MECHANICAL AND USEFUL ARTS. 71 



Iiis patents of 1S55, 1859, and 1S60. Mr. Price has published a 

 document with numerous names of military men, engineers, and 

 others, who witnessed the experiments with gunpowder at Burnley 

 in April last, from which it appears that it was not this lock at all 

 into which gunpowder was introduced, so as to explode it on that 

 occasion, the safe produced by his opponent, after every attempt on 

 the right one had failed, being an old one, though of Price's make ; 

 and that Mr. Price and his agent and friends repeatedly protested 

 against its introduction, or any operation on it, as a test of the 

 properties of Price's gunpowder-proof locks and safes. — Builder. 



PERMANENT WAT OF RAILWAYS. 



The Earl of Caithness has patented the following railway im- 

 provement : — 



It is proposed to make a portion of one or both of the rails at the points or 

 change of line slide along horizontal parallel slots made at an angle to the rails, 

 the two ends of such sliding rails, and the ends of the stationary abutting rails 

 being inclined or bevilled to correspond to the angle of the slots, whereby an 

 OTerlap bevil joint is obtained. When one of these sliding rails is used the 

 pointed swivel switch rail remains unaltered in shape, and is coupled with the 

 opposite switch rail in the ordinary- manner, but the latter rail end is bevilled in 

 place of being cut square off. To this latter rail is fitted a slide which is con- 

 nected with that portion of the rail which works in the parallel slots, so that on 

 the slide being moved by the lever which opens or closes the switch, it carries 

 ■with it the loose rail, and causes it to travel in its parallel slots, and change the 

 points accordingly. When two sliding rails are employed, one for each side of 

 the way, they are coupled together and move in their slots simultaneously, the 

 ordinary swivel switch rails being in this case dispensed with. On the first bevil 

 end meeting the train (the switch being right for the main line), there is a rigid 

 stop for maintaining the rail firmly in a permanent line. It is also proposed to 

 combine by means of rolls a T shaped steel bar, with two wrought iron |_ shaped 

 or angled bars, so as to produce an I shaped rail with the steel rail in the centre, 

 and forming the wheel-bearing surface. The parts may be further secured by 

 bolts or rivets. The T shaped rail may also be rolled with obtuse angled rails of 

 wrought iron, one on each side, so as to form a rail suitable to the saddled back 

 sleeper, and having a steel wheel-bearing surface. It is further proposed to cover 

 the wheel-bearing surface of the ordinary double headed rail with a layer of steel 

 by rolling the rail in combination with a steel plate, tBe steel being either made 

 simply to grip or fold over the head of the rail, or let into the same by a longi- 

 tudinal dove-tailed or other groove or channel formed in the rail head. 



Mr. W. B. Adams has also patented certain improvements in the 

 Permanent Way of Railways. 



These improved methods of holding chairs to sleepers consist in forming a 

 large-sized conical hole in the chair, and applying thereto a spike or screw, the 

 neck of which may be conical or cylindrical, but with a loose collar of iron or 

 other metal, cither coned or flat, placed in the neck of the spike, so that in 

 driving down the spike the elasticity of the collar will ensure a lit against both 

 spike and chair, without risk of splitting the chair; and in case of wear they 

 can easily be tightened by driving. The improvement in fastening rails in chairs 

 consists in the use of keys of iron or steel, either on one or both sides of the 

 rail. The keys are driven with elastic pressure between the rail and chair, thus 

 preventing the splitting of the chairs by rigid pressure, and dispensing with the 

 ordinary wooden keys. The improvement in cast-iron sleepers consists in the 

 extension of the bases of the various improved chairs before described, so as to 

 form a sufficient bearing in the ballast, making every chair its own sleeper also. 

 The improvements in girder rails consist, 1, in a double-headed rail of the ordi- 

 nary form as regards the tables or running surfaces, but rolled with wide central 



