fastened at the middle on its
upper side, as it lies in position for the passage of the wheel over it.
The general form of the links of the railway as described in the previous
Patent is preserved, but in order to retain them in their proper position
instead of the hinge joint, one end of each link is shaped into a tenon so made
as to pass freely into and out of a corresponding mortice or socket formed in
the adjoining end of the next link, and so on in succession, thereby admitting
of their readily accommodating themselves to the constantly varying position
of the different portions of the railway in its progress round the carriage
wheels.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Welch, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
ALFRED WELCH. (L.S.)