Writers on Carriages--Periodical Publications on Coaches--Tight
Harnessing--Height of the Driver’s Seat--Cover to the Driver’s
Seat--American Buggy--American Trotting Waggons--Labour-Saving
Machines--Machines Save Time--American Magazines on
Carriages--Principles of Draught--Disadvantages of Two-Wheeled
Vehicles--Track of Wheels--Utility of High Wheels--Side Thrust and
Vibration of Wheels--Pitch of Axles and Dish of
Wheels--Springs--Elliptic Springs--Brake Retarders--India Rubber
Brake Blocks--A Load Should Rest on the Highest Wheel--Danger to a
Stage Coach in Low Front Wheels--Carriage Drawings of Full
Size--Value of being a Good Draughtsman--Mr Gladstone on
Design--Coachmakers Company’s Library.
There are not many books upon the art of Coachbuilding. There is a small
one in the French language by F. A. Garsault, in the year 1761, which
contains designs of the first improvements of the century in carts and
carriages.
There is also Monsieur Roubo’s work entitled “The Carpenter’s,
Cabinetmaker’s, and Coachmaker’s Art,” published by the French Academy
of Arts and Sciences, very carefully written, with numerous
illustrations; it is certainly a perfect history of the art of
Coachbuilding as it existed in the middle of the eighteenth century.
Nearly equal to that work is the article on carriages in the French
Encyclopædia of 1770, by Diderot; both deserve study and examination by
modern Coachbuilders. Mr Felton’s work of the year 1790 I have already
mentioned; also that on ancient Greek and Roman carriages by Herr von
Johann Christian Ginzrot, of Munich. This is charming for an
antiquarian, but contains no information useful to a Coachbuilder of
to-day.
Dr Richard Lovell Edgeworth published in 1817 a work upon “Public Road
and Wheel Carriages,” which contains much that is valuable and useful to
Coachbuilders, and it should be studied carefully by every student in
our art. There is in it an account of the experiments he made for the
Government of Great Britain at Dublin, to ascertain the necessary height
of wheels, length of a carriage, and other important rules of
Coachbuilding.
Mr T. H. Markland read an interesting paper on the origin of carriages
to a learned society, which is published in the twentieth volume of the
“Archæologia,” accompanied with several interesting copies of old
pictures of carriages.
In the “History of Inventions,” by Beckmann, is an interesting article
on coaches, which has been taken as the best authority by all succeeding
writers. The dates he gives are not all accurate.
The next published was, I believe, that by Mr W. Bridges Adams, in 1837,
by Messrs C. Knight & Co., of Ludgate Street, entitled, “English
Pleasure Carriages.” This book should certainly be possessed by all
Coachbuilders who desire information as to the best method of forming
and completing a good carriage. It is full and accurate in the rules
given, and the theories and mechanical principles expounded, giving very
ample details as to materials to be used, and the manner of making the
best use of them. Mr Adams, who was for a time in the firm of Hobson &
Co., has given a description of the different carriages used in his
time, which will form a reference for future ages, as M. Roubo’s
descriptions serve for the previous century.
Since Mr Adams’ work we have a valuable contribution to the history of
the art of Coachbuilding in the treatise by the Count Giovanni Gozzadini
on “The Origin of Coaches,” published in 1864 at Bologna. This is in the
Italian language; a copy is in the British Museum. We find in it a
spirited defence of Italy from the charge of deriving their knowledge of
Carriage-building from France; and the author proves, from the archives
of different towns and noble families, that Italy was second only to
Germany in its wealth and number of carriages during the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. Besides these, we have had the _Carriage
Builders’ Art Journal_, which commenced in 1859 and lasted for four
years, a journal which reflected great credit upon its editor, and is
full of information still worthy of our study; the _Art du Carrossier_,
published at Paris; two American periodicals; and the _Saddlers and
Coachbuilders’ Gazette_ in London.
