Litter (vehicle)

For other meanings of litter, see Litter (disambiguation).

The litter is a class of wheelless vehicles for transport of persons.

Definitions

A litter is usually carried by people and therefore a type of human-powered transport.

The simplest litter, often called a stretcher, consists of a sling attached along its length to poles or stretched inside a frame. The poles or frame are carried by porters in front and behind. Such simple litters are common on battlefields and emergency situations, where terrain prohibits wheeled vehicles from carrying away the dead and wounded.

A more luxurious version consists of a bed or couch, sometimes enclosed by curtains, for the passenger or passengers to lie on. These are carried by at least two porters in equal numbers in front and behind, using wooden rails that pass through brackets on the sides of the couch. Especially the largest and heaviest types could be carried by draught animals.

Another form, commonly called a Sedan chair, consists of a chair or windowed cabin suitable for a single occupant, also carried by at least two porters in front and behind, using wooden rails that pass through brackets on the sides of the chair. These porters were known in London as "chairmen." These have been very rare since the 19th century, but such enclosed portable litters have been used as an elite form of transport for centuries, especially in cultures where women are kept secluded.

Antiquity

In pharaonic Egypt (hence the papal Sedia gestatoria) and many oriental realms, the ruler and divinities (in the form of an idol) were often transported thus in public, frequently in procession, as during state ceremonial or religious festivals
In Ancient Rome, a litter called lectica often carried members of the imperial family, but also other dignitaries and other members of the rich elite, when not mounted. The habit must have proven quite persistent, for the Third Council of Braga in 675 AD saw the need to order that bishops, when carrying the relics of martyrs in procession, must walk to the church, and not be carried in a chair, or litter, by deacons clothed in white.

In Asia

China

In Han China the elite travelled in light bamboo seats supported on a carrier's back like a backpack. In the Northern Wei Dynasty and the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties, wooden carriages on poles appear in painted landscape scrolls.

Such wooden or bamboo litters, (now often called "sedan chairs") used by women and the elderly among common people were called minjiao (民轎), the mandarin class using an official guanjiao (官轎) enclosed in silk curtains. A traditional bride is carried to her wedding ceremony by a similar “shoulder carriage” or jianyu lacquered a fortunate shade of red.

In Hong Kong the annual sedan chair race to benefit the Matilda Hospital has been run since 1975 to memorise the scenario early days from 1907.

Korea

In Korea, royalty and aristocrats were carried in elaborately decorated litters called gama. Gamas were primarily used by the royalty and the government officials. There were six types of gama, each assigned to different government official rankings. In traditional weddings, the bride and groom are carried to the ceremony in separate gamas. The primary reason for the use of the gama was because Korean terrain was hilly and rocky, unfit for wheeled vehicles. Gamas were primarily used by the royalty and the government officials. There were six types of gama, each assigned to different government official rankings.

India

A palanquin, also known as palkhi, is a covered sedan chair (or litter) carried on four poles. It derives from the Sanskrit word for a bed or couch, presumably via pallakku, the Tamil for 'bed, couch'.

Palanquins are mentioned in literature as early as the Ramayana (c. 250BC).

Palanquins began to fall out of use after rickshaws (on wheels, more practical) were introduced in the 1930s.

In Western culture

In Europe

In Europe, it took four strong chairmen to carry the corpulent Henry VIII of England in his chair, towards the end of his life, but the expression "sedan chair" was not used in print until 1615. It does not seem to take its name from the city of Sedan. Trevor Fawcett notes (see link) that English travellers like Fynes Moryson (in 1594) and John Evelyn (in 1644-5) noted with interest the seggioli of Naples and Genoa, which were chairs for public hire slung from poles and carried on the shoulders of two porters.

From the mid 17th century, visitors to take the waters at Bath would be conveyed in a chair enclosed in baize curtains, especially if they had taken a heated bath and were going straight to bed to sweat. The curtains kept off a possibly fatal draft. These were not the proper sedan chairs "to carry the better sort of people in visits, or if sick or infirme" (Celia Fiennes). In the 17th and 18th centuries, the chairs stood in the main hall of a well-appointed city residence, where a lady could enter and be carried to her destination without setting foot in a filthy street. The tasteful neoclassical sedan chair made for Queen Charlotte remains at Buckingham Palace. Sedan chairs could pass in streets too narrow for a carriage. By the mid-17th century, sedans for hire were a common mode of transportation. In London, "chairs" were available for hire in 1634, each assigned a number and the chairmen licensed, because the operation was a monopoly of a courtier of Charles I. Sedan chairs were meant to alleviate the crush of coaches in London streets, an early instance of traffic congestion. A similar system was later used in Scotland. In 1738, a fare system was established for Scottish sedans, and the regulations covering chairmen in Bath remind the reader of a modern Taxi Commission's rules. A trip within a city cost six pence and a day’s rental was four shillings. A sedan was even used as an ambulance in Scotland's Royal Infirmary.

Chairmen moved at a good clip. In Bath they had the right-of-way: pedestrians hearing "By your leave" behind them knew to flatten themselves against walls or railings as the chairmen hustled through. There were disastrous accidents, upset chairs, broken glass-paned windows.

Sedan chairs were used by the wealthy in the cities of colonial America. Benjamin Franklin used a sedan chair until late in the 1700s.

Colonial practice

In various colonies, litters of various types were not only maintained under native traditions, but often also adopted by the white colonials, as a new ruling and/or socio-economic elite, either for practical reasons (often comfortable modern transport was unavailable, e.g. for lack of decent roads) and/or as a status symbol

During the 17-18th centuries palanquins (see above) were very popular among European traders in Bengal, so much so that in 1758 an order was issued prohibiting their purchase by certain lower-ranked employees.

The end of a tradition

In the early 19th century, the public sedan chair began to go out of use, perhaps because streets were better paved, perhaps because of the rise of the more companionable hackney carriage. In Glasgow the licensing records show 1800, twenty-seven sedans; 1817, eighteen sedans, 1828, ten sedans. In that same period the number of registered hackney carriages in Glasgow rose to one hundred and fifty.

The traveling "silla" of Latin America

A similar but simpler device was used by the elite in parts of 18th and 19th century Latin America. Often simply called a silla (Spanish for seat or chair), it consisted of a simple wooden chair with tump-line attached. The occupant sat in the chair, which was then affixed to the back of a single porter, with the tumpline supported by his head. The occupant thus faced backwards during travel. This was probably devised because the area had many rough roads unsuitable to European-style sedan chairs. Travelers by silla usually employed a number of porters, who would trade off carrying the occupant.

Sources and references

banglapedia
Trevor Fawcett, "Chair transport in Bath": from Bath History, II (1988): richly detailed social history
Luxury Transport of Palanquins: Historical exhibit at Kamat.com

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