. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN RAH, AND TRACK. G57 Thus, even before the successful introduction of the locomotive, coal, iron, and the railroad had become three equally important factors in the creation of the great systems of transportation, which have made our prosperity and the higher civilization of to day possible. CAST IRON FIRST USED FOR RAILS IN ENOLAND. The price of iron was materially reduced as coal became cheap and abundant, and a
. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN RAH, AND TRACK. G57 Thus, even before the successful introduction of the locomotive, coal, iron, and the railroad had become three equally important factors in the creation of the great systems of transportation, which have made our prosperity and the higher civilization of to day possible. CAST IRON FIRST USED FOR RAILS IN ENOLAND. The price of iron was materially reduced as coal became cheap and abundant, and at length it became possible to use it in the construction of rails. The earliest iron used in track construction was cast in plates 3 or 4 feet long, 2 or 3 inches wide, and one-half or three-fourths of an inch thick. These plates were spiked on top of the wooden stringer rail where, the wear was the greatest. As timber was dear in England at the close of the last century, many attempts were made to devise a cast-iron rail that should suit the traffic of the English tram roads. We have in the collections several models of the cast-iron rails that were used from 1789 to 18L0. A fair impression can be obtained of the prude ideas that the early English tramway contractors had in regard to rails from an examination of the drawings. Fig. 23, cast-iron edge rail, 1789. Patented in England by William Jessop, mine engineer, and laid ou a road in Loughborough. The rail was fish-bellied, and at first was not supported by a chair, the wood or. Fig. 23: Jessop's Patent Edge Kail. (1789.) (Frum model in ttie U. S. National Museum ) stone block being hewn to lit the end of the rail. Near the ends the rail had a flat projecting base, in which there were holes for the bolts which fastened them to the wooden block or sleeper. Fig. 24, cast e^\<x^, rails, 1797, with joints supported by chairs. These were the first chairs adopted, and were cast the reverse of the ends of. Please note that thes
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Keywords: ., bookauthorsmithsonianinstitutio, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840
