US23269A - Cast-iron rail for railways - Google Patents

Description

UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEicE.

J. E. RUSSELL, OF BROOKLYN, NEWT YORK.

CAST-IRON RAIL FOR RAILWAYS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 23,269, dated March 15, 1859.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J. E. RUSSELL, of the eastern district of the city of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Cast-Iron Rails for Railways; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, forming part of this specification, in which-d Figure l, is a side view of portions of two lengths of rail of a form adapted for streets. Fig. 2, is a plan of the same. Fig. 3, is a horizontal section of the same. Fig. 4, is a transverse section of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

The base A, and head B, of the rail may be of the usual or ahy suitable form. The neck C, whose corrugated form is best illustrated in the horizontal section, Fig. 3, has its corrugations j, j, extending from the base A, to the head B, said corrugations being of such width as practice may de termine to be the best, and of such depth as to confine the neck below the head B. The base A, may be solid, or may be lightened by having an opening a, opposite. to the concave side of each corrugation, as shown in Fig. 3, or any other arrangement of openings that will not reduce its strength in an injurious degree. The arrangement of the corrugations should be such that the necks of the adjacent rails will meet at the joint, and I propose to make the necks with a swell at each side at the ends of the several rails, as shown at b, Z), in Figs. l, 3 and 4, to make the joints strong. To confine the ends of these rails together, lat.- erally at the oints, I propose to cast a tenon c, see Fig. 2, on the head of each rail at one end, and a tenon CZ, (see Fig. 3) on the base at the opposite end, the said tenons to enter recesses provided to receive them in the adjacent rails; and to confine them vertically, I insert between them at every joint in recesses, provided in each end, for the purpose, a transverse key D, with a broad head e, and base f, the base f, resting on the bases of the both rails, and the head c, supporting the heads of both rails, as shown in Fig. 1.

In the rails represented in the drawing, which are intended for railways in streets, the notches g, g, in the inner edge of the car track L, z., are intended to facilitate the turning of wagons out of the wagon track The sides of these notches are at an angle of about 450, to the sides of the rail and at about the same angle to the horizon in a lateral direction.

By reference to the plan, Fig. 2, of the drawing, in which the form and arrangement of the corrugated neck of the rail is represented in dotted outline, it will be seen that the support given to the head of the rail by the neck is such as to leave a port-ion of it overhanging either side of the neck all along the rail, as in the ordinary straight-necked rail, but that it is more evenly distributed and is as great near the sides of the head as along the center there of, and hence a proper support is obtained for the head with less metal in the neck than is requisite when the latter is straight. Besides this advantage the neck being of this form will, to some extent, be flexible and elastic and will there-fore adapt itself to the unequal contraction of the different parts of the rail in cooling, and hence obviate in a great degree, if not entirely, the liability to fracture by such unequal contraction.

I-Iaving described my invention, I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent,

As an improved article of manufacture, a cast iron railroad rail having its neck vertically corrugated as herein shown and described.

JAS. E. RUSSELL.

lVitnesses J. IV. Cooinas. HENRY T. BRowN,

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