A practical treatise on coach-building historical and descriptive

by James W. Burgess

The origin of the word coach has not yet been accurately determined. Menage says it is taken from the Latin vehiculum, which most people will take the liberty of doubting; Wachten, from the German kutten, to cover; Lye, from the Belgic koetsen, to lie along, or, as it really means, a couch or chair; it has also been tried to prove that the word is of Hungarian origin, and that it took its name from Kotsee, the old name of the province of Wiesellung, where various kinds of carriages were made; and in Beckmann’s “History of Inventions” it is mentioned that “when the Archbishop received certain intelligence that the Turks had entered Hungary, not contented with informing the king by letter, he speedily got into one of those light carriages of the place they call kotcze, and hastened to his majesty.” This, in addition to the fact that some years previously the King of Hungary presented to the Queen of Bohemia a vehicle that excited great wonder and admiration, by reason of its trembling (branlant), showing clearly that it must have been suspended, is strongly in favour of the Hungarian coachmakers; but we must leave it to the philologists to determine the exact truth, for what with the caroche of France, the caroce of Italy, the carri-coche of Spain, and our own coach, the head gets somewhat bewildered, and is fain to take refuge in the simple carruca of ancient Rome, from which these appellations most probably had their rise. In any case the honour must be a divided one, as the caretta, chare, car, charat, &c., must have been the earliest forms of the derivation, as such were the names given to the first vehicles; later, we have the Hungarian kotcze, the German kutsche, &c., and adding both form and name to what had gone before, produced a mixed vehicle with a mixed appellation. Dr. Johnson defines coach as a “little carriage.” The large carriage that he had in his mind’s eye at the time must have been a marvellous vehicle.

The progress of the art of coach-making, like the progress of most inventions and discoveries, has been rather slow, we may say remarkably slow; sometimes it made a sudden start, but a reaction in the other direction generally settled it before much advance had been made; but seeing that the early portions of the Old Testament contain references to wheel carriages, it does seem rather strange that perfection should take so long to arrive at. This may be partly accounted for by the fact that the nations of the earth were always at war with one another, and consequently had no time to foster inventive power. And this has unfortunately been the case until comparatively recent times.

The first land carriages were doubtless very primitive contrivances. Though the “chariot” and the “waggon” are mentioned in Genesis, no description is given of their construction. Joseph rode in the second chariot of Pharaoh as a mark of great honour and dignity. “Waggons” were dispatched from the court of Egypt to convey thither the wives and little ones of the family of Jacob. From this, as well as the fact of the brethren of Joseph bearing their corn away on asses, we may infer that wheel carriages, even of the most simple construction, were not in general use at this time. It is very probable that the common vehicle of the period was an embryo sledge, drawn by man or beast along the ground.

The Bible and the hieroglyphics on the various ruins of ancient Egypt furnish us with the earliest authentic records. In the case of Egypt this is particularly valuable to us, because of the great degree of culture arrived at in the civilised arts. In fact it is the chief country of which we have any record of the progress of these arts, and though not actually established, it is extremely probable that to the Egyptians we owe the invention, or at least the introduction of the wheel. These people were early engaged in the erection of large buildings and monuments, of which the pyramids and sphinxes are such striking examples; and in order to convey the enormous blocks of stone and granite to their ultimate destination, the roller would be the first thing to suggest itself as a means of facilitating transit. The next step would be the formation of a truck, to which these rollers could be attached, and on which could be placed the materials to be moved. Progression with a contrivance of this kind would necessarily be rather slow, but it would soon become apparent that if a larger roller were used the motion could be accelerated. The next improvement would be an endeavour to lighten the rollers by sawing them into thick slices, and connecting them by a horizontal roller of smaller dimensions, giving a rude representation of a wheel and axle. The agricultural carts used by the peasantry of Chili, in South America, were made in this fashion until very recently. The further lightening of these cars would follow almost as a matter of course, by cutting the slices of the trunk to form the wheel, thinner, and further by cutting away portions of this slice, forming spokes. The wheel having arrived at this stage of perfection, the axle would call for a little attention. Up till the present, they would be fixed firmly to the wheels and revolve with them. This arrangement would cause great inconvenience in turning, for one wheel would revolve more rapidly than the other, by reason of the circle described by one wheel in turning round being greater than that of the other, and the vehicle would be liable to overturn. The next step was to arrange that the wheels could revolve independently of the axle. This being done, we have the wheel, in its principles, the same as at present.

Fig. 1.—Egyptian Chariot.Fig. 2.—Egyptian Chariot.

The paintings and sculptures upon the walls of the temples and tombs of Egypt show that wheeled carriages were in use in that country at an early period ([Figs. 1 and 2]). In the Bible they are usually translated “chariot.” They are of great interest to us, as they formed the chief means of conveying man for 2,000 years before Christ, and were more or less the type of all the other vehicles of the ancient world. We find certain words used in describing them, both by Homer, who lived 1,000 years B.C., and by Moses, who lived at least 500 years earlier; and these words are the technical terms in use at the present day, such as axles, wheels, naves, tyres, spokes, &c. It is reasonable to infer from this, that the art to which these terms apply must have existed prior to the writers’ description; so that any doubt as to the correctness of the Egyptian sculptures must be dispelled by the references of the above authors. In the fifth book of the Iliad “The awful Juno led out the golden-bitted horses, whilst Hebe fitted the whirling wheels on the iron axle of the swift chariot. The wheels had each eight brazen spokes, the felloes were of gold, secured with brazen tyres all round, admirable to the sight. The seat was of gold hung by silver cords, the beam or pole was of silver, at the end of which were hung the golden yoke and the golden reins.”

Fig. 3.—Roman Chariot.

The car was greatly used by the Romans, being adopted from the one used by the Etrurians ([Fig. 3]), a neighbouring country on the Italian peninsula. These latter people were traditionally the first to place a hood or awning over the open two-wheeled car, and they showed great taste in decorating their vehicles in the manner familiar to us by the remains of their pottery. A very fine copy of one of the Roman cars is in the museum at South Kensington, cast from the original in the Vatican.