A practical treatise on coach-building historical and descriptive

by James W. Burgess

“In Hindostan” (says Mr. Thrupp) “there are a large number of vehicles of native build. It has been frequently remarked that there is little change in Eastern fashions, that tools and workmen are precisely as they were a thousand years ago, and the work they produce is precisely the same. In examining, therefore, what is now done by Indian coach-builders, we are probably noticing carriages of a similar, if not identical, sort with those in use three thousand years ago. The commonest cart in Hindostan is called ‘hackery’ by Europeans; it is on two wheels, with a high axletree bed and a long platform, frequently made of two bamboos which join in front and form the pole, to which two oxen are yoked; the whole length is united by smaller pieces of bamboo, tied together, not nailed. In France two hundred years ago there was a similar cart, but the main beams terminated in front in shafts; in neither the cart of India nor of France were there any sides or ends. The French cart is called haquet, and it is probable that the French, who were in India as well as ourselves, may have given the term hackery to the native cart which was so like their own. The native name, however, is gharry. Other carts have sides made by stakes driven into the side beams; the wheels are sometimes of solid wood or even of stone. Wheels are also made by a plank with rounded ends and two felloes fitted on to complete the circle. Again wheels are made like ours, and also with six or eight spokes, which are placed in pairs, each pair close to and parallel with one another. If a carriage for the rich is required the underworks are like those of a cart, but the pole is carefully padded and ornamented with handsome cloths or velvet; the sides of the body are railed or carved, and the top is of a very ornamental character, similar to the howdah of state that is placed on an elephant. It has a domed roof supported upon four pillars, with curtains to the back and sides. The passengers ride cross-legged under the dome on pillows. The driver sits on the pole, which is broad at the butt end, and he is screened from the heat by a cloth which is fastened to the dome roof, and supported upon two stakes which point outwards from the body. A variety of different shaped native vehicles may be seen in elaborate models in the Indian Museum at South Kensington, although they do not show much originality of design or beauty of execution, and are said to be really creaking and lumbering affairs. When the Hindoos wish for a four-wheeled vehicle, the plan appears to be to hook on one two-wheeled carriage behind another, connecting them with a perch bolt, and on the hindermost they place the body. There is a singular addition to their vehicles outside the wheels; a piece of wood curved to the shape of the wheels is placed above it, frequently supported by two straight uprights from the end of the axletree outside the wheel. This acts as a wing or guard to keep any one from falling out of the vehicle, and also the dress of the passengers from becoming entangled in the wheel. In addition, a long bar of wood, rather longer than the diameter of the wheel, curved to the shape, called ‘Cupid’s bow,’ is fastened to the axletree, the linch-pin being outside of it, and the ends of the bar tied to the ends of the wing by cords. I imagine it to be placed in order to be a safeguard for the people in crowded streets, who might be pushed by the throng against the wheel. It will be seen in many of the models, and also in ancient drawings of Indian and Persian vehicles. Many of the carts which are designed to carry heavy loads have a curved rest from 20 to 30 inches long attached to the lower side of the front end of the pole; this serves not only as a prop while the vehicle is being loaded, but should the oxen trip and fall it supports the cart and prevents the load, yoke, and harness from weighing down the poor animals, as they struggle to recover themselves. In England we have very few of these humane contrivances; we have, however, short rests to prop up a hansom cab when not at work. In India there are several huge unwieldy structures on wheels called ‘idol cars;’ the name of the car of Juggernaut must be familiar to many. The wheels of some of these are of enormous blocks of stone, shaped and drilled for the work. In the Indian Museum is a photograph of an idol car from South India, in the district of Chamoondee and the province of Mysore, which deserves examination. The car appears well proportioned, and the ornamental carvings are beautiful in design and would bear comparison with most European work.

“The hecca, or heka, is a one-horse native car, resembling an Irish car. It consists of a tray for the body fixed above the wheels on the shafts, and has a canopy roof; the driver sits on the front edge of the tray, and the passenger cross-legged behind him. The shampony is the usual vehicle for women, which resembles the former, but it is larger; the wheels are outside the body, and it is drawn by two bullocks; the canopy roof is furnished with curtains that are drawn all round, and the driver sits on the pole in front of the body. All these native vehicles have wooden axles, which until recently, I am told, were used without grease, from the prejudices of the people forbidding them to use animal fat. Some used olive oil or soap, but in most large towns there are now regulations obliging the natives to use some substance to avoid the noise and creaking of the dry axles. The commonest carriages in Central India are called ‘tongas,’ but the universal native word for a vehicle is ‘gharry.’”

