668 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889 



the rail being 'M inches high. Over 30 miles of this rail was immedi- 

 ately laid down. For sections of rail as designed and rolled see Fig. 

 39. * 



Fig. 39. 



Stevens Rail rolled with Convex Top and Base, designed by Robert 



L. Stevens, 1830, generally used on American Railroads since 1836. 



Shaded section shows rail as originally designed, 1830. Section not shaded 



shows rail as rolled, 1831. 



(From original r.i the U. S. National Museum. ) 



This rail was fastened to stone blocks with hook-headed spikes; at 

 the joints were iron tongues fasteued to the stem of the rail by rivets 

 put on hot. This was the standard rail of the Camden and Amboy 

 Railroad, 1831 -'40. 



From a letter written by Francis B. Stevens to James M. Swank, esq., 

 special agent of statistics, dated Hoboken, New Jersey, March, 188^, 

 the following extracts are taken : 



I have always believed that Robert L. Stevens was the inventor of what is called 

 the T-rail, and also of the method of fastening it by spikes, and I have never known 

 his right to the invention questioned. 



Mr. Stevens's invention consisted in adding the broad flange on the bottom, with 

 base sufficient to carry the load, and shaped so that it conld be secured to the wood 

 below it by spikes with hooked heads, thus dispensing with the cast-iron chair, and 

 making the rail and its fastening such as it now is in common use. 



In the year 183G, and frequently afterwards, he spoke to mo about his invention of 

 this rail. The Camden and Arnboy road laid with this rail was opened October 9, 

 1832, two years after the opening of the Manchester and Liverpool Railroad. Of this 

 I was a witness. This rail, long known as the old Camden and Amboy rail, differed 

 but little, either in shape or'proportions, from the T-rail now in common use, but 

 weighed only 36 pounds to the yard. For the next six or eight years after the open- 

 ing of the Camden and Amboy Railroad it was little used here or abroad, nearly all 

 the roads built in the United States using the Hat iron bar, about 2| by £ inches, 

 nailed to wooden rails, the English continuing to use the chair and wedges. 



My uncle always regretted that he had not patented his invention. He mentioned 

 to me upward of forty years ago that when advised by his friend, Mr. F. B. Ogden, 

 the American consul at Liverpool, who was familiar with the circumstances of his 

 invention, to patent it, he found that it was too late, and that his invention had 

 become public property. 



