G80 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



THE ASHBEL WELCH 1JA1L. 



After the close of the war in 1865, it became necessary to relay a 

 large percentage of the mileage of almost every railroad. Upon many 

 of the roads some rails were in use with which the roads were originally 

 laid. The late Ashbel Welch, in "A Memoir on Rails," read before the 

 American Society of Civil Engineers, June 10, 1874, states that "during 

 the year 1865 the task presented itself to me of devising or selecting 

 suitable forms of rails for the system of railroads occupying the central 

 part of the State of New Jersey between Philadelphia and New York, 

 of which I was the executive officer as well as engineer. 



The 62-pound Ashbel Welch rail, which was rolled by the Bethlehem 

 Iron Company during the following year, was 4£ inches high, the base 

 being 4 inches and the stem one-half an inch thick; the angle of incli- 

 nation of bearing surfaces both on the top of the base and bottom of tbe 

 head being 14 degrees. 



Figs. 62 and 63 are from original sections of the Welch 50-pound and 

 62-pound rail in the collection. Substantially this form of rail was 



Figs. 62, 03. 

 Ashbel Welch Kails. Fig. 62, 50 Lbs. fER Yard ; Fig. 63, 62 Lbs. per Yaki>, 1866. 



( From original sections in theU. S National Museum.) 



adopted by the railroads in the Eastern and Middle States previous to 

 the year 1873, although when the rails were first laid the cross-section 

 was strongly objected to. 



Mr. Welch's labors in this direction led to his being considered one 

 of the foremost rail designers in America, and in 1873 he was appointed 

 chairman of a committee by the American Society of Civil Engineers 

 to report on the " form, weight, manufacture, and life of rails," the 

 other members being M. 1ST. Forney, O. Chanute, and I. M. St. John. 

 The report of that committee, presented at the annual convention, 

 June, 1874, was the most exhaustive treatise on the subject of rails 

 published up to that time. 



In Mr. Welch's memoir attached to that report, in alluding to his 

 pattern of 1865, he states : " I made one decided mistake in this pattern 

 by not having the outer bottom corners of the head sharp enough, or 

 rather I yielded too much to the feeling against snch an unsightly 