The carriages of America are so different from our own, and from those
of Europe, that they require special attention. It is possible that
their style may influence in an important degree the carriages of future
ages. We see in them primarily “lightness.” That lightness in their
larger carriages is carried to excess most Coachbuilders will agree. We
are supported in this view by the fact that for some years these, such
as landaus, broughams, and coaches, have been materially modified by
European types. The Americans have adopted some of the shapes of
Europe, and the mode of constructing the under carriages, retaining
their own methods of making the pole and splinters, or whipple trees, as
giving greater freedom to the horses. I think this principle of allowing
the horse greater scope for exertion is particularly worth the attention
of Coachbuilders. The manner in which our horses are confined by tight
heavy strapping and traces, by tight pole chains, by bearing reins, and
the indiscriminate use of blinkers to the bridles has been much overdone
in England. If a horse with a heavy load, driven fast over slippery
roads should stumble, it is most difficult for him to recover
himself--he falls, is sometimes pushed along by the impetus of the
carriage, and is more or less injured in his limbs or nerves by the
accident, whilst it is difficult for him to rise again until the harness
is unstrapped, and the carriage is removed from above him. We also
harness our horses too closely to their work in the two-wheeled
carriages. We have thought only of the ease of turning and moving the
whole vehicle in crowded or narrow ways, without observing the advantage
of the long shafts over short shafts. If the shafts are considered as
levers by which the horse supports and moves the weight behind him in a
two-wheeled cart, it will be at once obvious that (although whilst those
levers are parallel with the road) it does not so much signify whether
they are long or short; yet the moment they point upwards, and
especially when they point downwards, the difference between long and
short levers is felt severely by the horse. We can all of us lift a
weight or support a weight more easily with a long lever than with a
short one, and it is the same with a horse. Those who have travelled
abroad must have noticed the great weights placed upon two-wheeled carts
in France and Belgium, and the greater comparative distance at which the
horse is placed from the wheels, and yet how little the horse is
distressed. He manages his load more easily because he does not feel the
weight so heavily upon his back. Many drivers in England seem to have
observed this, and try to ease the horse and lessen his chance of
stumbling by tipping the shafts up in front, but in this way the horse
is made to feel a pressure on the under part of the body which is
neither natural nor healthy. I think therefore that, in future years,
the growth of public opinion will be in favour of longer shafts and
poles. This will also tend to preserve good carriages from the damage
they at present suffer from the heat of the horses, and the quantity of
mud which is thrown by their heels upon the front of the vehicle. The
reins will of course have to be longer, but this cannot be of much
consequence; the driver of a brougham is further from the horse than the
driver of a mail phaeton, but we do not consider that the brougham is
more difficult to drive than the mail phaeton on that account.
Another fashion prevalent in this and in some other countries, may
prove, in the opinion of the drivers of the future, to be a fallacy; I
mean the supposed necessity for the driver to sit nearly upright, which
necessitates a deep boot and a clumsy thick coachman’s cushion. In
America, Russia, and in parts of Germany the driver sits low, but
places his feet against a bar in front of the footboard, which in their
carriages is longer than in ours. I have seen four horses driven very
well and easily in a low landau, and very powerful fast-trotting pulling
horses held in with apparent ease. It has seemed to me that our coachmen
are often in danger of being pulled over by their horses; and certainly,
when an accident happens in a collision they are easily thrown from
their boxes. They do not have the purchase and security that the Russian
drivers especially seem to possess.
Perhaps we shall learn from the American carriages a few useful hints in
this respect.
The American carriage, called, I believe, a “Rock-away,” has a
projection over the driver’s seat, to shield him from sun and rain. Some
of the Asiatic carriages have an awning for the same purpose. In Italy
travelling carriages often had a hood over the driver. In instances
where the master of the household likes to drive his own family
carriage, it would certainly add to his comfort, and that of any one
sitting by him, to have some useful addition of this nature.
The greatest novelty introduced by the Americans of the United States is
the light waggon, called also “buggy,” a name first given in England a
hundred years ago to a light two-wheeled cart carrying one person only,
and which we call a “sulky.” These American waggons were modelled from
the old German waggon, but they have been so much improved as to be
scarcely recognised. The distinctive feature of the German waggon was a
light shallow tray, suspended above a slight perch carriage on two
grasshopper springs, placed horizontally and parallel with and above the
front and hind axle-tree; on the tray one or two seats were placed, the
whole was light and inexpensive, and well adapted to a new rough country
without good roads. These waggons may still be found in Germany and
Switzerland. They were doubtless formed as a development of the V-shaped
agricultural waggon already described in the second chapter.
