- A Palanquin in India
There have been various modifications of the litter, familiar examples being the funeral bier and the modern stretcher. Another development is the palanquin, a distinctive form of transport in the East. - Johnson's Hobby Horse, 1818
Although pedal-operated carriages were known in the Middle Ages (during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries many light vehicles of this type were introduced), the earliest form of the bicycle was the hobby-horse, or ‘dandy-horse' as it was sometimes called. This consisted of two wheels mounted in a kind of frame with a saddle for the rider, who was seated sufficiently low to be able to propel the vehicle forward by striking his feet on the ground. The earliest machines of this kind were in use about 1810 but their riders were so ridiculed that ' hobby horses' went out of use. In 1818 an improved form was patented by Baron von Draisin France, and brought over to England in the same year by Denis Johnson, a coachmaker of Long Acre, who called it the‘pedestrian curricle.’ It consisted of a wooden bar, or back-bone, mounted on two wheels, the front one being pivoted in a fork to allow the machine to be steered and balanced. The machine was propelled by the rider leaning his elbows on a padded support, and alternately striking the road with his feet. In this way, a speed of 10 miles an hour sometimes could be maintained on the level. Riders generally 'coasted' downhills, but when a hill had to be ascended the machine was carried on the rider's shoulders! A hobby-horse weighed about 50 pounds and cost about £10. - Mail Coaches Racing - Something Wrong with the Opposition Coach
- old times sketch
- Coach
- Racing
- Tandem
- Tandem
- The Stage Coach - Old Times
- Bicycle Locomotive No. 2
- Bicycle Flat Car
- Bicycle Locomotive No. 1
- Bicycle Box Freight Car
- Bicycle Coal Car
- Single Bicycle Elevated Structure
- Single Electric Bicycle Structure
- Single Post, Double track, Steel Elevated Bicycle structure
- Screenshot (35767)
- Sectional View of Bicycle Motor Car
- Side view of bicycle motor wheel
- Combiined Elevated and Surface Structure
- Cross Section of Bicycle Structure and Bicycle Electric Car
- Elevated Double Track Georgia Pine Structure
- Elevated Railroad Station
- Screenshot (35750)
- Bicycle Palace CAr
- Bicycle Railway Switch
- Bicycle Sleeping and Accommodation Coach
- Bicycle sytem applied to N.Y. Elevated railway
- Bicycle Locomotive No. 3
- Cadburyès Cocoa
- Nathan Read
Born in Warren, Mass., July 2, 1759. Died near Belfast, Me., January 20, 1849. Graduated from Harvard College in 1781, Read was a tutor at Harvard for four years. In 1788 he began experimenting to discover some way of utilizing the steam engine for propelling boats and carriages. - Richard Trevithick
Richard Trevithick Born in Illogan, in the west of Cornwall, England, April 13, 1771. Died in Dartford, Kent, April 22, 1833. In 1780 he built a double-acting high-pressure engine with a crank, for Cook’s Kitchen mine. This was known as the Puffer, from the noise that it made, and it soon came into general use in Cornwall and South Wales, a successful rival of the low-pressure steam vacuum engine of Watt. - Thomas Blanchard
Thomas Blanchard Born in Sutton, Mass., June 24, 1788. Died, April 16, 1864. Blanchard was a prolific inventor, having taken out no less than thirty or forty patents for as many different inventions. He did not reap great benefit from his labors, for many of his inventions scarcely paid the cost of getting them up, while others were appropriated without payment to him, or even giving him credit. - William Murdock
William Murdock Born in Bellow Mill, near Old Cumnock, Ayrshire, Scotland, August 21, 1754. Died at Sycamore Hill, November 15, 1839. When he was twenty-three years of age he entered the employment of the famous engineering firm of Boulton & Watt, at Soho, and there remained throughout his active life. Watt recognized in him a valuable assistant, and his services were jealously regarded. On his part he devoted himself unreservedly to the interests of his employers. - Carl Benz
Carl Benz Born, November 26, 1844, at Karlsruhe, Baden, Germany. Died, April 4, 1929, Ladenburg, Germany In 1880 he began to commercialize a two-cycle stationary engine. In 1883 he organized his business as Benz & Co., and produced his first vehicle in 1884. In the beginning of 1885 his three-wheeled vehicle ran through the streets of Mannheim, Germany, attracting much attention with its noisy exhaust. This was the subject of his patent dated January 29, 1886, claimed by him to be the first German patent on a light oil motor vehicle. This embodied a horizontal flywheel belt transmission through a differential and two chains to the wheels; but it is noteworthy primarily as having embodied a four-cycle, water jacketed, three-quarter horse-power engine, with electric ignition. - Driving in the car
- A Light Egyptian Chariot
