CARRIAGE (OF. cartage, from curler. to carry, from Lat. mots, ear. from Ir. car). A wheeled of any kind.. The word is e(on wonky used in a more restricted sense to apply to vehicles for carrying persons as distinguished from those for carrying freight in this article, however, the term is used in its broader sense. Probably the first instrument employed for draw ing burdens was the sledge. In Egypt. where we have the earliest recorded development of the arts, we find sledges pictured upon the monu ments. For the conveyance of enormous loads, such as the blocks required for the Egyptian monuments, rollers must also have been used. Possibly it was the eombination of the sledge and roller which formed the first rude carriage. The next step in the evolution of the carriage would be the substitution of wheels connected by an axle for the rollers extending all the way across the box or platform. As the rollers were simply hewn tree-trunks, so the first wheels were thin slices cut transversely from these trunks and connected by another of much smaller (Ham eter. These primitive wheels revolved with their axles, like the wheels of railway trucks. The next step in advance was to mount the two wheels so that they revolved on their axle, while the latter either remained fixed, or moved from side to side only, in a horizontal plane. Another marked improvement was the substitution of wheels with spokes for the clumsy solid wheels.
The use of vehicles drawn by animals was prob ably introduced very :soon after the domestica tion of the horse and ox. (See CART. ) Ilow rapidly the various improvements in the con struction of these vehicles were made is uncer tain; but they must have been completed at a very early period in the history of civilization. In the writings of Bonier and in the early books of the Bible, the terms naves, felloes, tires, and spokes are used. Covers are said to have been introduced by the Etruscans. Homer tells us that 11cra's ear was suspended by cords, so as to decrease the jolting. In the later Roman car riages the seat was sometimes placed on long poles, midway between the wheels, to lessen the jar, on much the same plan as the modern buck board. During the INliddle Ages vehicles were slung upon leather straps for the same purpose.
Steel springs were not introduced until about 1700, and the elliptic spring was invented in 1804.
The simplest and earliest form of wheeled vehicle was the cart, or two-wheeled carriage. To its axle a pole was secured when it was destined to be drawn by two animals, or a pair of shafts \Olen it was to be by one animal. The ehariots of ancient times, however elabo rately ornamented, were of this simple construc tion. These chariots were used for war, for state purposes, for races, and for hunting; they were rarely used simply as a naeauas of conveyance. War chariots were often armed with scythes, and on their sides were cases to hold the bow. shafts of arrows, and other weapons of war. The bodies of elm riots were small, usually hold ing but two persons. They were open for en trance at the back and had no seats. At first the wheels were very low, from 3 to 4 feet in diameter. As the chariot was adopted by differ ent nations its primitive form was greatly changed. The wheels were enlarged, it was made to hold Many persons. and finally four wheels were used. Little remained of the original chariot but its name.
The chariot used by the Britons at the time of the Roman Conquest possessed certain char acteristics which commended it to the conquerors. It was on higher wheels than the lIoman chariot, and was entered at the front instead of the back. The pole, instead of sloping upward to the horses' neck:, went horizontally out between their bodies and was so broad that the driver could stand on it, and, if necessary, drive his horses from its outer end. But the most striking of this chariot was that it possessed a seat. Cicero wrote to a friend in Britain that there appeared little worth bringing away from Britain except the chariots, of which he his friend to bring him away one as a pattern. This form of chariot, called by the Romans the es.s.cdum, from having a seat. became very popular in lIome. and it diminutive form of the vehicle, with still larger wheels, was adopted for the convey ance of dispatches over the public roads. This carriage, called the cisiitin, resembled the modern gig.