From the Ipswich Journal, August 1754.
This is to give Notice
“That a handsome Machine, with steel springs for the ease of passengers and the conveniency of the Country, began on Monday, the 8th of July 1754, to set off from Chelmsford every morning at 7 o’clock, Sunday excepted, to the Bull Inn, Leadenhall Street, to be there by 12 o’clock, and to return the same day at 2 o’clock to be at Chelmsford by 7 o’clock in the evening. Fresh horses will be taken at the White Hart at Brentwood and the Green Man at Ilford. To be performed, if God permits, by Tyrrell & Hughes.”
In 1754 a coach was started from Manchester called “the Flying coach.” The advertisement states, “however incredible it may appear, this coach will actually arrive in London in four days and a half after leaving Manchester.”
The sort of vehicles stage coaches usually were in those days will appear from the following:—
“In 1755 stage coaches are described[7] as covered with dull black leather, studded, by way of ornament, with broad-headed nails, with oval windows in the quarters, the frames painted red. On the panels were displayed, in large characters, the names of the places whence the coach started and whither it went. The roof rose in a high curve, with an iron rail around it. The coachman and guard sat in front upon a high narrow boot, often garnished with a spreading hammer-cloth with a deep fringe. Behind was an immense basket, supported by iron bars, in which passengers were carried at lower fares. The wheels were painted red. The whole coach was usually drawn by three horses, on the first of which a postillion rode with a cocked hat and a long green and gold coat. The machine groaned and creaked as it went along with every tug the horses gave, and the speed was frequently but four miles an hour.”
The first Post-chaise built in England was only on two wheels, and was open in front. This corresponds with the description of the chaise de poste of France. In 1765 the stage coaches from Dover to London were drawn by six horses; the fare was a guinea. Servants paid half a guinea, riding either in the basket behind or on the box, which held three persons. In 1775 stage coaches are stated in the Annual Register to carry eight passengers inside and ten outside, and that there were (including vehicles called flys, machines, diligences, and stage coaches) four hundred altogether. In 1779 a licence duty was first levied by government on stage coaches. Increased accommodation was provided by seats on the top. It must have been at this time that the front and hind boots began to be framed to the coach body, or there would have been no rest for the feet of the roof passengers.
In 1798 a stage coach ran from Gosport to London, 86 miles, in 19 hours: 4½ miles per hour. It is not until 1754 that we have a reliable account of any stage coach being upon springs, but in that year, in the newspaper called the Edinburgh Courant, appears the following advertisement:—“The Edinburgh Stage Coach, for the better accommodation of passengers, will be altered to a new genteel two-end glass coach machine, being upon steel springs, exceeding light and easy, to go in ten days to London in summer and twelve in winter, every other Tuesday.” This coach rested all Sunday at Burrowbridge.
In 1757 a coach was started to run in three days from Liverpool to London; Sheffield and Leeds followed the examples of Manchester and Liverpool, and set up “speedy coaches,” so that in 1784 coaches became universal at the speed of eight miles an hour.
In France, we learn from M. Roubo’s work, that in 1760 the Diligences (their stage coaches) were constructed much as ours, with large bodies having three small windows on each side and hung by leather braces on long perch carriages, with high hind wheels and low front wheels, without any driving box, and fitted with large baskets, back and front, for passengers or luggage; they were drawn by five horses, and driven by a postillion on the off wheeler instead of the near wheeler, as in England. One of their Diligences running to Lyons had springs [Plate 35], and it is noted by M. Roubo as the only Diligence in France with springs, and also the most speedy. It performed the journey to Lyons, about three hundred and twenty miles, in five days during the summer and six in winter. Deducting the time allowed for refreshments, changing horses, and resting at night, the speed of the Diligence appears to have been between five and six miles an hour. M. Roubo also describes a large stage coach called a Gondola, holding twelve persons inside, ten sitting sideways and one at each end; this vehicle may be considered as the grandfather of the omnibus, which was first made at Paris. Another coach was called a coupè Berlin, having four doors and three seats, the middle seat corresponding to the third inside seat of the so-called stage coaches used in America at the present time. There was, however, a backboard to lean against, but I believe that in the American stage coach the back of the middle seat is only a wide strap. The other travelling public carriage in France was the “chaise de poste” upon two wheels [Plate 25], which I have already described in a former chapter. I remember to have seen one of these at Amiens thirty years ago painted yellow like so many of the English post-chaises. There are probably many of these vehicles still in France. They are much like our gentlemen’s cabriolets, but larger and heavier, and are drawn by one stout horse in the shafts, with a second horse ridden by the postillion, attached to an out-rigger-bar on one side of the shafts. The chaise de poste was first made in France in 1664.