The light chariots of the Egyptians enabled them to secure the fullest advantage from the speed and breeding of their horses, which at the time were considered to be the finest in the world. The Egyptian chariots were sometimes square, but more often they were semi-circular or horse-shoe shape, with the curved front towards the horses. - Camel
- Out for a ride
- Like a genteel passenger
Dog looking out the window - The Pretty Wheelwoman
The Pretty Wheelwoman - The Adventuress
The term adventuress is applied to women of careless reputation who, being much too smart to endure the ignominious career of professional demi-mondaines, resort to various shrewd schemes to fleece the unwary. Some of their class work in concert with male partners and in such cases the selected victim generally becomes an easy prey. The confidence man may be dangerous; the confidence woman, if she be well educated and bright, as well as pretty, is irresistible except with the most hardened and unsusceptible customers. - An Ideal Afternoon
An Ideal Afternoon - Ride in the automobile
- Coaches in the Reign of Elizabeth
Coaches in the Reign of Elizabeth I (From 'Archcæologia.') - Coach of the latter half of the Seventeenth Century
(From Loggan's 'Oxonia Illustrata.') - Waggon of the second half of the Seventeenth Century
(From Loggan's 'Oxonia Illustrata.') - A Coach of the Middle of the Seventeenth Century
(From an engraving by John Dunstall.) - Plan of a Behr Mono-Railway Car
But a means of adapting a mono-rail to every condition had some time before been thought out. In 1883-4 Charles Lartigue, the eminent French engineer, developing the principle conceived by the great Telford, constructed some small lines in Tunis and Algeria for carrying esparto grass. The cars were drawn by animals in a special form of mono-rail, the model upon which Mr. F. B. Behr, ASS. INST. C.E.—who modestly disclaims all originality in the matter—has worked for years, greatly improving in practical details the original design, and constructing for the first time mono-rail trains that have been successful in the carriage of both goods and passengers by steam and electricity. - Electrical Power House
Electrical Power House (the largest in the Old World), Lot’s Road, Chelsea, to supply the Metropolitan District and other Railways with Current - The Machine, 1640-1700
The coaches that travelled between London and distant towns were similar in construction to the hackney coach, which plied for hire in the streets, but were built on a larger scale. They carried eight passengers inside, and behind, over the axle, was a great basket for baggage and outside passengers, who made themselves as comfortable as they might in the straw supplied. The “insides” were protected from rain and cold by leather curtains; neither passengers nor baggage were carried on the roof; and the coachman sat on a bar fixed between the two standard posts from which the body was hung in front, his feet being supported by a footboard on the perch. Mr. Thrupp states that in 1662 there were only six stage coaches in existence; which assertion does not agree with that of Chamberlayne, quoted on a previous page; the seventeenth century writer tells us that in his time—1649—stage coaches ran “from London to the principle towns in the country.” It seems, however, certain that the year 1662 saw a great increase in the number of “short stages”—that is to say, coaches running between London and towns twenty, thirty, forty miles distant. - Mr. Daniel Bourn’s Roller Wheel Waggon -1763
Bourn’s reference to the “narrow-wheel waggon” touches a matter which formed the subject of hot debate for generations. It was urged that the narrow wheels of waggons were largely the means of cutting up the roads, and no doubt these did contribute to the general condition of rut and ridge that characterised them. This view was adopted by Parliament, and to encourage the use of wide wheels a system of turnpike tolls was adopted which treated the wide tire far more leniently than the narrow; anything under 9 inches in width being considered narrow. Bourn was a warm advocate for wide wheels, and the book from which the above passage is taken describes an improved waggon invented by himself; the drawing is[80] from the inventor’s work. The wheels of this vehicle resemble small garden rollers; they are 2 feet high and 16 inches wide. Each is attached independently to the body of the waggon and the fore wheels being placed side by side in the centre, while the hind wheels are set wide apart, the waggon is practically designed to fulfil the functions of a road-roller. It does not appear that Bourn’s invention obtained any general acceptance, which is perhaps not very surprising. - Queen Elizabeth’s Travelling Coach
