CH. V 



SKID 



85 



to some coaches, but is so rarely needed, that it is 

 an unnecessary addition. 



In the American (Concord) coach, the brake is 

 worked by the foot, and there being no rack to hold 

 it, the continued pressure of the foot is necessary 

 to keep the brake on. With this arrangement the 

 driver is able to increase or diminish the pressure 

 in crossing the many catch-water banks which are 

 met with on American hilly roads. In some late 

 English coaches there is an arrangement by which 

 the brake can be put on by the foot, the handle at 

 the same time moving back and eno-a^ino- in the 

 rack. It is disengaged by the hand in the ordinary 

 way. This does very well for an omnibus, which 

 has to stop frequently in crowded streets, but it is 

 certainly not necessary on a coach ; as has been 

 pertinently said by an eminent coaching authority, 

 1 let the coachman drive with his 

 'hands and not with all fours.' 



A left-handed coachman may have 

 his brake-handle at his left side, be- 

 tween his cushion and the box-seat. 



Even with a brake, the coach 

 should have a skid or shoe, to carry 

 one wheel, on a hill that is too 

 steep for the brake alone to be de- 

 pended on. The skid should have 

 continuous sides, as in Fig. 45, and not merely four 

 lugs standing up, as in Fig. 46, since a skid of the 

 latter form is much more apt to come off of the 



Fig. 45. 



Fig. 46. 



