IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF AND IN FASTENING RAILWAY CHAIRS WITH WOOD TRENAILS
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Allen Ransome, of Ipswich, in the County
of Suffolk, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
AND IN FASTENING RAILWAY CHAIRS WITH WOOD TRENAILS."
Sealed the 14th November 1862, and dated the 28th May 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Allen Ransome
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition on the
28th May 1862.
I, JAMES ALLEN RANSOME, of Ipswich, in the County of Suffolk, do hereby
5 declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFAC-
TURE OF AND IN FASTENING RAILWAY CHAIRS WITH WOOD TRENAILS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of and
in fastening railway chairs with wood trenails. For these purposes wood
trenails are made, and are compressed, and allowed to cool or set in moulds
or dies, in which they are compressed as heretofore; they are then drilled
longitudinally from the head towards the point, but the lower part or point is
left solid in order to admit of its being driven into a sleeper without injury.
It is preferred that the hole thus drilled into a wood trenail should be cylin-
drical, in order to its receiving a cylindrical metal spike, which should as
nearly as may be fit the interior of the hole closely without requiring any
considerable force to drive it in, it being desirable that the spike should derive

page_text: its principal holding by the expansion of the trenail after it has been driven.
It is desirable that the wood trenails made with solid points or lower ends
as above described should be driven by the aid of a tool with a hollow face,
(corresponding with the curvature of the upper surface of the head of the
trenail,) which is placed on the top of the trenail when it is being driven;
this tool is made with a projection on its under side, which fits the upper part
of the hole in the trenail. In using these trenails to fasten railway chairs
to sleepers, the trenails are driven in through the holes in the base of each chair
into the sleepers, the spikes are then introduced into the holes formed in the
trenails so that when the trenails expand in use, the spikes will be more and
more securely held, and the chairs will be better fastened to the sleepers than
when using metal spikes alone or wood trenails alone.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Janies Allen Ransome in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 25th November 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JANES
ALLEN RANSOME, of Ipswich, in the County of Suffolk, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
James Allen Ransome, Her special licence that I, the said James Allen
Ransome, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said James Allen Ransome, 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 THE MANUFACTURE OF AND IN FASTENING RAILWAY CHAIRS
WITH. WOOD TRENAILS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
James Allen. Ransome, 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 James Allen Ransome, 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 has for: its object improvements, in the manufacture of
and in fastening railway chairs with wood trenails. For these. purposes wood
trenails are made, and are compressed, and are allowed to cool or set in
moulds, or dies, in which they are compressed as heretofore; they are then
drilled longitudinally from the head towards the point, but the lower part or
point is left solid in order to admit of its being driven into a sleeper without
injury. It is preferred that the hole thus drilled into, a wood trenail should
be cylindrical, in order to its receiving a cylindrical metal spike, which should
as nearly as may be fit the interior of the hole closely without requiring any
considerable force to drive it in, it being desirable that the spike should derive
its principal holding. by the expansion of the trenail after it has been driven.
It is desirable that the wood trenails made with solid points or lower ends as
above described should be driven by the aid of a tool with a hollow face (corre-
sponding with the curvature of the upper surface of the head of the trenail,)
which is placed on the top of the trenail, when it is being driven. This tool is
made with a projection on its under side, which fits the upper part of the hole
in the trenail. In using these trenails to fasten railway chairs to sleepers the
trenails are driven in through the holes in the base of each chair into the
sleepers, the spikes are then introduced into the holes formed in the trenails
so that when the trenails expand in use the spikes will be more and more
securely held, and the chairs will be better fastened to the sleepers than when
using metal spikes alone, or wood treuails alone.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing shews a longitudinal section of the
trenail constructed according to my Invention. a is the wood trenail bored to
a sufficient depth to receive the metal spike b, the lower part of the trenail
being left solid.
Figure 2 shows a longitudinal section of a wood trenail, and the method of
driving the same into the sleeper before introducing the spike. a is the
wood trenail; c is the tool having a hollow face corresponding with the
curvature of the upper surface of the head of the trenail, and a projection d
on its under side, which fits the upper part of the hole in the trenail.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I wish it to be understood that I do not confine myself
to the precise form and dimensions shewn in the Drawing, but I claim the
manufacture and use in fastening railway chairs of compressed wood trenails

page_text: drilled longitudinally from the heads towards, but not through the points, in
order that they may receive; metal spikes in such manner that they shall
derive their principal holding power from the expansion of the trenails after
they have been driven, substantially as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Allen Ransome, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of November, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
Witness,
G. A. BIDDELL,
of Ipswich.
JAMES ALLEN RANSOME. (L.S.)