Sociable, a four-wheeled topless pleasure carriage, with facing seats.
Stage, a four-wheeled carriage of large size, with several seats inside and on top, for long journeys; called also stage coach; loosely, an omnibus.
Sulky, a two-Wheeled carriage, of skeleton construction, with a seat for one directly on the shafts.
Surrey, a light four-wheeled box carriage with two seats and often side-bars.
Tally-ho, a four-in-hand coach.
T Cart, a pleasure cart having a T-shaped body.
Trap, a pleasure carriage; a term used very loosely.
Van, a very large covered wagon for con veying bulky articles, as furniture.
Victoria, a four-wheeled carriage with fall ing top, a seat in the body for two and an ele vated driver's seat cut under.
Wagon, a heavy four-wheeled vehicle, usu ally with rectangular box, for carrying goods, sometimes with removable seats, and often with removable top.
Wagonette, a light wagon for pleasure rid ing, with longitudinal seats facing each other, and entered by steps and a door in the rear.
To these might be added many more com pound names as top-buggy, box-buggy, post chaise, etc. It is difficult sometimes to draw the line of distinction absolutely between many of the forms of carriages here named. Even the very common names of 'coach' and 'cab' overlap in use, that which one would call a cab in one part of the country being known as a coach in some other section.
The important parts common to the typical form of carriage are as follows: Body, seat, top, hood, dashboard, apron, step, springs, run ning-gear, perch, forward gear, clip, fifth wheel, tongue, shafts, swingletree, doubletree, axle, wheel, hub, spoke, felloe, tire. The body of a carriage is commonly made of selected hard wood, ash, oak, hickory, etc., being pre ferred. It is put together with iron braces, screws, mortises, and tenons, and glue. The top, if permanent, is supported on selected wood uprights, or, if falling, is framed of iron or steel rods that fold up and open into a braced position. Leather, canvas and leather ette are used as coverings. The gear, axles, shafts, poles, etc., are commonly of wood, selected with special reference to straight grain and consequent strength. The parts are largely reinforced with metal at all points where spe cial strength or resistance to friction is essen tial. The tendency is to increase the use of metal to replace wood, and many carriages are made with steel axles and side-bars.
The fifth-wheel is the circular device in which the forward axle turns, and is made of iron or steel. The axles have metal boxes,
which in the old style are lubricated with axle grease, but in many modern vehicles roller bearings are being substituted that run with very little or no lubrication. The regulation wooden carriage-wheel has spokes let into the hub and felloes, the whole being held together by the pressure of an iron tire. Instead of making a wheel in the form of a flat disc, the practice is to make it dishing; that is, with the spokes inclining slightly away from the body of the carriage. The reason for this is that a vehicle wheel that is one of a pair receives the most strain when the vehicle is on an incline tipped to one side. In this position of severest strain the spokes of the wheel on the lower side nearest the ground bear the weight, and when dished are inclined to the best position to receive the load.
This dishing of the wheel produces a neces sity for placing the axle box slightly out of alignment. A dished wheel running on a straight axle tends to bear against the end nut and work off the axle. By drawing the axle skein slightly inward at the forward side this tendency is overcome and the wheel runs true. The wire wheel, or bicycle wheel, as it is com monly called, is made on a different principle, and dishing of the spokes and drawing of the axle are unnecessary. In these wheels the hub may be regarded as suspended from the tire, and the wire spokes are so spread that they receive the strains due to an inclined roadway to as good advantage as would the spokes of a dished wooden wheel.
Previous to 1850 most carriages were built by wheelwrights, assisted by blacksmiths, and the wheelwright's shop was to be found beside the blacksmith's shop in nearly every village. The development of carriage manufactories changed all this. The carriage factories buy their lumber and hardwood and supplies in large quantities, and use up the raw material in a more economical manner than could the wheelwright; but their greatest advantage is the use of special machinery.
The term "railway carriage" was commonly employed in the early days of railroads, and is still in use in Great Britain, where "coach" is, however, the technical word, but in the United States it has given way almost wholly to the shorter and more distinguished "car". See CAR BUILDING INDUSTRY.