DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHWAY TRAVEIj MITMAN 335 



for 15 or more years had been struggling for existence and recogni- 

 tion. This was the buggy. Its name was not original, having come 

 from an English two-w4ieeled light cart carrying one person. But 

 the design throughout was purely American in origin and was with 

 its subsequent improvements the greatest achievement of American 

 carriage makers. Of the buggy, Thrupp " wrote : 



These American waggons were modelled from the old German waggon, but 

 they have been so much improved as to be scarcely recognized. American 

 ingenuity was lavished upon these waggons and they have arrived at a marvel 

 of perfection in lightness. The perch, axletrees, and carriage timber have been 

 reduced to thin sticks. The four wheels are made so slender as to resemble 

 a spider's web. The bodies are of light work like what we call cabinet work. 

 The weight of the whole waggon is so small that 1 man can lift it upon its wheels 

 again if accidentally upset and 2 persons of ordinary strength can raise it 

 easily from the ground. The whole is so slender and elastic that it " gives " — 

 to use a trade term — and recovers itself at any obstacle. 



When it was first introduced, the front wheels of the buggy were 

 smaller than the rear ones, but later all four wheels were nearly 

 of the same height with the body suspended centrally between them 

 on elliptical springs. Being new and without any standard of shape 

 to hamper the fancy of the builders, buggy bodies were made in a 

 multitude of forms. During its 50 and more years of popularity 

 there appeared the ribbed, the stanhope, the Jenny Lind, the coal 

 box, and many others with varied names, but none of them retained 

 the popularity accorded the so-called " square-box " buggy of which 

 Stratton ^ wrote : 



Today, should we order a buggy for life use, a vehicle of this description 

 would be selected, with the certainty that we should always have a respectable 

 turnout for the road as long as it would last. 



The common-sense construction of the buggy was wholly unlike 

 the work of any other country, and its simplicity, lightness, sturdi- 

 ness, and cheapness made it in time the most popular vehicle of the 

 civilized world. As a matter of fact, it is reported that as early as 

 1869, certain English carriage makers advertised that they were pre- 

 pared to build light carriages " on wheels imported from America." 

 Throughout the nineteenth century and in spite of the introduction 

 of a host of other vehicles such as the gig, phaeton, landeau, stan- 

 hope, clarence, rockaway, coupe, curricle, sociable, and \dctoria, the 

 simple buggy maintained its lead in popularity and in all-around 

 utility for passenger conveyance. Even as late as 1895, one w^riter 

 on vehicles predicted that the buggy, because it was so admirable in 

 all respects and inexpensive would not go out of use for " at least 

 another century." But, even then the " horseless carriage " was 



' Thrupp, G. A., History of coaches. 1877. 

 » Stratton, Ezra M., The world on wheels. 



