has no tendency to fall away from them; the water drains away freely, and hitherto the passage of the ballast waggons over that portion of the line which is laid (although they are without springs) has been productive of benefit rather than injury.

The inclination of the rail being given in the chair, had insured such accuracy, that after one day's traffic over it, the surface of the rails is rubbed equally throughout, and not alternately on either side, as is so commonly the case.

Mr. Cubitt did not claim the invention of the angular-formed sleeper, as Mr. Reynolds had used it before for his longitudinal bearing rails, but he believed that transverse sleepers of that form had not been previously laid down; nor did he claim the compressed wedges and trenails, or the peculiar mode of casting the chairs; the merit of these was entirely due to Messrs. Ransome and May, who had entered completely into his views and wishes, and executed them with extreme intelligence.

In answer to a question from the President, Mr. May replied, that it had been an object to gain in the trenails and wedges, the greatest amount of strength with diminished bulk, and also to cut away as little of the sleeper as possible in boring the holes; he had, therefore, introduced this method of compressing them, with a view also, that in swelling from the damp, they should fix themselves tight into the soft timber sleeper, and hold the chair fast down.

He hoped to extend the use of compressed trenails to shipbuilding, for which they were eminently adapted; if they were used, smaller holes would be bored in the timbers, and they would hold tighter than the trenails now used, which require to have the points split and wedged up, and the heads also divided and caulked, to prevent leakage through the open sap vessels of the wood.

The President remarked that on the Hull and Selby Railway, the chairs were fastened to the kyanized timber sleepers, by uncompressed wooden trenails.

Mr. Cubitt was not aware of that fact; he had always found that uncompressed wedges and trenails would not hold tight. Some of the compressed trenails had been wetted by accident, and could not be afterwards driven into the holes in the chairs; they nearly resumed their original size, and then showed the marks of the turning tool upon their surfaces. In answer to a question from Mr. Parkes, as to the comparative expense of laying the line, it was rather in favour of the system he had adopted, although the prices paid for the items separately, were higher

VOL. XXI.

F

than usual, but the saving in labour, and the almost total absence of waste of materials, gave the economy. He then quoted a few of the prices paid; sleepers, 6s. 6d. each (ready to lay down, including kyanizing); chairs £9 per ton, free from faults in casting, the contractors for them replacing all that were broken in laying the line. Each joint chair, with three trenails and one wedge, 2s. 10d. Intermediate chairs, with two trenails and one wedge, 2s. 1d. each. The labour for laying the line was from 2s. to 3s. per yard running; the cost of fixing the sleepers, laying the rails, and ballasting complete, was from £1,500 to £2,000 per mile, including all expenses.

Mr. Macneill fully concurred in the importance of providing for clear drainage from the sleepers; and in the advantage presented by the angular form for ramming the ballast. The transverse sleepers, with such rails as had been used on the SouthEastern Railway, were preferable to a continuous bearing, as they would prevent the gauge from widening, and preserve an uniform regularity of service, which would tend materially to diminish the oscillating motion so common on railways, and which was so destructive to the engine and the carriages; altogether this railway appeared to be the most perfect he had hitherto seen.

He was using on the Dublin and Drogheda Railway, chairs of somewhat similar construction, with uncompressed wooden wedges and fastenings; they were very roughly cast in Scotland, with hot-blast iron, and the breakage was very great; they, however, cost less than £5 per ton. He believed that chairs, such as were cast by Ransome and May, would be cheaper at £9 per ton. The uncompressed trenails were found in many instances to become loose. In ballasting the railway, as stone was cheap, the whole surface of the line was pitched transversely with thin stones, and then a good bed of broken stone used for ballast, in the same manner as Mr. Telford had proceeded with the Holyhead Road.

Mr. William Cubitt had compressed a considerable quantity of wood wedges, by forcing them singly, by a blow of a piston, through a taper steel mould; on leaving the mould they had attained their ultimate state of compresson, and they were some time before they resumed their original bulk, but he conceived that Mr. May's plan, by which they were dried in a compressed state, enabled them to retain their form longer. He considered the systems of preparation, and of laying the road, to be the most perfect hitherto executed.

Some years since, Mr. Horne had made a series of experiments on the form of timber beams, which presented the greatest amount of strength with the least quantity of timber; he found that a triangular beam, placed with the base upwards, was one-third stronger than any other form.

Mr. Colthurst inquired whether the trenails and wedges had been found to have lost strength by compressing. He imagined that they would not bear a transverse strain so well as before compression.

Mr. May replied, that no experiments had been tried as to the relative transverse strength of timber before and after compression.

Mr. S. Seaward thought it was probable the timber did suffer somewhat from compression, but that did not militate against the system, as there must necessarily be an original excess of strength in the trenails, so that no inconvenience could result from the process.

