Gourt Home::Gourt :: Horse-drawn vehicles
Throughout history and before, there has been a huge number of types of horse-drawn vehicle. A hundred years ago, every schoolboy would have been able to recognize and name dozens of them but now, they are largely replaced by motor vehicles. However, many have their respective Wikipedia article and this one is intended as an index to those. The links are listed together with a brief summary which may be a little longer where the separate article does not yet exist.
General
- A cart was a two-wheeled vehicle. It often went with a qualifying name according to its intended use. It came in two forms; un-sprung - sturdy and load carrying and sprung - light and usually, primarily for carrying people.
Primarily for carrying people
Road
- An Ambulance had much the same purpose as the modern one. Details of the design varied but would be a lightly-built and well-sprung, enclosed vehicle with provision for seated casualties and stretchers.
- A Barouche is an elegant, high-slung, open carriage with a seat in the rear of the body and a raised bench at the front for the driver, a servant.
- Berlin
- Brake
- Britzka
- Brougham
- Buckboard
- A buggy is a light, open, four-wheeled carriage, driven by its owner. It is an American design.
- Cab was a shortening of 'cabriolet'. Hansom based the design of his public hire vehicle on the cabriolet so the name 'cab' stuck to vehicles for public hire.
- Cabriolet
- A Calash is a barouche.
- A Calèshe is a barouche.
- Cape cart
- Cariole
- Carriage: In the late eighteenth century, the word 'carriage' was roughly the equivalent of the modern 'vehicle' It later came to be restricted to meaning 'passenger vehicle' and even to 'private, enclosed passenger vehicle' [Britannica. This last is the sense adopted by the linked article.
- Carryall
- Chaise
- Clarence
- Coach
- A conestoga wagon was a prairie schooner.
- Coupé
- covered wagon
- Curricle
- Diligence The 19th century ones came in three sizes, La petite diligence, La grande diligence and L'impériale. It was a French, heavy stagecoach.
- A dog cart was a sprung cart used for transporting a gentleman, his loader and his gun dogs.
- dos-à-dos
- Drag
- Droshky (Drozhki)
- Equipage
- Fiacre
- Fly
- Four-in-hand coach
- Gharry
- Gig
- Gladstone
- Governess cart. A sprung cart with two inward-facing benches, high sides and entry at the back. The upper part of the body was often of wicker.
- Hackney carriage
- A Hansom cab was a one-horsed, two-wheeled, manoeuvrable public hire vehicle.
- Hearse
- Herdic
- A Jaunting car was a sprung cart in which passengers sat back to back with their feet outboard of the wheels. An Irish design.
- A Kid hack was a van used in the USA for carrying children to and from school.
- Landau
- Limousine
- Meadowbrook
- Omnibus also Bus
- One-horse carriage
- An outside car was a sprung cart in which passengers sat back to back with their feet outboard of the wheels. An Irish design (the jaunting car).
- A phaeton was an early nineteenth century sports car.
- Post chaise
- A prairie schooner was a covered wagon with a tilt over hoops. It was used by North American settlers to move their families and capital goods to their new settlements.
- Randem
- Ratha
- Rig
- Rockaway
- Stagecoach, a public coach travelling in timetabled stages between stables which supply fresh horses.
- Spider phaeton
- A sprung cart was a light, two-wheeled vehicle with springing, for informal passenger use. Its name varied according to the body mounted on it.
- A State Coach is a very grand coach used for royal state occasions; for example Gold State Coach, Irish State Coach and Scottish State Coach
- Sulky
- Surrey
- Tarantass (Tarantas)
- Telega
- Tilbury
- A trap is a light two-wheeled open, informal carriage of the sprung cart category.
- Troika, a sleigh drawn by three horses harnessed abreast. Occasionally, a similar wheeled vehicle.
- Victoria, a one-horse carriage with a front-facing bench seat. The body was slung low, in front of the back axle. Driven by a servant.
- Village cart
- Vis-à-vis
- Voiturette
- whim
Railway
- Horsecar
- Streetcar is a US name for a horse-drawn tram.
- Tram is the non-American name for a horse-drawn streetcar.
Waterway
- A fly boat was a canal boat which changed horses at stages and could therefore keep moving, care being taken to maximize its speed.
Primarily for carrying goods
Road
- A bow wagon was a simple agricultural wagon with laths bowed over the wheels in the manner of mudguards, to keep bulky loads such as straw from contact with them. An Australian design.
- An un-sprung cart was a simple two-wheeled vehicle for workaday use in carrying bulk loads. It was usually drawn by one horse.
- A Dray was an un-sprung cart. That usage was particularly current in Australia and New Zealand but was correct elsewhere. However, in Britain, even in the 18th century, the name came to be associated with brewers' deliveries so that the vehicle more correctly called a trolley, later used by them, also came to be known as a brewer's dray. These are still seen at horse shows in Britain. A dray was also a sledge used for moving felled trees in the same way as the wheeled skidder. (See under implements, below). It could be used in woodland, apparently with or without snow, but was useful on frozen lakes and waterways. [OED
- A float was a light, two-wheeled domestic delivery vehicle with the centre of its axle cranked downward to allow low-loading, therefore easy access to the goods. It was used particularly for milk delivery.
- Lorry, a low-loading, platform body with four small wheels mounted underneath it. The driver's seat was mounted on the headboard.
- A Mail coach was a stagecoach which carried passengers but its primary job was the carriage of mail.
- Mophrey, an un-sprung cart which could be extended forwards with the addition of front wheels. It was used by small farmers as and when dense or bulky loads were to be carried (muck-spreading and harvest). An eastern English design.
- Pantechnicon van, originally a van used by The Pantechnicon for delivering goods to its customers.
- Travois A very simple sledge used by nomads for moving relatively small loads.
- Trolley Like the lorry, it was a platform body with four small wheels mounted underneath it. However the wheels were rather larger and the deck higher. The driver's seat was mounted on the headboard.
- Trolley and lift van, a standardized trolley and a lift van, a standardized box, designed to fit eachother or any other of the same sort. The lift van was the direct counterpart of the modern container in the materials and size appropriate to its time.
- Wagon. See also Twenty mule team
- Wain
Railway
- A slate rubbish wagon was a small, four-wheeled truck used for carrying slate rubble out of a quarry. It required little adaptation to convert to steam haulage.
- A slab wagon was a small, four-wheeled truck used for carrying blocks of slate out of a quarry.
- A slate wagon was a small, four-wheeled truck used for carrying riven slate out of a quarry.
Waterway
- A Broad boat was used on the broad (14 feet) canals of Britain and towed from the tow path.
- A Flatboat was a canal boat of simple box-shaped design used on nineteenth century American waterways.
- Horse-drawn boat is a general term relating to broad or narrow canal boats for passenger or freight carriage.
- A Narrowboat was used on the narrow (7 feet) canals of Britain and towed from the tow path.
- A Slow boat was a canal boat which used only one team of horses and therefore stopped each night to rest them.
Agricultural and other implements
- Binder
- Calliope A fairground organ
- Fairground organ A calliope
- Plough
- Reaper
- Seed drill
- Skidder
War vehicles
References
- Encyclopædia Britannica (1960)
- Ingram, A. Horse-Drawn Vehicles Since 1760 (1977) ISBN 0-7137-0820-4
- Oxford English Dictionary (1971 & 1987) ISBN 0-19-861212-5
- Walker, J. A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language (1791)
"Horse-drawn vehicles"