246 DEAUGHT AND HAENESS. 



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 invented 

 a clever contrivance by which this very desirable 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 understand 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 facts connected with draught in general which, 

 although of every -day occurrence, 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 always greater in proportion to the 

 suddenness with which it is attempted to move it in the 

 first instance. Experiments 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 ; omnibus 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 suffers 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 therfe 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 