The President observed, that although uncompressed trenails do draw out of the stone blocks, they hold fast in wood sleepers. The round trenails used to fasten the chairs to the sleepers on the Hull and Selby Railway, were of a proper size to fit the hole in the chair, and at the end a square head was left, which held the chair down.

Mr. Cubitt had frequently seen trenails or plugs driven into stone blocks, to receive the iron spikes which fastened down the chairs; he believed they had also been used for driving through the chairs into the blocks, but he was not aware that they had been used in wood sleepers, until he employed them on the SouthEastern Railway.

In answer to a question from the President, Mr. Lynde explained, that upon the Hull and Selby Railway, trenails were certainly used in conjunction with wooden sleepers; a portion of them were uncompressed, but the greater part were compressed like the wedges; the latter were supplied by Mr. William Cubitt. Mr. William Cubitt only supplied the wedges; they were compressed as he had previously explained; he believed that the trenails and wedges generally used upon the London and Birmingham, and other railways, were compressed by being driven through steel rings, by heavy mallets, or by a press; they were most frequently used in the stone blocks, to receive the iron spikes.

List of Patents

Granted for SCOTLAND, subsequent to June 22nd, 1842.

To John Cox, of Gorgie Mills, Edinburgh, tanner and glue manufacturer, for certain improved processes of tanning.-Sealed 23nd June.

John Bould, of Ovenden, in the parish of Halifax, in the county of York, cotton spinner, for an improvement or improvements in condensing steam-engines.-Sealed 23nd June.

John Americus Fanshawe, of Hatfield-street, in the parish of Christ Church, in the county of Surrey, Gent., for an improved manufacture of water-proof material, applicable to the purposes of covering and protecting surfaces, bodies, buildings, and goods exposed to water and damp.-Sealed 29th June. James Boydell, Junr., of the Oak Farm Works, near Dudley, in the county of Stafford, iron master, for improvements in the manufacture of keel plates for vessels, iron-gates, gate-posts, fencings, and gratings.-Sealed 30th June.

Michael Coupland, of Pond Yard, Park-street, Southwark, millwright and engineer, for improvements in furnaces.-Sealed 30th June.

Thomas Banks, of Manchester, in the county of Lancaster, engineer, for certain improvements in the construction of wheels to be employed upon railways.-Sealed 5th July.

John Tresahar Jeffree, of Blackwall, in the county of Middlesex, engineer, for certain improvements in lifting and forcing water and other fluids, parts of which improvements are applicable to steam-engines.-Sealed 6th July.

James Nasmyth, of Patricroft, near Manchester, in the county of Lancaster, engineer, for certain improvements in machinery or apparatus for forging, stamping, and cutting iron and other substances.-Sealed 7th July.

Charles Augustus Preller, of Eastcheap, in the city of London, merchant, for improvements in machinery for preparing, combing, and drawing wool and goats' hair,-being a communication from abroad.-Sealed 13th July.

William Revell Vigers, of Russell-square, in the county of Middlesex, Esq., for a mode of keeping the air, in confined places, in a pure or respirable state, to enable persons to remain or work under water, and in other places, without a constant

supply of fresh atmospheric air,-being a communication from abroad.- -Sealed 13th July.

Gottlieb Boccius, of the New Road, Shepherd's Bush, in the county of Middlesex, Gent., for certain improvements in gas,

and on the methods in use, or burners for the combustion of gas.-Sealed 14th July. John Hall, of Breezes hill, Ratcliff-highway, in the county of Middlesex, sugar refiner, for improvements in the construction of boilers for generating steam.-Sealed 18th July.

John Elliott Fox, of Finsbury Circus, in the city of London, Gent., for improvements in steam-engines,-being a communication from abroad.-Sealed 18th July.

New Patents

SEALED IN ENGLAND.

1842.

To John Harrison Scott, of Somers Town, engineer, for certain improvements in metal pipes, and in the manufacture thereof. -Sealed 6th July-6 months for inrolment.

George Edmund Donisthorpe, of Bradford, Yorkshire, top manufacturer, for improvements in combing and drawing wool, and certain descriptions of hair.-Sealed 6th July-6 months for inrolment.

Joseph Hall, of Cambridge, agricultural implement maker, for certain improvements in machinery for tilling land.-Sealed 6th July-6 months for inrolment.

Lady Ann Vavasour, of Melbourne Hall, Yorkshire, for im provements in machinery for tilling land.-Sealed 7th July6 months for inrolment.

Richard Hodgson, of Montague-place, in the county of Middlesex, Gent., for improvements in obtaining images on metallic and other surfaces.-Sealed 7th July-6 months for inrolment. James Timmins Chance, of Birmingham, glass manufacturer, for improvements in the manufacture of glass.-Sealed 7th July -6 months for inrolment.

Charles Augustus Preller, of Eastcheap, merchant, for improvements in machinery for preparing, combing, and drawing