In 1860 a carriage was made for one of the ladies of the Sultan of Turkey’s harem. It was built, I believe, from a design by the late Owen Jones—a great authority upon Oriental art—and cost £15,000 of English money—a very expensive present for the Commander of the Faithful to make to one out of many wives.

The following is given in an American trade periodical, under the heading of “Are they Competent Judges?”—

“Carriage-makers who seldom if ever take the lines into their hands and ride out in carriages of their own manufacture, are they competent judges of the merits or the demerits of the vehicles which they with confidence recommend to others? We think not. It is one thing to oversee and pay well for the building of a fine buggy or any other kind of vehicle, and quite another to experience the sensations produced by putting them into actual wear. A buggy may be handsome in general appearance and composed of the best material, yet defective in ease of motion and comfort to the occupants. The set of the axle may cause the vehicle to run heavy, and communicate to the rider an unpleasant jarring motion, and at the same time add unnecessary labour to the horse. The springs may be too stiff for their length, and fail to vibrate sufficiently under the greatest weight they may be called upon to sustain. The seat may be too low, the back placed in such a position or so trimmed as to be a continual source of uneasiness, and the foot-room be cramped. These and other defects may exist while the carriage-maker who seldom rides out remains in total ignorance of them, in so far as his own personal experience extends. Now an individual having purchased a buggy of such a one, might drive up to his door and inform him that this or that defect existed and needed to be remedied, and fail to convince the maker that such was the case. He would probably plead the skill of his workman, the care with which every buggy was carried forward to completion, and thus fortify himself in his own opinions, through gross ignorance of what constituted comfort while seated in a vehicle carried along over roads of different degrees of smoothness.

“The tendency of such a course is toward a standstill point in the way of needed improvement, and must certainly work adversely to the carriage-makers’ interests. So far as our observation extends, we are well satisfied that the builder who adopts an opposite course is by far the most successful. Becoming sensible of defects by personal experience, he is keenly sensitive and anxious to remove any cause of complaint brought to his notice by others. With such a one the customer feels that he is dealing with a manufacturer alive to his convenience and comfort, and will not be apt to go elsewhere to purchase, although he may have had occasion to point out several weak points.”

“The truly progressive carriage-maker tests his own work by frequently taking airing and criticisms of those who ride a great deal and are competent to speak on such points, and to any little defects that may be shown he gives the most careful examination and attention. No matter who may suggest a new idea of value, he puts it away as so much gained. He gathers here a little and there a little, which, in the aggregate, when applied as little things, amount to something so important as to give to his work an indescribable something which marks it as superior, and in short gives it a distinctive character.”

It is too often the case that we look upon success in business as that condition only in which a man has secured to himself sufficient income to retire and lead a life of comparative ease and pleasure. While we would say nothing against an individual choosing to retire from active pursuits and enjoy the fruits of his labour, nevertheless the example thus set has a tendency to create in others a desire to speedily arrive at such a position careless of the means used to attain the end, and bringing into the business other elements than industry and the other good qualities necessary for the safe conduct of business, viz. grasping avarice, cunning deceit, and at times heartlessness, or, in fact, any legal means by which they can follow the American’s advice to his son: “Get money, honestly if you can, but get money.” These mean, sordid feelings of course react upon the employés, and they feel them in the shape of reduced wages and having the greatest amount of work literally ground out of them.

We hear occasionally of a man who, by a bold speculation, has “made a fortune” in a few months, but the majority of business men are not gifted with that keen foresight and courage which are so essential to the speculator, and must therefore be content with small gains, accumulating slowly year by year.

It is well that it is so, for the cares and disappointments attendant on the conducting of any business keep down pride of heart, and secure to society a majority of that class of men who can sympathise with the unfortunate and down-trodden, and who give more liberally to the rearing of those institutions which benefit and improve the masses.