The New International Encyclopædia/Fish Plate

FISH PLATE (so called from overlapping, like the scales of a fish). A name given to a flat plate or bar of iron employed in pairs to connect the ends of adjacent rails in railway track. The two plates are placed on opposite sides of the webs of the rails, and are held by bolts passing through the plates and the webs of the two rails. The fish-plate joint was invented in America, in 1830, by Col. R. L. Stevens, and was first used on the Camden and Amboy Railroad. In order to increase the strength of the joint, the angle bar was devised about 1868 or 1870, having a vertical web like the fish plate and an inclined flange extending over the rail-base. The angle-bar joint is now almost universally employed. A full discussion of rail-joints is contained in Tratman, Railway Track and Track Work (New York, 1900). See Railways.