To return to our own country. Stage coaches had increased so much in speed that in 1780 they were quicker than the post which carried the letters.
For a long time letters had been entrusted to the bags of the post-boys, who travelled on horseback at the rate of about three and a half miles an hour. Mr John Palmer, the originator of mail coaches, in the year 1784 gave the following statement to the Government:—“The Post at present, instead of being the swiftest, is almost the slowest conveyance in the country; and though, from the great improvement in our roads, other carriers have proportionably mended their speed, the post is as slow as ever. Rewards have been frequently offered by the Postmaster-General for the best constructed mail-cart, or some plan to prevent the frequent robbery of the mail, but without effect.” Palmer, who resided at Bath, went on to state, “that the coach diligence, which left Bath at four o’clock on Monday afternoon, would deliver a letter in London about ten on Tuesday morning, whilst the post would not deliver a letter until Wednesday morning. The only advantage of the post was its greater cheapness. The post charged only fourpence from Bath to London for each letter, whilst one by the coach diligence cost two shillings. Nevertheless, many persons, both at Bath and Bristol, sent by the dearer and quicker mode, and all over the kingdom, wherever diligences[8] were established, they obtained the patronage of the public.”
At first any improvement on the Post was warmly opposed by the officials and committees of the Houses of Parliament, and it was declared impossible that letters could be brought from Bath to London, only one hundred and eight miles, in eighteen hours, i.e., six miles an hour. After some careful experiments, and a struggle of two years, Mr Palmer’s system was adopted, and his new-fashioned mail coaches were accepted to convey the mails. For some years the mail coaches did not run at more than six miles an hour: they were built in a cumbrous form to carry six persons inside. In this same year (1786) the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV., began to erect the pavilion at Brighton, bringing fashionable company into the mere fishing hamlet which it then was. The effect upon the traffic was very great, and led to the reform of the whole of the south and south-western roads, and in 1820, thirty-five years later, no less than seventy coaches daily visited and left Brighton.
Mr Thomas Pennant, the celebrated antiquarian, writing in 1782, says, “that in March 1739, he travelled to London in a Chester stage, then no despicable vehicle for country gentlemen. The first day, with much labour, we got from Chester to Whitechurch, twenty miles; the second day, to the Welsh Harp; the third, to Coventry; the fourth, to Northampton; the fifth, to Dunstable; and, as a wondrous effort, on the last, to London before the commencement of night. The strain and labour of six good horses, sometimes eight, drew us through the sloughs of Mireden, and many other places. We were constantly out two hours before day, and late at night; and in the depth of winter proportionably later.”
“Families who travelled in their own carriages contracted with Benson & Co., and were dragged up in the same number of days, by three sets of able horses.”
“The single gentlemen, then a hardy race, equipped in jack-boots and trowsers up to their middle, rode post through thick and thin, and, guarded against the mire, defied the frequent stumble and fall; arose and pursued their journey with alacrity; while in these days their enervated posterity sleep away their rapid journies in easy chaises, fitted for the conveyance of the soft inhabitants of Sybaris.”
In 1799 His Majesty’s mails were paraded in procession past St James’s Palace to the General Post-Office, and it is said that the custom was kept up for thirty-six years on the king’s birthday. Each coach was new, or turned out to look like new, and was painted red with the Royal arms on the door panel, and on the smaller panel above the name of the town to which the coach went, on the boot the number of the mail, and on each upper quarter one of the stars of the four orders of the knighthood of the United Kingdom, the Garter, the Bath, the Thistle, and St. Patrick. The coaches were built just big enough to contain four inside and three or four outside, and coachman and guard. The body was hung upon a perch carriage and eight telegraph springs, the underworks being both solid and simple in construction. At first the number was about eighty, but more were added as time went on, until there were at length seven hundred mail coaches in the year 1835. Only a small quantity, however, left London, the rest were dispersed all over Great Britain and Ireland.
These mail coaches were at first built and kept in repair by contract in London. The experience gained by watching these vehicles was very advantageous to the coach trade; anything faulty in timber or iron, steel or paint, was soon discovered by the vigilant contractors and remedied, and their plans and devices spread through the trade to the benefit of masters and workmen.
The improvement of stage coaches and their multiplication kept pace with the mails. Turnpike roads also had been much improved by Mr M‘Adam’s system. He substituted on roads hitherto laid with gravel of all sizes, and round or carelessly broken stones of other qualities and materials, the improved surfaces of granite and other hard stones and flints, carefully broken into small angular pieces, which during the passage of heavy traffic dovetailed into one another, and made the surface firmer, whereas the round pebbles, under the old system, would slip from under the wheels and leave the surface of the road still uneven.
