CATALOGUE OF THE MECHANICAL ENGINEERING COLLECTION. 



99 



When the track composed of this type of compound rails was new, 

 it is described as being the finest track of the period. No satisfactory 

 nut lock was in use at that time, however, and as the screw threads 

 or rivets wore and traffic became heavier, the different parts of the 

 rails could only be kept together by constant attention, in screwing 

 up the nuts or putting in new rivets. As the rails laid were of iron, 

 the wear of the inner surface was considerable, so that m a little 

 while the track was badly damaged and the old solid rail was 

 substituted. 



STEEL KAILS. 



The first steel rails in Europe are said to have been rolled at the 

 Ebbw Vale Works in Wales, about 1855. The steel was produced by 

 the Uchaturis process. Zerah Colburn states that " the quality of 

 the steel is said to be equal to that used for razors." The difficulty 

 in obtaining good iron on this side of the water led the more 

 prosperous American companies to continue to import steel and iron 

 rails from abroad for some years. 



In Swank's " History of Iron in all Ages " it is written that " the 

 first steel rails ever made in this country were rolled at the North 

 Chicago Kolling Mills in May, 1865." These were experimental 

 rails, only a few being rolled in the presence of a committee of the 

 American Iron and Steel Association. 



The first steel rails ever rolled in the United States upon order 

 were rolled by the Cambria Iron Company at Johnstown, Pennsyl- 

 vania, in August, 1867. In no one year during the n6xt five years 

 were more than 40,000 tons of Bessemer steel rails manufactured in 

 the United States. 



During 1870-1873 attempts were made by several rail manufac- 

 turers to' roll rails that should have a steel head and iron web and 

 flange—" steel top rail ", as it was called. A considerable quantity of 

 this^'rail was rolled by the Trenton Iron Company. While this ex- 

 periment was reasonably successful, the lessened cost of making 

 steel soon afterwards made it practicable to make the whole rail of 



steel. 



The production of steel rails, which aggregated 90,000 tons m 

 1872, increased from year to year, so that in 1882, ten years later, the 

 output reached nearly 1,500,000 tons, the price falling from $140 to 

 $35, and to-day practically the whole permanent way of American 

 ' railways, amounting to about 404,000 miles of track, is laid with 

 steel rails. 