American ingenuity was lavished upon these waggons, and they have
arrived at a marvel of perfection in lightness. The two grasshopper
springs have been replaced with two elliptical springs. The perch,
axle-trees, and carriage timber have been reduced to thin sticks. The
four wheels are made so slender as to resemble a spider’s web; in their
construction of the wheels the principle of the patent rim used in
England in 1790 has been adopted. Instead of five, six, or seven felloes
to each wheel, there are only two, of oak or of hickory wood, bent to
the shape by steam. The iron work of the American buggy is very slender,
yet composed of many pieces, and, in order to reduce the cost, these
pieces of iron are mostly cast, not forged, of a sort of iron less
brittle than our cast iron. The bodies are of light work, like what we
call cabinet work. The weight of the whole waggon is so small that one
man can lift it upon its wheels again if accidentally upset, and two
persons of ordinary strength can raise it easily from the ground. The
four wheels are of nearly the same height, and the body is suspended
centrally between them. There are no futchels; the pole or shafts are
attached to the front axletree bed, and the front of the pole is carried
by the horses just as they carry the shafts; the splinter-bar and
whipple-trees are attached to the pole on swivels. Some are made without
hoods and some with hoods. These are made so that the leather of the
sides can be taken off and rolled up, and the back leather removed,
rolled, or fixed at the bottom, a few inches away from the back, the
roof remaining as a sunshade. The leather work is very thin and of
beautifully supple enamelled leather.
The perfection to which the American buggy or waggon has been carried,
and every part likely to give way carefully strengthened, is marvellous.
Those made by the best builders will last a long time without repair.
The whole is so slender and elastic that it “gives"--to use a trade
term--and recovers itself at any obstacle. The defect in English eyes of
these carriages consists in the difficulty of getting in or out by
reason of the height of the front wheel, and its proximity to the hind
wheel--it is often necessary to partly lock round the wheel to allow of
easy entrance. There is also a tremulous motion on a hard road which is
not always agreeable. It is not surprising that, with the great
advantages of extreme lightness, ease, and durability, and with lofty
wheels, the American waggons travel with facility over very rough roads,
and there is a great demand for them in our colonies. It must be
remembered that the price is small, less than the price of our gigs and
four-wheeled dog-carts. This cheapness is attained by making large
numbers to the same pattern, by using cast-iron clips and couplings, and
stays, by the use of machinery in sawing and shaping, grooving and
mortising the timbers, and by the educated dexterity of the American
workman always ready to adopt any improvement. An educated man will make
a nimble workman, just as an educated man learns his drill from the
military instructor more quickly than a clown. An educated man finds out
the value of machinery and desires to use and improve it. Instead of
fearing its rivalry he welcomes it; he remembers that all tools, even
the saw and the hammer, are machines, and that the hand, the human hand
that guides those tools is but a perfect machine obeying the guidance of
the brain more quickly and in a more varied manner than any man-made
machine. The American workman therefore uses machines more and more.
In England machinery for wood-shaping is used at Derby, Newcastle,
Nottingham, Worcester, and other towns; and in Paris some beautiful
machinery is at work in coach factories. In London, I believe, it is
chiefly confined to patent-wheel factories. We use also a few
steam-driven saws, some paint-grinding mills worked by hand, and
drilling and punching machines. But until the use of machinery is
adopted more generally in London it is probable that the trade of
building carriages for export will drift more and more to the provinces
and to the Continent. The saving of machinery in omnibus and
cab-building would be great, because the patterns vary so little, and
all other parts of one carriage could correspond with another, and
counterchange when repairs were needed.
The Coachbuilders of the future will look to steam and hand machinery as
their great assistant in cheapening the cost of first-rate carriages, in
multiplying them for the probably increased demand, and in building
carriages more speedily. It now takes from two to three months in
building a brougham, of which at least five weeks are consumed simply in
preparing the wood and iron work, a period which might easily be
shortened by machinery.
With regard to the American waggons, they are so completely a carriage
of themselves, there is so little to work upon, that we do not look for
great beauty; that each of its parts should be gracefully shaped must be
sufficient. The shape is conventional, affording no great opportunity
for style.
The larger carriages of North America in which there is plenty of room
for style and grace are, to an European eye, deficient in both. The
extremely ugly straight and abrupt lines of the upper parts of the
bodies, the wriggling, uncomfortable sweeps of the lower parts, the want
of proportion, the scanty room for the legs of the passengers, must
astonish all who have seen the carriages of other countries. American
wheeled carriages seem to say, “We are made for lightness, and nothing
else.” On the sledges grace, comfort, and elegance seem to have been
lavished, and, to use an American term, “pleasing lines” and sweeps
abound in the sleigh.
In all carriages the proportions of the different parts, to please
permanently, must harmonise. If at one time the fashion of the day is
for deep quarters, deep rockers, and very shallow panels, it is certain
that the eye of the man of taste will sooner or later correct this, and
return to the proper depths of each. If at one time the wheels are too
high, a Hobson will arise and cut them lower. If the curves grow too
rampant, and the scrolls and foliage too abundant, a more cultivated
taste will modify all this sooner or later. It is certain that our
American cousins will alter the shapes of their larger carriages, and
continue to improve them. In Australia--where the admiration for
American and English carriages is nearly equal--there are native
carriages built which, we are told, combine the lightness and durability
of American vehicles with the grace and comfort of English carriages. It
may not be so yet, but it is cheering, at any rate, to hear of the
attempt, and all true lovers of the craft must rejoice if it succeeds.
