86 FARMERS' REGISTER— MAIL COACHES AND HORSES IN ENGLAND. 



to speed, too, as the mmnent am ca.nnot betaken ad- 

 vantage of, in contimiing; tlie motion of the coach 

 when she brings the horses to their collars again. 



The question often arises, — is tiicre any danger 

 ill galloping horses in a coach, on perfectly level 

 ground? Under certain circumstances there is. 

 For instance, if" there happen to be two horses at 

 wheel, which take unequal strides in their gallop, 

 their action will be felt by tiie coach — they being 

 so near to her — and lateral motion may be pro- 

 duced, by which her equilibrium may be destroy- 

 ed. Wiien a coach once begins to swing, a little 

 thing will upset her — even passing over a small 

 stone — as the faster she goes on level ground, the 

 more weight is tlkvown upon her fore wheels. Nei- 

 ther is a good road a security to her; on the con- 

 trary, the harder tlie surface of it, the more dan- 

 ger, there being nolljing to hold the wheels to the 

 ground. If, however, it were possible to make the 

 stride and draught of four horses quite equal, their 

 increased speed would have but little eiiect on a 

 coach, upon tolerably lev*?! ground; which is 

 proved by her being quite steady in ascending a 

 hill, at ever so quick a rate, when every horse is 

 at woi'k. This shows the necessity of putting 

 horses well together. 



The worst of accidents, and one which, with the 

 present structure of coaches, can never be entirely 

 provided against, arises from broken axletrccs and 

 wheels coming oiF on the road. It was but the 

 other day that a passenger's leg was fractured by 

 the upsetting of the Dart, Brighton coach ; driven 

 by William Snow, (a proprietor) one of the stea- 

 diest and most experienced coachmen of the pre- 

 sent day, owing to the snapping of the axletree. — 

 There is certainly something startling in the re- 

 flection, that whenever we travel by a coach, we 

 are liable to this occurrence, which must happen 

 if the weight above be too great for the sustaining 

 power below; and for this reason, the mails are 

 safer than stage-coaches, as not loading so heavily. 

 Every thing that can be dojie to prevent the snap- 

 ping of the axletree has now been adopted, we 

 think, by our coach-builders. In case it does 

 break, what is called the idle wheel, in addition to 

 the active wheel, is the only securit}^ against an 

 upset; but as this somewhat adds to the weight of 

 a coach, the use of it has been abandoned. Acci- 

 dents, then, are always to be apprehended by tra- 

 vellers from this cause; — the loss of wheels is an- 

 other; and until an act of parliament enforces the 

 use of the patent box, or the screw nut, so as to 

 trust no longer to the common linchpin, it will re- 

 main a third.* 



On the whole, however, travelling by public 

 conveyances was never so secure as it is at the 

 present time. Nothing can be more favorable to 

 it than the build of tlie modern coaches. The 

 boots being let down l)etween the springs, keep 

 the load, consequently the centre of gravity, low; 

 the wheels of many of them are secured by patent 

 boxes; and in every part of them the best materi- 



* The only hnchpin that can be relied on, is the 

 wooden one ; which, together with the screw nut, is 

 used in the French dihgences. It is made of heart of oak ; 

 and being once driven through the eye of the arm, can- 

 not be drawn out again, without cutting off the bottom 

 of it, as it swells to a size whlcli prevents its returning 

 the way it went in. Tliere is no dependence on iron linch- 

 pins. 



als are used. The cost of coaches of this descrip- 

 tion is from £130 to £150, but they are general- 

 ly hired from the maker at Irom 2^d. to 3d. per 

 mile. 



The common height of the stage coach wheels of 

 the present day, is as follows: — the fore wheels 

 three feet four inches, the hinder four feet eight 

 inches. As the former turn round so much often- 

 er than the latter, and also bearing more weight, 

 they require to have their fellies fresh wrung about 

 every five weeks ; whereas, the latter will stand 

 good for two months, or more. The strength of a 

 wheel depends greatly on the attention paid to the 

 arrangement and framing of the spokes. In com- 

 mon wheels, they are framed regularly and equal- 

 ly all round the thickest part of the nave, the 

 tenons of the spokes being so levelled as to stand 

 about three inches out of perpendicular, by which 

 is produced the dishing wheel. This dishing, or 

 concave wheel, is not essential on our present 

 rutless road, and perpendicular wheels are pre- 

 ferable on level ground. The best wheels we 

 know of, are those under our mail-coaches. The 

 spokes are framed somewhat differently into the 

 nave, which is made rather larger than is usual 

 for common coach wheels, and every other spoke 

 is framed perpendicular to the nave. Hence, the 

 mortises to receive them in it are not made in a 

 parallel line round it, but stand as it were in two 

 different parallels — one Avithout the other — by 

 which means greater solidity is given to the nave, 

 and an immense addition of strength to the wheel. 

 What is called the patent hoop, always used in 

 stage-coaches, having the iron tire drawn into one 

 complete ring, — is not put on these wheels, but 

 the common strokes, as they arc called, forged and 

 hammered to the sweep of the rings, and in length 

 equal to those of the fellies, are put on red hot, and 

 well secured by rivetted nails. The mail fbre- 

 whecl is somewhat higher than that of the stage- 

 coach, which is an advantage. Low fore-wheels 

 place the axle so much below the level of the 

 wheel-horses' breast, that they have not only the 

 carriage to draw, but also part of its weight to 

 bear. This weight distresses their hams, stifles, 

 and hocks, and accounts for coach-horses being 

 soon unfit for the saddle. It is evident that atten- 

 tion to these points is necessary in putting horses 

 to a coach; and when the fore-wheels are low, the 

 wheel-horses should have as much length of trace 

 as can be given them, for the line of traction should 

 be as nearly even with the draught of the horse as 

 we can make it.* 



It requii-es, also, some art to load a coach pro- 



* Thus it is with a farmer's wagon. When tlie ' 

 shaft-horse is standing at rest — allowing two degrees of] 

 an angle for that position — the point of the shaft is ' 

 nearly even willi the top of the lore-wheel, but wheni 

 the horse exerts his strength to move a load, he brings i 

 his breast so much nearer the ground that the lino of-j 

 draught is almost horizontal, and in a line with its cen- 

 tre. The trcLce of a coach-horse, when he stands at rest, i 

 is also oblique to the horizon, and must be so with low ' 

 fiire-wheels; but it approaches the horizontal when hei 

 is at work, and the nearer it approaclies to it the better, i 

 l^orses draw by their weight, and not by the force of 

 tlieir muscles: the hinder feet, then, being the fulcrum 

 of the lever by which their weight acts against a load, 

 wlien they pull hard it depresses theii- chests — thus in- 

 creasing tlie lever of its weight and diminishing the le- 

 ver by which the load resists its efforts. 



