US763457A - Dustless road. - Google Patents

Description

PATENTED JUNE 28', 1904.

J. R. BARR &: J. REES.

DUSTLESS ROAD.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 4. 1903.

N0 MODEL.

WW p. W.

UNITED STATES Patented June 28, 1904.

JAMES R. BARR AND JOHN REES, BRAZIL, INDIANA.

DUSTLESS ROAD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Le e Patent No. 763,457, dated June as, 1904.

Application filed September 4, 1903. Serial No. 172,019. (No model.)

To (ti/Z whom, it Hen/y concern.-

Be it known that we, JAMES R. BARR and JOHN Runs, citizens of the United States, residing at Brazil, in the county of Clay and State of Indiana, have invented new and useful Improvements in Dustless Roads, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to new and useful improvements in dustless roads, and is especially adapted for use as railway-beds in mines and other places where the production of dust renders explosions imminent.

The object of the invention is to produce a road-bed of inexpensive construction which prevents the accumulation of dust. Heretofore the continual movement of draft-animals over'tlie track at themain entry to a mine has resulted in the cutting of the road-bed into minute particles and forming a thick dust. Our invention consists in forming the roadbed of material which will prevent this dust formation and which will absorb any coaldust which may be deposited upon it.

In the accompanying drawings we have shown the preferred form of our invention.

In said drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of the road at the main entry of a mine, and Fig. 2 is a section therethrough.

In the formation of our improved road the ties 1 are first laid upon the road-bed 2 and the tracks 3 placed thereon. Subsequent to this operation fire-clay 4 is tamped between the ties and rails, and this clay is kept moist by sprinkling water thereon at desired intervals. It will be understood that the passage of the draft-animals over the fire-clay will not result in the formation of dust, as the clay is kept moist at all times, and, moreover, should any coal-dust be dropped upon the clay it would be absorbed thereby and prevented from commingling with the atmosphere.

The advantages accruing from the employment of fire-clay as a road-bed are that fireelay is, first, refractory, and therefore cannot even in the presence of combustible material become inflammable; second, it is a non-absorbent of moisture, and therefore will not cause warping of the ties of a railway-bed, which would inevitably result from ordinary clay or sand. Furthermore, it is a concrete material that is to say, the natural tendency of its molecules is to adhere together tenaciously and with such cohesion as to preclude any entrance of moistureand, third, fireclay from its inherent properties of refractoriness and cohesiveness is not affected by heat or coldthat is to say, it is not responsive to expansion or contraction to any appreciable extent, so that road-beds made of fireclay will not cause any displacement of the ties or sleepers, as by expansion in warm Weather and contraction in cold weather.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

A railroad-bed for coal or other mines constructed 'to prevent explosion in the mines, said bed comprising fire-clay interposed between the sleepers or ties and also between the railroad-rails, substantially as specified.

In testimony whereof we affix our signatures in presence of two witnesses.

JAMES R. BARR. JOHN REES.

Images