The factories for building stage coaches grew to be of large size and importance. Coach proprietors were often very successful, and their business increased until Mr Chaplin had two hotels, five yards, and 1300 horses at work. Messrs Horne and Sherman had 700 horses each; and Mr Nelson, of the “Bull Inn,” Aldgate, rivalled these. Stage coaches, as they carried more luggage and more outside passengers, were necessarily built stronger and rather heavier than the mail coaches. The cross roads, however, became gradually filled up with old mails re-painted, and stage coaches were also built upon elliptical springs in front, and generally three springs behind.
Gentlemen took to driving coaches for amusement, and vehicles were built with high coach boxes and high hind servants’ seat; of different forms, it is true, and upon different sorts of springs. Two coaching clubs were formed of noblemen and gentlemen, who took an interest in four-in-hand driving and in vehicles in general. Several clubs of this kind are now flourishing, to encourage a manly sport, and with the capacity to promote improvements in the build and form of the “drag,” as it is now called.
In Ireland, Mr Bianconi established a good system of travelling upon long four-wheeled cars of a light construction. The passengers sat back to back, and the luggage was piled between, and frequently so high that the traveller had only the opportunity of seeing one side of the road along which he passed. These vehicles would give more satisfaction now-a-days if better horses were used, and for shorter stages, on those routes where passengers are plentiful, but prefer to travel at more than five miles per hour.
In Switzerland and some parts of the continent, the use of large diligences still continues. Some of the old shape [Plate 36] recently performed the journey from Geneva towards Chamounix. The shape of modern diligences varies very much, many are like omnibuses; but almost all are without a perch and upon elliptical springs. In Continental travel may also be seen large family travelling carriages, as well as very light one-horse vehicles for mountain roads, and the further eastwards the traveller proceeds, the rougher and more simple the vehicle. In Russia may be found very rough, cheap, fast waggons, as well as the “Tarantas,” which is a very comfortable travelling carriage for the wealthy, and with its numerous boxes and appliances, its bed and store cupboards for food, is almost a small house upon wheels.
Thus, whilst in our history we have enumerated the various methods of travelling used by our forefathers, we may, in passing from England to Persia overland, still have personal experience of almost all of these methods. All travelling dependent upon the speed of a horse has been, on good roads, almost the same in all ages. It is only since the introduction of locomotion by steam on railroads that we have attained any great advance upon ancient times. The years during which rapid stage coach and post chaise travelling seemed such a remarkable advance to Englishmen, only lasted from about 1810 to 1840. Since then the triumph of steam has in many places paralysed the improvement of stage coaches and posting
upon ordinary roads, even where steam does not compete.
In France two-wheeled vehicles for public hire had been in use for some years previous to the commencement of the present century; but it was not until 1823 that London possessed a two-wheeled cab. In that year Mr David Davies built twelve two-wheeled cabs. The body was a little like a hansom cab, but smaller; it had a head of which the hinder half was stiff and solid, the fore part would fold. This arrangement was probably an imitation of the gentleman’s cabriolet, the hood of which was rarely put down altogether, as the groom had to hold on by it.[9] Outside the head on one side was a seat for the driver of the cab, and the whole was hung upon stiff shafts. They were, I think, painted yellow, and stood for hire in a yard in Portland Street, close to Oxford Street. At this time the stands in the streets were occupied by hackney coaches, which certainly were all old coaches of the gentry; many still bore the arms of the former owners, and the drivers wore great coats with a large number of capes, one over the other, to keep in warmth and keep off the rain. It was not long before the two-wheeled cab became popular, and came on the ranks with the coaches. Mr Davies’ cab was copied, but with little variation from his pattern, and the total number of cabs in 1830 was one hundred and sixty-five. After this came Mr Boulnois’ patent one-horse cab with a door behind, like a slice of an omnibus, the two passengers sitting face to face, the driver sitting on the roof—this cab it was hoped would succeed, but the shafts were too short, and the passengers always felt uneasy in case the horse should kick, and the vehicle, otherwise light and useful, fell out of fashion.
