250 DEAUGHT AND HARXESS. 



those sudden checks on the collar which horses dislike 

 so much, and which are so injurious to them. A Meck- 

 lenburg engineer named Fehrmann has recently in- 

 vented a clever contrivance by which this very desi- 

 rable object of diminishing the injurious effects of the 

 sudden pull on the collar, or what the French call 

 coups de collier," is to a great extent attained in a 

 very simple and inexpensive manner. In order to un- 

 derstand fully the necessity that exists for some such 

 contrivance, and also to what extent this "horse-saver" 

 of Herr Fehrmann is adapted for the purpose, it will 

 be well to call attention to certain fiicts connected with 

 draught in general which, although of every -day occur- 

 ence, are not always duly recognised and estimated. 

 In the first place then we have the fact that it requires 

 a much greater effort on the part of a horse, or team of 

 horses, to put a loaded vehicle in motion from a state 

 of rest, than to maintain it in motion, and this is al- 

 ways greater in proportion to the suddenness with which 

 it is attempted to move it in the first instance. Ex- 

 periments made with the dynamometer prove that it 

 requires twice or even thrice the effort which suffices 

 to keep a loaded vehicle in motion, to start it ; omni- 

 bus drivers know this well, and endeavour as much as 

 possible to avoid coming to a regular halt, because the 

 fresh start takes so much out of their horses. The 

 stage-coach horse suffer much less in proportion than 

 the 'bus horse, the stoppages being less frequent. This 

 proportion of two or three to one applies to loaded 

 vehicles moving on ordinary roads, but there is 

 another kind of draught now coming more and more 

 into use, in which the proportion is very much greater 

 and probably as much as five or six to one, namely, 

 tramway draught. In this the rail reduces the effort 



