CHAPTER XVII 



VEHICLE, HARNESS, AND SADDLE 



It is quite natural to assume that horses were ridden long 

 before they were driven, although the war chariot is mentioned 

 in some of the earliest references to the horse in the service of 

 man. The use of the vehicle is so generally dependent upon the 

 construction of roads, and the nature of the roads in early times 

 was so poor, that the comfort of passengers and safety of goods 

 were much greater on the hacks of horses and mules. It is so 

 even to-day in the newer parts of our own country. Even after 

 roads were built, the primitive vehicles were so crude and lumber- 

 ing that they were used chiefly for agricultural hauling. 



After the pillion method of conveying people came the 

 horse litter (fifteenth century), a carriage swung between two 

 jjoles which were supported at both ends by horses which were 

 either led or ridden. 



The evolution of the wheeled vehicle may be traced in steps : 

 First, the most crude sort of a sledge, often consisting of the 

 forked branches of a tree, dragged in the manner of a stone boat ; 

 second, the addition of fixed rollers ; third, the turning of large 

 rollers into the form of wheels or rollers on the ends of a revolv- 

 ing axle, this being the first semblance of wheels (Fig. 154) ; 

 fourth, a fixed wooden axle on which the wheels revolved, being 

 held in place by pins ; fifth, the construction of the metal axle 

 with boxed hub wheel, designed to meet if not to minimize 

 friction ; sixth, the highest development of this idea, represented 

 in the modern lubricated or even roller and ball-bearing axles, 

 with wheels of the strongest yet lightest constiniction. 



The Wheel. — The roller is the means by which rubbing fric- 

 tion is transformed into rolling friction, which requires very 

 much less draught to overcome, and the wheel is the highest type 

 of roller. The two parts of the wheel concerned with friction 

 are the tire, which rolls on the road, and the box of the hixb, 

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