Mr Boulnois’ cab was followed by a larger sort invented by Mr Harvey, and at last, about 1836, came the brougham cab to hold two persons; this was rather smaller than that afterwards built for Lord Brougham, and of plainer outline, with straight fore pillar. From this we derive our present clarence cab on four wheels, which we may pronounce as the lightest of all four-wheeled close cabs, but it is certainly anything but satisfactory. It carries, it is true, a large quantity of luggage on the roof, besides six persons, and runs along faster than the cabs of most other cities, but it is abominably noisy, and very rough in motion, uneasy and uncomfortable. Whoever will produce an improved four-wheel cab will deserve the thanks of his countrymen. The first step to this, I consider, would be the authorisation by law of two classes of fares. Let the present cab remain at the present fare, but allow a first-class cab to charge a higher fare, and appoint a proper person or persons to inspect the cabs, and to license the first-class cabs to charge a higher fare. The second step would be to insist on the first-class cabs having patent or mail axles, and covered glass frames to lessen the rattle, and to adopt a regulating spring, which would assist in carrying a heavy load. Regulating springs can easily be made; they are unsightly on a private carriage; but this would be no objection in a public conveyance. It might be in the form of a buffer in the centre of the elliptical spring, or a second elliptic within the first, but the ingenuity of our spring makers would soon surmount the difficulty if the proper authority insisted upon the attempt.
The Hansom patent safety cab is an immense improvement upon the old high two-wheeled cab. We owe the invention to a Mr Hansom, the architect of the Birmingham Town Hall. The safety consisted in the arrangement of the framework at the nearest part to the ground, so as to prevent an upset if the cab tilted up or down. It has since been improved by Mr Evans, of Liverpool; Mr Marston, of Birmingham; and others, until the recently built hansoms are really convenient, easy, and comfortable conveyances, and receive the patronage of many ladies in preference to the four-wheelers.
Cabs of other towns of England and foreign countries have all their peculiar features. Many English towns allow a higher charge per mile than in London. In Plymouth, Southampton, Birmingham, Edinburgh, and some other towns the cabs are light, easy, and quiet. In Bristol they were recently heavy and slow, large and clumsy. In Paris, the cabs are chiefly old broughams of the gentry, with poor, slow horses; but during a great part of the year the stands have abundance of light, open victorias, some of which are satisfactory, being easy and clean. In Rome, nearly all the cabs are open victorias, with hoods and a leather apron, which is, however, but a poor protection in heavy rain; the drivers are generally civil and intelligent. In Naples the cabs are also victorias of a smaller size, and hung higher from the ground, with little horses generally of a very sorry description. Milan has very good cabs, and the best omnibuses I have ever ridden in, quite like our private omnibuses, and they are kept up in very good condition. The streets are paved at Milan very evenly, and have tracks or tramways for the wheels, of long blocks of granite, on a perfect level with the rest of the pavement. These were first laid down at the beginning of this century, and have probably contributed to the general excellence of the carriages built at Milan. This city was one of the first to make improved carriages, even before France and England.
In the year 1662 a remarkable attempt was made to furnish a method of transport which should be within the reach of all, a sort of Omnibus carriage. It was originated and managed by Blaise Pascal, the well-known author of the Lettres Provinciales. He was assisted by several noblemen, who obtained a patent from the king for the privilege. The design was to run public coaches, carrying six persons each, along certain streets in Paris, each coach keeping to its own route, for the sum of five sous each passenger for the whole journey.
This was commenced in March 1662 with seven coaches, the drivers in a blue uniform, with the king’s and city’s arms embroidered upon it. The coaches bore golden fleur de lys on the panels. At first they were a great success, and the sister of Pascal wrote to a friend, “I heard the blessings that were called down on the authors of an institution so advantageous and useful to the public.” This was a general opinion. Two more lines of route were chosen, and the number of coaches increased. They were called “the carriages of the five soldi.” It was, however, found necessary to raise the fare to six soldi, and this, with the increasing number of hackney coaches, the prohibition of the use of the omnibus by soldiers, servants, or any one in livery, and probably the death of Pascal himself, at the early age of thirty-nine, brought the enterprise to a premature end after the coaches had run nearly two years.
Stage coaches at the beginning of this century were used in London to bring men of business into the city, and the fare was ordinarily two shillings from Paddington or Clapham; they were slow and unpunctual, being usually an hour over the five miles. The first Omnibuses were built at Paris in 1820, were drawn by three horses, and soon became much in vogue; they were never very fast, and still are slower than our omnibuses, not because they cannot be driven fast, for occasionally they keep up a good speed, but because our neighbours attach so much importance to the waybill, and stop at certain stations to take up passengers, or exchange some for the branch lines, and tickets are given at these stations beforehand bearing numbers which entitle the bearers to be first served. These regulations detain the omnibuses very much; the same remarks apply also to the tramways, on which the progress is still slower than by the omnibuses. There is at Paris an excellent service of omnibuses for the conveyance of passengers and luggage from the hotels to the railway stations. They hold eight inside, and are quick and easy. All over the Continent the hotels have the best omnibuses; some of them are of large size, well stuffed, and lighted at night with good lamps. Sometimes each hotel has its own ’bus; sometimes one will serve several hotels.