In America the principles of draught have been carefully considered and
discussed in a magazine specially published for Coachmakers, and which
magazine does the greatest credit to its able editor, Mr Ezra N.
Stratton, of New York; it is beautifully illustrated, and is full of
information for all branches of the craft. There is another magazine in
the same city called the “Hub,” edited by Mr George Houghton, who
visited Europe to see the recent display of carriages at the Exhibitions
at Vienna and London in 1873.
The principles of draught are in these works first set out with
reference to the sledge. We are told that, from long experience, it is
found if the traces are attached to the sledge so high that the trace is
horizontal or parallel with the ground, and the sledge meets with any
obstacle in a rough track, the runners will bite into the obstruction so
as almost to stop the team, but if the traces are fastened lower, so as
to form a straight line from the horse’s collar to the hind end of the
runners of the sledge, then they will lift, as it were, at the obstacle,
and glide easily over it. This theory appears quite correct. It is more
readily discovered in a sledge than in a carriage upon wheels, but the
principle is the same in each. Again, if the runners project in advance
of the sledge it follows easier than if they begin to turn upwards
beneath the weight of the sledge. This in wheel carriages is the same as
if the weight of the carriage were mostly on the low front wheel,
instead of upon the higher hind wheels.
In the New York magazine we are asked, “Why will a team haul a load on a
vehicle of four wheels easier than the same load upon two wheels?” and
“Why will a team haul a load in a circle, which they cannot move
straightforward?” The obvious answer is, that the same load presses on
the ground in two places heavier than it does upon four places, and,
secondly, that when moving in a circle the obstacles are less felt by
the inner wheels than by the outer. But the magazine gives further
ingenious reasons. When a load is resting upon a two-wheeled vehicle it
is very seldom placed so as to balance just right. If correct for level
ground, as soon as it ascends a hill, or descends, the balance is
unsettled. When the wheels come to a hole, or a big stone, all the load
must be raised with two wheels and only half when on four wheels. Again,
an uneven road twists the horse that is between the shafts from side to
side, when the load is on two wheels, more than when, on four wheels,
the fore-carriage rotates on the perch-box. Again, on an incline the
four-wheeler moves by its own gravity, whilst the two-wheel gives
additional weight at once on the horse’s back. To the second question
the magazine writer remarks that an experienced driver takes his load up
hill zigzag, and not straight, and what is lost in time is gained in
power. On the question of the height of the splinter-bar and
whipple-trees, he gives his experience of twenty years that they should
be, as a rule, a foot below the point of traction at the horse’s collar.
He explains the advantage of splinters (like our leading-bars) for all
the horses of a team, and not only the leaders, to be this--that if one
horse is lazy, then the others draw their bars forward, and,
consequently, his bar going back brings his traces tight again.
With reference to the method of attaching the horses close to their work
in England, and some distance from their work on the Continent, I wish
to have it understood that I do not consider the Continental custom
absolutely superior to the English custom, but I consider we might adopt
a middle course with great advantage to the horses and passengers. It
is certain that on the Continent the horses have, in many instances,
their traces too long, as it is that we have them often too short.
There has been much controversy about the difference in the length of
the front and hind axle-trees. It has been usual to make no greater
difference than will allow the higher wheel to follow in the same track
as the lower. In France it has been the practice, from the year 1846, to
make the front axle-tree of broughams six inches shorter. The object has
been to allow the front wheel to be placed nearer to the body. As the
front wheel of a brougham must turn entirely in front of the body, the
additional gain of three inches was very desirable. Some English
Coachbuilders have followed the example of the French. There is a
decided gain. The eye is pleased with the proportions. The horse is
eased, and upon hard roads the difference of track is of no consequence.
On the other hand, in country roads, the well-worn ruts make the running
of the carriage uneasy, whilst in town the driver often forgets that the
curbstones will strike his hind wheels sooner than the front wheels, and
lastly more mud is thrown upon the panels. It is probable that the
French style will not find favour.
In coaches built in 1750 it was customary to lower the hind part of the
inside seats about two inches, by degrees this was changed to a level
seat; recently the seat has been again lowered behind, and the back
squabs made more upright than formerly. The height of the top of the
cushion to the bottom of the body has varied during the same period
from fourteen to eighteen inches. These slight changes belong more to
the taste of the individual who uses the carriage. It is useless to lay
down any general rule on these subjects.
