DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN KAIL AND TRACK. 



699 



slipped which encircled the base, to which it was secured by a wedge 

 driven on each side of the stein between the ring and the base of the 

 rail. 



Fig. 120 is drawn from a ring joint and wedges which were in the track 

 of the West Jersey Railroad for many years.* 





Fig. 120. 

 Ring, Joint, and Wedge used on the West Jersey Railroad. 



Fm>h! original in the U. S. National Museum, i 



About 1850, G. Samuels patented the method of scarfing the rail- 

 heads and bending the ends of the rail so that the stems could be 

 riveted together in the same way that boiler plates are put together, 

 but this invention was not put into practice. 



THE ANGLE SPLICE BAR. 



As early as 1857 the angle splice bar (or cast-iron bracket joint, as it 

 was then called) was tried on the Erie Railroad. The form of this splice- 

 bar has been already illustrated in Fig. 52. It was abandoned after 

 a short trial. 



The wrought-irou angle splice-bar, somewhat similar in section to the 

 Adams cast bracket joint, seems to have come into use about 1868. 



'Presented to tbe Museum by Mr. W. McAllister, master mechanic of the Pennsyl- 

 vania Railroad, at Camden, N. J. 



