374 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



purpose ; indeed, nothing but properly-seasoned wood 

 can be applied to any purpose in the construction of 

 a coach. 



In working up these varieties of timber, tools and 

 processes are employed similar to those witnessed in 

 many other trades. In the first place, a mould of the 

 coach-body is prepared from the pattern, as in the 

 preparatory stage of ship-building ; that is, thin pieces 

 of wood are so cut out as to denote the size, form, and 

 curvatures of all the separate parts of the coach, and 

 these afterwards act as guides in cutting and shaping 

 the timber. The working operations are of two 

 wholly distinct kinds, carried on by different sets of 

 workmen : one relates to the body, and the other to 

 the under-carriage, or that part below the body. 



In bending thin pieces of timber to form curved 

 panels, the wood is wetted on the side which is to be 

 convex, and heated on that side which is to be con- 

 cave ; the unequal expansion of the two surfaces, or 

 rather the expansion of the one and the contraction 

 of the other, produces the curvature, and it is the 

 workman's business to secure this curved form when 

 once obtained. With a few exceptions, the process 

 connected with coach body-making may be regarded 

 as very similar to those of cabinet-making. 



In the making of the carriage which supports the 

 body the flat surfaces are so few in number that the 

 plane is scarcely employed ; after the saw the chief 

 cutting instrument is a hand tool resembling a spoke- 

 shave. The complexity of the framework, and the 

 number of pieces which compose it, depend a good 

 deal on the circumstance whether the carriage has 

 four wheels or only two, and whether drawn by one 

 or two horses. 



But, to commence at the lowest point in the car- 