If carriages had always to move along perfectly smooth roads, such as a
tramway of wood, iron, or stone, the use of wheels in overcoming
friction would be their sole utility, and the height of the wheels would
be of small consequence. But as carriages are drawn along roads with
loose stones and uneven surfaces, wheels are further useful in mounting
over these obstacles, and it is plain that a high wheel does this more
easily than a low one. To demonstrate this, let us suppose a shallow
ditch or gulley of a foot wide and two inches deep, a wheel two feet
high would sink into this and touch the bottom, but a wheel three feet
high would only sink an inch, and a wheel four feet six inches high
would sink only half an inch, on account of their greater diameters.
Consequently, whilst the large wheel would have to be lifted by force of
pulling only half an inch, the smallest wheel must be lifted two inches,
and with the wheel must also be lifted a portion of the load of the
entire carriage. Again, the long spoke acts as a longer lever, the point
of draught being the axle, which is higher from the ground in the higher
wheel, and again assists in overcoming the obstacle, as the angle of
incidence is so much less.
To learn that the leverage power of a high wheel is very great we need
only consider the advantages gained by a large wheel in locomotives and
in bicycles. In practice we find that wheels from 4 feet to 5 feet are
sufficient for large carriages, and from 3 feet upwards for ordinary
vehicles.
The present method of constructing all wheels which have to carry
considerable weight will doubtless continue to prevail. The timbers of
which they are composed, viz., elm for the stocks, ash and hickory for
the rims, and oak or acacia for the spokes in Europe and America, have
been found the best for many years. Wheels of the present make must also
be dished. The tendency of a wheel is always to become upright, and when
it becomes so by the gradual hammering out of the tyre to a greater
length, and the gradual sinking of the spokes further into the nave and
rim by wear and tear, then the wheel goes to pieces. If any one will
watch the manner in which the materials of a mop become straight as it
is twirled round, he will understand that the same centrifugal force
compels wheels to become upright. Secondly, as a wheel runs along a road
it is forced from side to side by the uneven surface, the uneven draught
of the horses, and the rapid motion, which latter frequently causes the
wheel to jump over the road instead of pressing equally over all its
circumference. Then we dish our wheels, not only to keep the tyre tight
as long as possible, but also to resist the lateral thrust, which in a
perfectly upright wheel would soon force the spokes out of the naves.
There is one exception to this rule in the American spider wheel; in
this the spokes are not larger than a man’s finger, and being of
elastic wood, bend like a reed under the lateral thrust, and recovering
themselves again will endure, whilst the unbending oaken spoke would be
unrooted.
The late Lord Palmerston, whose vigorous common sense grappled many a
problem which would be supposed quite out of his line, was fond of
talking about carriages. He considered that wheels should have the
spokes dished, but that the arm of an axle-tree should be nearly
straight, so that the outside rim of the wheel should be upright; and
would illustrate the soundness of his views by quoting the wheels of
artillery waggons and pony phaetons. It became necessary to remind his
Lordship that we pitch the arms of the axles for two reasons; first, in
order to keep the box of the axle pressing against the strong shoulder
instead of against the weak linch-pin; and secondly, because the wheels,
when they are wider at the top of the tyres than at the bottom on the
road, will throw the mud away from, instead of into the carriage, or on
the panels.
There is no absolute rule for the dish of the wheel or the pitch of the
arm of an axle. Experience and custom point out to a builder what is
best for different carriages and different countries. It is sufficient
to say that a spoke two feet in length will last longest when not dished
more than its own width in its length, and that the pitch of the axle
arms, to ensure chiefly the duration of the wheels, should not be more
than will leave the spokes pointing towards the ground, not upright, but
narrower at the naves than at the rims by three-quarters of an inch
when the spokes are two feet long. This rule is simply for the duration
of the wheel as long as possible, without reference to any other
consideration, which the Coachbuilder, however, may find overrule what I
have said.
If the axles of a carriage are rather stronger than is necessary--having
regard to their length between the shoulders, and the weight they have
to carry--it will be found to have a considerable influence upon the
carriage, which will follow more steadily and quietly for the additional
strength.
I do not propose to enter in this series of lectures at any length upon
the subject of Springs. I think we are far from having attained
perfection either in the manufacture or shape of springs for carriages.
It may have been remarked that the first springs were all elbow springs,
placed in different positions, for different carriages. A double elbow
or horizontal spring of a length of four feet seems to give the most
easy play of any shape, and if made nearly straight at first wears
little in the course of time compared with the elliptical shape.
