684 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, L889. 



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 in the 

 way of regular business were rolled by the Cambria Iron Company, at 

 Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in August, 1867. In no one year during the 

 next five years were more thau 40,000 tons of Bessemer steel rails man- 

 ufactured in the United States. 



About 1870-73 attempts were made by several rail manufactures to 

 roll rails that should have a steel head andiron web and flange — "steel 

 top rail," it was called. A considerable quantity of this rail was rolled 

 by the Trenton Iron Company for the New Jersey division of the Penn- 

 sylvania Railroad Company. While this experiment 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 in 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, or 

 one-quarter the cost of ten years before. 



During the last ten or twelve years no radical change has been made 

 in the shape of the section of rails laid by first-class railroads. It is 

 true that the constantly increasing weight of the locomotive and of the 

 lading of the freight cars has made it necessary to use heavier rails — 

 the increased metal beiug put in the head, where the traffic is heavy, 

 or in the base (the base of some standard sections beiug made as wide 

 as 5 or 5£ inches), where the cross-ties upon which the rail is laid are 

 of soft wood. The general shape of the rail has, however, been but 

 slightly changed. 



Sections of the standard rails laid by the Pennsylvania Railroad 

 Company are shown in Figs. 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, and by the Chicago, 

 Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company* in Figs. 70, 77 78 79. 



Fig. to. 



Standard' of 1870/ 



Pig. 71. 

 Pennsylvanaia Railroad Standard Rails, 1870. 



(From drawings in V. S. National Museum.) 



* For abstract of letter from Mr. F. A. Delanoe, second vice-president Chi 

 Burlington and Quincy Railroad, giving interesting historical data regarding 

 used on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, see below. 



cago, 

 rails 



