US558036A - Half to william iieston - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.).

H. M. CAMPBELL, RAILWAY RAIL JOINT.

No. 558,036, Patented Apr 14, 1896.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HUGH M. CAMPBELL, OF HOMESTEAD, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE HALF TO l/VILLIAM IIESTON, OF SAME PLACE.

RAI LWAY-RAI L JOIN'T.

SPECIFIOATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 558,036, dated April 14, 1896. A

l Application filed November 27, 1895. Serial No. 570,261. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern: I

Be it known that I, HUGH M. CAMPBELL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Homestead, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Railway-Rail Joints, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The object of this invention is to provide a device for connecting the meeting ends of railway-rails without the use of bolts or fishplates, and which, while affording security against the lateral and vertical displacement of the rails, will also admit of the inevitable creeping of the rails due to changes of temperature.

The invention consists of what, by analogy, may be called a chair, constructed to receive the feet or bases and webs of the meet ing ends of two rails and provided with an automatic tension-wedge, substantially as I will proceed now more particularly to set forth and finally claim.

In the accompanying drawings, illustrating my invention in the two figures, of which like parts are similarly designated, Figure 1 is a perspective view, and Fig. 2 is a horizontal section taken just below the head of the rails.

The letters a and 12 indicate the meeting ends of two railway-rails of any approved construction.

0 is what I have hereinbefore denominated the chair, and this chair may be a casting made with a horizontal pocket (I and a communicating vertical slot 6, by means of which the feet and bases and the webs of the adja cent ends of rails may be connected with and arranged in said chair. As shown in Fig. 2, one wall, f, of the slot 6 is made straight and parallel with the webs of the rails, so as to fit snugly against such webs,while the other wall, g, of said slot 6 has its face next to the webs longitudinally oblique thereto or made on an incline, in order to receive a wedge h, which may be introduced between said wall and the webs of the rail in the direction of its length and of the length of the rails and be forced in between the webs of the rails and the said wall g, in order to make as tight a made in all rail-joints for the creeping of the rails incident to variations in temperature, and in order that this may be accomplished in my rail-joint I provide the chair with a bracket '1 which, as shown, may be bolted to the chair and which has a right-angled head j, in which is arranged a set-screw is. In the example herein shown this set-screw has its end 71; reduced, and it is provided with a washer or shoulder Upon the reduced end of the set-screw is arranged a coiled spring Z, whose other end may be let into the head of the wedge 72-, as indicated by dotted lines, Fig. 2, so that the said spring may be sustained in position. By means of the set screw the spring may be given a tension sufficient to hold the wedge in place with adegree of pressure commensurate with the attainment of a firm joint of the rails in the chair and yet allow the movement of the rails under variations of temperature. The spring and. setscrew hold the wedge to place, and when it is desired to dismember the joint in order to remove a rail the set-screw may be run out suf ficiently to release the pressure of the spring upon the wedge and admit of the Wedge being released, so that the defective rail may be withdrawn lengthwise without removing the chair from the sleeper or tie, it being understood that the chair is spiked to the sleeper or tie. I

I am aware that boltless rail-joints are old, and that wedges have been used in connection with such boltless rail-joints, and that a set-screw has been employed to hold the wedge in place; but I believe that such construction produces a joint of such inflexibility and rigidity as to fail to meet the requirements of practical service, and I believe also that the interposition of the spring between the setscrew and the wedge obviates this defect and results in the thoroughly practical boltless rail-joint.

I have described myinvention as applied to railway-rail joints; but it is obvious that with slight alterations the joint is applicable to the meeting ends of other objects than railway-rails 5 and I have also described and shown the use of the coiled spring; but it is obvious, again, that other forms of springs may be substituted, and I wish to be understood as including within my claim of invention these alterations and modifications.

What I claim is- 1. A railway-rail joint, comprising a chair slotted or grooved to receive and engage the feet or bases and Webs of the meeting ends of adjacent rails, and having at least one of the walls of its groove or slot made longitudinally oblique or inclined to the webs of the rails, a wedge interposed longitudinally between the said chair and the webs of the rails and next to said oblique or inclined wall, a set-screw arranged in alinement with the said wedge, a rigid support for such set-screw apart from the wedge, and a spring interposed between said set-screw and the wedge, substantially as. and for the purpose described.

, ficiently to permit the creeping of the rails,

substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set :my hand this. 25th day of November, A. D. y 1895.

HUGH M. CAMPBELL.

Witnesses: J. O. SWEARINGEN, W. L. MoOoNEeLY.

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