In perch carriages we have abandoned the nearly upright spring for the =C=
spring, chiefly because the =C= spring is of a more elegant shape, and
also resists wear better than the elbow or whip spring, which was found
to break away from its supports.
In elliptical springs the action of the steel plates is precisely
contrary to the action in the =C= spring; in both the back plates are
similar in shape, but the shorter plates in the =C= spring are on the
inner side of the curve, and in the elliptical they are on the outer
side of the curve. A careful consideration of the effects of this
variation may lead to a new combination which will be more satisfactory
in its results. The elliptical springs made by Hobson were doubly
compassed, and the same shape may be seen on some of the public
omnibuses. A carriage may be hung to be very easy by using double
horizontal springs, one under the other. At the Exhibition at Brussels
this year (1876) the most easy hand ambulances on wheels were
constructed in this manner.
In one elliptical spring you do not have the advantage of two horizontal
springs, because the ends are in the elliptical spring united, and if a
coupling is substituted at the hind end it is found in practice
difficult to keep it upright.
Mr Adams, in his work on “Pleasure Carriages,” considers it a mistake to
hollow out each steel plate of a spring. I am quite of his opinion that
this process of hammering leaves the inner surface of a steel plate very
uneven, thereby harbouring moisture and dirt, and rendering the plate
liable to fracture. I should recommend, on the contrary, that each plate
should be ground or filed quite smooth on both sides. If careful
tempering were generally the rule among Coachbuilders, I am convinced
that there would be fewer broken springs, and less complaint of rust
accumulating between the plates.
The use of brake Retarders to the hind wheels has now for some years
superseded the use of drag-shoes. It is evident that the action upon two
wheels is better than on one only; the brake can be applied or removed
without stopping the carriage, which had to be done with the drag-shoe;
it can be relaxed in its hold in an undulating country, and the horses
can proceed at speed up the next hill without the check formerly
necessary whilst the drag-shoe was removed.
The brake was invented very early, and was in use in the coal trucks
upon the first tramways in Northumberland, long before steam was used to
draw them. They are now of two sorts: screw brakes, which are used on
railways in England and all sorts of carriages on the Continent, and the
old lever brake, which was the original form, and which is still the
favourite among English coachmen. In Scotland the lever handle is often
superseded by the treadle, or foot-brake, which has been selected by the
General Omnibus Company.
In deciding upon the exact size and shape of the details of the brake a
Coachbuilder is necessarily guided by the shape of the vehicle to which
it is to be applied. It is necessary to attend to the following points:
the lever arm that presses upon the rim of the wheel should be short,
both for quick action and also for strength. The handle should be long,
that the coachman may have greater power in applying the brake. The
whole of the handle and the connecting-rod irons should be made somewhat
weak to allow a little spring in them. If they are made too strong they
will be rigid, and not fit with and favour the motion of the carriage
and play of the springs. If a quick action is desired, the inner half of
the levers on the wheels should be short, or long if a slow action is
preferred. The blocks which press upon the wheels have been variously
made of cast-iron, wrought iron, brass, wood, india-rubber, and leather.
The wood is the best for hold on the iron tyre and freedom from noise
and smell, but it wears out fast. India-rubber, especially for light
carriages, seems most satisfactory.
The use of the brake is very much overdone on the Continent, especially
in Germany,--it is put on for such slight declines that the unfortunate
horses are always kept up to their collars, and never get the ease that
we give them going down hill.
There is an error which is deeply rooted among Coachbuilders and the
public who use carriages, which consists in the idea that the draught is
diminished by placing the front part of the under-carriage as far back
as possible. Intelligent men who have thought on the subject, and
watched the actual working of this idea, have long been convinced of the
error, but much remains to be done to convince everyone of its fallacy.
We have already seen that with large wheels the draught is less. If a
load has to be placed on a four-wheeled vehicle it should be placed in
relation to the front and hind wheels, so as to place the heavier part
of the weight upon the higher wheels. To obtain this result it is
sufficient to bring the hind carriage part as far under the body as it
will work with comfort and safety, in order that as little weight as
possible shall rest on the fore carriage part. English Coachmakers have
been working at this for thirty years, but for the most part blindly.
They have copied well-known builders in construction as well as shape;
they hear that these well-known firms’ carriages run and follow very
lightly, and if they would copy accurately they would obtain the same
reputation. One firm should be specially mentioned as having for years
been careful to build carriages to run lightly. As long ago as 1846
Messrs Laurie and Marner brought the hind wheel of their carriages well
forward, and advanced the position and raised the height of the fore
wheel, thus balancing the weight properly, or rather as properly as the
shape of the landau and barouche will allow.