Queen Elizabeth travelled in a coach, either the one built by Walter Rippon or that brought by Boonen (who, by the way, was appointed her coachman), on some of her royal progresses through the kingdom. When she visited Warwick in 1572, at the request of the High Bailiff she “caused every part and side of the coach to be opened that all her subjects present might behold her, which most gladly they desired.” The vehicle which could thus be opened on “every part and side” is depicted incidentally in a work executed by Hoefnagel in 1582, which Markland believed to be probably the first engraved representation of an English coach. As will be seen from the reproduction here given, the body carried a roof or canopy on pillars, and the intervening spaces could be closed by means of curtains. - Going to Bury Fair
From Engraving, A.D. 1750. - Flight of Princess Ermengarde
Carriage used about 1300-1350 in Flanders. Carriages were in use on the continent long before they were employed in England. In 1294, Philip the Fair of France issued an edict whose aim was the suppression of luxury; under this ordinance the wives of citizens were forbidden to use carriages, and the prohibition appears to have been rigorously enforced. They were used in Flanders during the first half of the fourteenth century; an ancient Flemish chronicle in the British Museum (Royal MSS. 16,[9] F. III.) contains a picture of the flight of Ermengarde, wife of Salvard, Lord of Rouissillon. - Coach of Queen Elizabeth’s Ladies
Showing near-side “Boot.” Coaches with "Boots" From Coach and Sedan, we obtain a quaint but fairly graphic description of the coach of this period:— “The coach was a thick, burly, square-set fellow in a doublet of black leather, brasse button’d down the breast, back, sleeves and wings, with monstrous wide boots, fringed at the top with a net fringe, and a round breech (after the old fashion) gilded, and on his back an atchievement of sundry coats [of arms], in their proper colours.” The “boots” were projections at the sides of the body between the front and back wheels, as shown in the drawing of the coach occupied by Queen Elizabeth’s ladies; and there is much evidence to support the opinion that these boots were not covered. - Horse Litter
Horse litters, carried between two horses, one in front and one behind, were used in early times by ladies of `rank`, by sick persons, and also on occasion to carry the dead. Similar vehicles of a lighter description, carried by men, were also in use. William of Malmesbury states that the body of William Rufus was brought from the spot where he was killed in the New Forest in a horse-litter (a.d. 1100). When King John fell ill at Swineshead Abbey, in 1216, he was carried in a horse-litter to Newark, where he died. For a man who was in good health to travel in such a conveyance was considered unbecoming and effeminate. In recording the death, in 1254, of Earl Ferrers, from injuries received in an accident to his conveyance, Matthew Paris deems it necessary to explain that the Earl suffered from gout, which compelled him to use a litter when moving from place to place. The accident was caused by the carelessness of the driver of the horses, who upset the conveyance while crossing a bridge. The illustration is copied from a drawing which occurs in a manuscript in the British Museum (Harl. 5256). - Hammock Waggon
Supposed to have been in use in England about A.D.. 1100-1200. Strutt states that the chariot of the Anglo-Saxons was used by distinguished persons for travel. If the illustrations from which he describes them give a fair idea of their proportions and general construction, they must have been singularly uncomfortable conveyances. The drawing is taken from an illuminated manuscript of the Book of Genesis in the Cotton Library (Claud. B. iv.), which Strutt refers to the ninth century, but which a later authority considers a production of the earlier part of the eleventh. The original drawing shows a figure in the hammock waggon, which figure represents Joseph on his way to meet Jacob on the latter’s arrival in Egypt; this figure has been erased in order to give a clear view of the conveyance, which no doubt correctly represents a travelling carriage of the artist’s own time, viz., a.d. 1100-1200. - Hackney Coaches in London, 1637
Excessive number of Coaches in London. The preamble of a patent granted Sir Saunders Duncombe in 1634 to let Sedan chairs refers to the fact that the streets of London and Westminster “are of late time so much encumbered and pestered with the unnecessary multitude of coaches therein used”; and in 1635 Charles I. issued a proclamation on the subject. This document states that the “general and promiscuous use” of hackney coaches in great numbers causes “disturbance” to the King and Queen personally, to the nobility and others of place and degree; “pesters” the streets, breaks up the pavements and cause increase in the prices of forage. For which reasons the use of hackney coaches in London and Westminster and the suburbs is forbidden altogether, unless the passenger is making a journey of at least three miles. Within the city limits only private coaches were allowed to ply, and the owner of a coach was required to keep four good horses or geldings for the king’s service.