The first Omnibus was started in London in July 1829, by the enterprising Mr Shillibeer, who had been for a short time a coachmaker at Paris. His first omnibuses were drawn by three horses, and carried twenty-two passengers, all inside. They ran in a shorter time to the city than the old stages; the fare was a shilling from the “Yorkshire Stingo,” near the bottom of Lisson Grove, to the Bank.
We can imagine how unwieldy these carriages appeared even compared with the stage coaches and hackney coaches of the day, yet they soon proved a success; they followed the horses so easily that the drivers were astonished. The passengers were pleased by the speed, and the scheme should have been very profitable to Mr Shillibeer. The first omnibuses were thought too large for the streets of London, and they were superseded by a smaller pair-horse omnibus, carrying twelve passengers inside, and an extra one or two at the end of the omnibus, by the driver, but it was a very unpopular position.
In 1849, an outside seat was added along the centre of the roof, and by 1857 the omnibus had been improved nearly to what we now have, and this was chiefly done by Mr Miller, of Hammersmith.
Our present omnibus is probably the lightest and strongest vehicle in the world for carrying twenty-eight persons, at a speed of nearly eight miles an hour. If tried with four horses on a country road they easily beat the old-fashioned stage coach, either in weight, capacity for carrying, durability, or safety.
Large omnibuses are in use in Glasgow and Manchester, and other towns where speed is not so much an object as it is in London, and they have been re-introduced in London between Charing Cross and Portland Road, and there are a few small one-horse omnibuses for short distances. It is not necessary to describe these vehicles at any length; it is sufficient to notice that they must be light and strong for the work they have to perform, and the peculiar shape enables the builder to secure this.
The London General Omnibus Company has contributed greatly to the improvement of the system of public conveyance. It was founded in 1856, when it took over five hundred and eighty omnibuses previously in use, and belonging to a large number of different owners. The company had 6,400 horses the first year. Although many of their omnibuses have been superseded by the metropolitan and district railways, and the establishment of tramway cars, they have still 560 omnibuses and 6000 horses to work them. Each omnibus runs about sixty miles a day. The company builds for its own use about thirty ’busses each year; the average weight of an omnibus is 24 cwt. Most of the vehicles are now provided with brake retarders, which are set in action by the foot of the driver, and check the speed down hill, or help to stop the omnibus to take up a passenger without so much strain upon the horses as formerly.
In Vienna the public omnibuses are longer, and are divided into two compartments, entered by separate doors; they carry twelve inside and six outside. The speed is rather slow and the appearance of most very shabby. In summer other omnibuses are also used, which are constructed without sides or windows, and in hot weather are agreeable from the free admission of air without draught.
American stage coaches began in 1786. As early as 1697 an innkeeper, named John Clapp, at the Bowery, New York, kept a hackney coach for the accommodation of the public; and in 1699 a law was made forbidding fast driving of “slees” through the streets of New York. The first private coach owned there appears to have been in 1745 by a Lady Murray. In 1786 there were but three Coachmakers’ factories in New York: Mr Steel, in Pine Street, Mr Jones, and James and Charles Warner, in Broadway.
In 1789 six more factories had been opened in the coach trade, and five livery yards had begun to keep hackney coaches. In 1790 a coach was built in Philadelphia for eight hundred dollars, and there were eight Coachbuilders in that city. But the usual vehicle was a sort of wheel chair upon wooden springs, and from recent accounts it seems that gigs, hung upon long wooden springs, are still in use in the United States and Canada.
The Historical Magazine states that in 1805 the English chariot was copied in America, but that it was found cheaper to order these carriages from Europe, on account of the high price of material, and the excessive cost of wages. In 1810 there were twenty-eight factories occupied by Coachmakers in New York. In 1822 a New York Coachmaker, named Miln Parker, had begun to make a name by building “volantes” for the Cuban and Mexican markets. These volantes are gigs, with hoods, perched upon two very high wheels, much used by the ladies of Spanish America.
I should have mentioned that the cabs of Vienna are of a superior description, consisting of victorias, broughams, and landaus, as well built and finished as those used by private persons. Many of these cabs are drawn by two horses, and are driven at a rapid rate. It would be a great benefit to London if we could procure such conveyances at a shilling, or even more, per mile.
CHAPTER VI.
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:—