There are many carriages, however, such as stanhope and mail phaetons,
omnibuses, waggonettes, and pony phaetons, in which it is easy to
advance the hind wheel, so as to carry the principal part of the whole
weight of the body. This has been done, but then many persons have
erroneously imagined that the carriage followed the horse easily, not
because the weight was on the higher wheel, but because the wheels were
so near together, and they have pressed the Coachbuilder to keep the
front wheels backwarder, instead of rather placing them forwarder, as
they should have done. In the stage coach we see a conspicuous example
of this great error, and some of the drags more recently built are the
worst. If the roads round London were not so good as they are, or if the
roofs of drags were loaded with luggage, we should hear of more
accidents to the summer amateur coaches than we do at present. Most of
the weight of the stage coach or drag is upon the front wheel, which is
much the lowest, and it is so far back under the body that if the
horses gallop the coach begins to swing, and a very small obstruction is
sufficient to upset the whole. Compare this with a similar load upon an
omnibus, with four horses at a rapid pace on a bad road. The comparative
security and safety of the latter vehicle is at once apparent. If a
coach and omnibus could be fairly tried together, it would be found that
the omnibus with three horses could beat the coach with four horses,
besides doing its work with much greater safety, and turning in a much
narrower road. It is right to mention that the idea, or a great part of
the above, has been contributed by a foreign Coachbuilder, in whose
views I entirely concur. It is as easy to make a stage coach as safe and
nearly as light in running as an omnibus, by making it with much higher
front wheels, and carrying them more forward. If it is considered
essential to be able to turn in a narrow road, it would be easy to cut a
small arch in the boot, which would allow the wheel to turn as far as
the perch, instead of only half way to the perch as at present.
The reason given why drag-coaches are made with the front wheel so far
back is, that it was necessary in order to bring the horses close to
their work, to use a phrase that has been much misapplied, and also to
bring them under the driver’s hands, who prefers the reins short, but it
would be quite possible to build a coach in which the driver might be
over the horses, and yet have the advantage of higher front wheels, and
properly placed for carrying the load.
The Coachmaker may often gather a useful hint by studying the
construction of carts, which have to carry heavier loads than
carriages, often at an equal speed, and certainly not with better
horses.
If the wheels of a vehicle are of equal height, the load should rest in
the middle of the wheels. When the front wheels meet with an obstacle in
the road the horse will only have to lift half the weight of the load,
the other half being on the hind wheels. When the hind wheels come to
the same obstruction again only half the load will have to be lifted,
the other half being on the front wheels. But, as in English carriages,
the wheels are very rarely of equal height, we should proportion the
load more upon the higher wheels than upon the lower. As long ago as
1770 a Coachmaker, named Joseph Jacob, of St. Mary Axe, wrote thus:--“A
load should always be placed in a waggon over the highest wheels, and as
low as possible.” This was the Mr Jacob who assisted at some experiments
made at that time in the Strand, by direction of the Society of Arts,
for the purpose of ascertaining the proper height of wheels. Mr Cuthbert
Clarke was rewarded with a fifteen guinea gold medal. Mr Jacob had also
received a twenty guinea medal for improved carriage springs.
During my lectures I exhibited some full-sized drawings of carriages
made by M. Dupont, of Paris, to show how completely a Coachbuilder at a
distance might be guided in building carriages by his designs. These
drawings are quite works of art, and by means of them M. Dupont is
educating the artistic taste of every manufactory which procures his
aid. How much better our carriages would be if we worked from drawings
as carefully planned out and executed as these. Many of our artisans
could, with a little instruction, draw quite as well, and by degrees
would learn to draw with as much artistic taste and sense of the
beautiful. Some artisans are now being instructed in the art of design,
and I trust the day is not far distant when every workman will see that
his son learns drawing as part of his education, and as the essential
preliminary to any technical education which is to follow. The power of
producing on paper the images figured on the brain is an important part
and factor in all the arrangements of our social life, whether those
images and imaginations, and reasons and problems, are traced with the
pen in writing or with the pencil in a drawing, by both we record, we
discipline, and we clear up more or less the busy thoughts that nature
or surrounding circumstances have gifted and endowed us with. On the
Continent, and especially in Paris, this has long been understood, and
workmen have been carefully educated for this work. And, thanks to the
department of Science and Art of South Kensington, thousands of students
have past through the schools of design scattered all over England. If
the artisans of the Coach Trade would follow the example of those
engaged in the china and pottery trades, they would meet with the same
success, and restore their fame for Coachbuilding to its former
greatness.
