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 



sec. 



Fig. 24. 

 Edge Rails, Lawson Colliery, New Castle-on-Tyne. H797.) 



I in the U. S. National Museum. 



the rail, having two bolts through the stem of the rail at each joint. 

 They were laid on the Lawson Main Colliery Road, New-Castle-on-Tync, 

 England, by Mr. Barnes, and were at first supported by timber but 

 finally by stone blocks. 



H. Mis. 224, pt. 2 42 



