CARRIAGE. 



549 



Carriage. An account of the progrtstitc Increase or Decrcaie 

 S ~ P V* / of Wheel Carriages within (lie last twenty years. 



A Table of the returns for dufirs on Carriages made 

 for sale in the years' 1804, 1805, 1806, 1807. 



An Account of the number of Four and Two Wheeled 

 Cr.rriafies in Scotland chcrrged w/t.'i duty from 25th 

 March 1747 to 25th May 1812; arid of Taxed 

 Curls from 5th April 1798 to 25th May 1812. 



Carriages have improved in their construction, and 

 increased in variety, in a greater proportion than 

 in numbers. The improvement in their construction 

 may be imputed to the distribution of labour in build- 

 ing them, to the long experience of the workmen in 

 their several departments, to the emulation naturally 

 arising amongst the people employed in their manu- 

 facture ; but chiefly to mechanics having become 

 more a study, and of course better understood amongst 

 all ranks of society than formerly. Carriages have 

 been, like every other invention of man, improving 

 slowly but gradually ; and even now, when for beauty, 

 elegance, lightness, and strength, human ingenuity- 

 would seem to be exhausted, experience leads us to 

 look forward to something more perfect than we 

 have yet seen ; and we are warranted to expect this 

 from the various improvements appearing from all 

 different quarters, in almost every separate depart- 

 ment of coach-making. We shall conclude this ar- 

 ticle with a li?t of patents granted for the several im- 

 provements in wheel carriages within the last ten years ; 

 and to which we refer our readers, if desirous of more 

 information than our limits enable us to afford. 



The variety in carriages is so great, that it is al- 

 most impossible to enumerate them, arising in a great 

 measure from the increasing wealth of the people 

 enabling them to gratify their improved taste ; but 

 more particularly, we should imagine, from a desire 

 in the makers to raise their own reputation by attract- 

 ing the notice of the public with a name that had 

 not been before heard of, although the carriage they 

 produced under such name, differed very immate- 

 rially from others that had been long perfectly well 

 known. We shall content ourselves by giving the 

 names of those most generally known and used, with 

 a very short description of each, leaving out of view 

 the varieties hinted at above. 



