Re: Rail length chisel to size

Talking about rail lengths brings my Dad's Uncle
to mind. This man was married to my Dad's Paternal Aunt. He worked as a section foreman and
was very mechanically inclined.
Noticing that the weakest part of the track structure was the rail joint, Uncle Hass invented
a joint bar that was the predecessor of the joint bar used even as we speak.
The family story is that a yard master offered to help him with his effort to patent his invention
and had Hass sign some papers. The YM then went to Chicago to see some patent attorneys who in
turn had the YM sign some papers. When the dust settled the attorneys owned the patent and the YM
and uncle Hass had nothing.
I have no way of verifying this story. I do know that I saw the patent model under Aunt Mary and Uncle Hass' bed and I'd give my eye teeth to have
that model now.
Jim