Early in October, 1830, and shortly after the surveys of the Camden and Amboy Railroad were completed, Robert L. Stevens (born 1787) sailed for England, with instructions to order a locomotive and rails for that road.
At that time no rolling mill in America was able to take a contract for rolling T rails.
Robert Stevens advocated the use of an all-iron rail in preference to the wooden rail or stone stringer plated with strap iron, then in use on one or two short American railroads. At his suggestion, at the last meeting held before he sailed, after due discussion, the Board of Directors of the Camden and Amboy Railroad passed a special resolution authorizing him to obtain the rails he advocated.
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spike of to-day) and the "iron tongue" (which has been developed into the fish bar), and the rivets (which have been replaced by the bolt and nut) to complete the joint.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.
DIFFICULTY OF ROLLING THE AMERICAN RAIL.
Mr. Stevens received no favorable answer to his proposals, but being acquainted with Mr. Guest (afterward Sir John Guest), a member of Parliament, proprietor of large iron works in Dowlais, Wales, he prevailed upon him to have rails rolled at his works. Mr. Guest became interested in the matter and accompanied Mr. Stevens to Wales, where the latter gave his personal supervision to the construction of the rolls. After the rolls were completed the Messrs. Guest hesitated to have them used, through fear of damage to the mill machinery, upon hearing which Mr. Stevens deposited a handsome sum guaranteeing the expense of repairing the mill in case it was damaged. The receipt for this deposit was preserved for many years among the archives of the Camden and Amboy Company. As a matter of fact, the rolling apparatus did break down several times. "At first," as Mr. Stevens in a letter to his father, which I have seen, described it, "the rails came from the rolls twisted and as crooked as snakes," and he was greatly discouraged. At last, however, the mill men acquired the art of straightening the rail while it cooled.