Last year, in November, Mr Gladstone gave an address at Greenwich upon
the study of science and art. I may be permitted to record here how in
that address he eloquently pressed upon his hearers that:--
“Beauty could and should be combined with economy and utility in
all our industrial products; beauty was indeed a great element of
utility; the trade of France was founded upon the beauty of that
which it produces, and the economical application of means to ends;
and that is due to the long culture and traditional application of
the national mind to beauty in their products. The human nature in
which we are cast was not endowed with all its marvellous faculties
for nothing, and it is the due development of those faculties that
constitutes the true and full idea of the duty of man in this
world. It has been too much the habit in this country to regard
beauty of production as something quite apart from usefulness of
production, and at the same time to look upon the beauty which may
result from human labour as a luxury reserved for the rich alone.
But beauty has a commercial value, and its multiplication should
form part of human education. We are all still at school, both
young and old. We should then endeavour to work all things into
beautiful forms, as did the ancient Greeks, so that artistic skill
and love of the beautiful became an inheritance with them, formed
part of their nature, accompanied their daily life, and entered
into every kind of production. This is a time when all who are
concerned in the welfare of the country feel it to be desirable
that efforts should be made to give instruction, so as to improve
the knowledge of the British artistic workman, and enable him to
hold his position in the markets of the world. I confess,” said Mr
Gladstone, “I should like to see a great deal of this work done by
the London Companies. That they should strive to make themselves
illustrious in the country by fulfilling the purpose for which they
were founded, namely, developing the crafts, trades, and mysteries
of this great country (as the Society of Arts has laboured to do
for so many long years) to promote beauty and economy in the
production of works of industry. But I believe,” Mr Gladstone
continued, “that it is really in the individual that the secret of
the whole matter lies. It is not as a body that you fill the
benches of this room; you are here as individuals, and it is your
thoughts and convictions, your own resolute efforts to improve, and
energetically to direct your labours to the attainment of the
highest end that constitutes the real resource to which we have to
look. No auxiliaries can supplant, they can only aid individual
exertion. Each individual worker may have a notion of doing his
work in the way which is most useful, but he ought also to have a
sense of the difference between what is more useful and less
useful, and what is more beautiful and the less beautiful. Now the
sense of beauty is not, under natural circumstances, the favoured
inheritance of a few only, it is meant to be, should be, and may be
the universal inheritance of civilised mankind. It ought,
therefore, to be the aim of the humblest artisan to acquire by
study and thought such a sense of beauty as may elevate the
character of the work he performs. And it will at the same time be
found that as he developes beauty in his work he will raise his
self-respect, he will raise himself, his family, and his class
infinitely more than by any effort to get out of his position,
either for himself or his children.”
I trust I shall be excused for making this long extract from Mr
Gladstone’s speech, but it expresses so much and in such true and kindly
language, that I felt I ought to add his well-considered words to my
History of the Art of Coachbuilding.
The fine series of photographs of State and other Carriages, and the
valuable library of the Coach and Coach-harness Makers Company are open
every Saturday afternoon. Tickets of admission may be obtained at the
principal Coachbuilders of London.
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FOOTNOTES:
[1] Who goes softly, goes safely.
[2] See cover of this book for the shape of a coach of this period,
and also Plate 22.
[3] Plate 26 shows a Roman Coach.
[4] There are several wonderful specimens at Lisbon, Photographs of
which are in the writer’s possession.
[5] An analysis of the sale of Messrs Cook and Rowley’s stock in
1830, and Messrs Hobson’s stock in 1838, shows the proportions of 70
chariots, 60 coaches and landaus, 32 barouches and briskas, 12 cabs, 6
mail phaetons. Total, 180.
[6] See Plate 34 for a similar stage coach.
[7] By Sir Walter Scott--preface to a novel.
[8] Here we have the French name of diligence instead of stage coach.
[9] From a Newspaper, April 23, 1823:--“Cabriolets were, in honour
of his Majesty’s birthday, introduced to the public this morning.
They are built to hold two persons inside besides the driver (who
is partitioned off from his company), and are furnished with a book
of fares for the use of the public, to prevent the possibility of
imposition. These books will be found in a pocket hung inside the head
of the cabriolet. The fares are one-third less than hackney coaches.”
Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:
this was on May 31st, 1553 this=> was on May 31st, 1533 {Pg 28}
left his kingdom to Philip V., the grandson of Louis IV., King of
France=> left his kingdom to Philip V., the grandson of Louis XIV., King
of France {pg 61}
driven by a postilion=> driven by a postillion {pg 110}
End of Project Gutenberg's The History of Coaches, by George Athelstane Thrupp