ROBERT L. STEVENS INVENTS THE AMERICAN RAIL AND SPIKE.
During the voyage to Liverpool he whiled away the hours on shipboard by whittling thin wood into shapes of imaginary cross sections until he finally decided which one was best suited to the needs of the new road.
He was familiar with the Berkenshaw rail, with which the best English roads were then being laid, but he saw that, as it required an expensive chair to hold it in place, it was not adapted to our country, where metal workers were scarce and iron was dear. He added the base to the T rail, dispensing with the chair. He also designed the "hook-headed" spike (which is substantially the railroad spike of to-day) and the "iron tongue" (which has been developed into the fish bar), and the rivets (which have been replaced by the bolt and nut) to complete the joint.
A fac-simile of the letter[2] which he addressed to the English iron masters a short time after his arrival in London is preserved in the United States National Museum. It contains a cross section, side elevation and ground plan of the rail for which he requested bids.
The base of the rail which he first proposed was to be wider where it was to be attached to the supports than in the intervening spaces. This was afterward modified, so that the base was made the same width (three inches) throughout.