James W. Burgess

“ This prejudice has to be overcome by repeated and unceasing exertions, and at length, perhaps when half the period of the patent right has expired, the inventor begins to reap the fruits of his skill and industry. Public rumour is ever fond of exaggeration, and he is soon supposed to be realising a large fortune, though most likely he is only beginning to pay his expenses. Competition is then at work, and rivals who have been at no expense or trouble imitate his invention, or make just so much alteration in it as they think necessary to evade his patent right. ”

“ Invention, then, of the highest kind must be composed of four qualities—imagination, to conceive a new and complicated machine; knowledge, to gather materials; judgment, to select and combine them; and perseverance without wearying till the truth be obtained. Those things which commonly go by the name of new inventions are very often mere modifications of what has been done before. “Improvements” is the technical term applied to them. ”

“ Carriages constructed for the purposes of pleasure are works of art, in which taste may be widely developed in form, colour, and proportion, but the former is of course subservient to the mechanical construction. The hitherto defective mechanism of carriages, in which ‘a large wheel is made to follow a small one,’ has to a great extent destroyed proportion, and given a general license to all kinds of heterogeneous devices and barbarous ornaments, as if to overlay defects which there were no apparent means of obviating. ”

“ The art of the coachmaker being an intricate one, inasmuch as he has to combine in one harmonious whole a number of most varied products—wood, iron, steel, brass, paint, silver, cloth, leather, silk, ivory, hair, carpet, glass, &c., each worked by a separate trade, but generally in one manufactory, and each of which may be spoilt or injured by careless or improper treatment in any process—it behoves all engaged in [143] the production of carriages to work in harmony, that their united labours may approach perfection. ”

“ After a carriage is purchased a knowledge of how to preserve it from the various atmospheric and other influences, and how best to keep it in good order, is very necessary; for if great care is not exercised in the housing and cleaning of a vehicle its beauty will be utterly destroyed. In order to attain this knowledge it is requisite to remember of what the vehicle is composed—as wood, metal, leather, hair, cotton, silk, linen, paint, varnish, &c. ”

“ Not only were there shown several excellent working drawings of carriages—drawn to scale and difficult of execution, and showing that there are forthcoming more highly educated and more competent men well acquainted with the details of their crafts, and of the proper and scientific manner of setting out their work, now that frequent change of construction renders this knowledge so desirable—but there were also shown many clever models of proposed improvements, the work of the ordinary carriage artisans, showing that their originators were men of thought and energy. ”

“ Continental men are more enthusiastic lovers of their arts and sciences. They aim at improvement from mere liking for it, and when they fail it is mostly from want of efficient workmen to further their designs. The demand with them is not sufficient to make every branch of their art a manufacture. In England, on the contrary, the manufacture of carriages is a work of many trades, and greater skill is produced in manipulation by the division of labour. If chance brings in a new fashion, competition is aroused, which does not subside until some degree of improvement or excellence be obtained. ”

“ Before a workman could be trusted with the making of a body, he must of course have considerably advanced in the knowledge of his craft beyond the mere use of his tools, because the success of a carriage depends very largely upon the individual skill of the workman, more so than perhaps in any other trade. ”

“ Another disadvantage attends them: a workman may put his work badly together, and there is no means of detecting it till the wheel is in actual use. A badly framed wheel will show as well to the eye as a good one, and until it breaks down, no one, whether maker or customer, can detect the inaccuracy. Unless the master watches every wheel while the spokes are driving he can only depend on the good faith of his workmen. ”

“ If a carriage for the rich is required the underworks are like those of a cart, but the pole is carefully padded and ornamented with handsome cloths or velvet; the sides of the body are railed or carved, and the top is of a very ornamental character, similar to the howdah of state that is placed on an elephant. It has a domed roof supported upon four pillars, with curtains to the back and sides. The passengers ride cross-legged under the dome on pillows. ”

“ To be a complete carriage constructor a man ought to be [177] familiar with all the branches before alluded to. But there are few mechanics of such universal knowledge, and still rarer is it that they combine such knowledge with taste. Even it would be scarcely possible for a single individual to carry on a large business and do everything in his own factory. It would require a very large capital and very large premises, and also an extensive mercantile knowledge and skill—which last is based on qualities the direct opposite of those which nourish the faculty of taste. ”

“ Therefore it is that the builder who possesses taste produces combinations pleasing to the eye, and he who is without taste produces unsightly works, which he is necessarily obliged to sell at a low rate of profit as mere articles of convenience, not of refinement. And even as articles of convenience they are imperfect, inasmuch as the harmony of form arises from the due proportion of parts to each other, and that very proportion produces a greater amount of convenience. ”

“ Enough of this knowledge exists in various brains which might suffice for the construction of a sound theory, but it would be a difficult operation to gather it together, for many petty feelings would be at work.
Many experimentalists understand the word theory as synonymous with falsehood or absurdity, as the very opposite of practice. It is clear that practice must be the ultimate verification of theory; but every true practice must have a true theory belonging to it. ”

“ We have already seen that the draught of a vehicle with large wheels is less than that of a vehicle with small wheels. If, therefore, a load has to be placed on a four-wheeled vehicle, it should be so placed in relation to the front and hind wheels that the greater part of the weight should rest on the higher wheels. To obtain this result, it is sufficient to bring the hind-carriage part as far under the body as it will work with comfort and safety, in order that as little weight as possible rests on the fore-carriage part. ”

“ The excessive competition of recent years has so reduced the profit on each carriage, that in order to carry on his business without loss, the builder has to require a prompt payment from his customer instead of giving a long credit.
The modern system enables the coach-builder to make his purchases for ready money, and so buy not only better in quality but at a less cost than for extended credit, in order that he might in his turn give long credit to his customers, so that he is now obliged to depend on small profits and quick returns by turning over his capital more rapidly. ”

“ It is evident that the ordinary coach-house is not the best that could be used for the purpose. The materials of a carriage are as delicate, and require as much care, as the furniture of a drawing-room, and therefore they should be as carefully preserved from stable contact as the satin couches of the drawing-room. After the carriage has been out, whether in the sun or rain, it should be carefully washed, and, above all, dried, taking care to wet the leather as little as possible during the operation. It is a common practice to wash the carriage and then leave the water to drip away. ”

“ Landaulets were chariots made to open. Generally speaking, the difference between a coach and a chariot was that the former had two seats for the accommodation of passengers, and the latter but one, and in appearance was like a coach cut in half. Then came phaetons, barouches, sociables, curricles, gigs, and whiskies, which, in their general form and attributes, were similar to the vehicles of the present day which bear these names. In those days fast driving was all the “go,” and young men vied with each [13] other in driving the loftiest and most dangerous gigs and phaetons. ”

“ It is too often the case that we look upon success in business as that condition only in which a man has secured to himself sufficient income to retire and lead a life of comparative ease and pleasure. ”

“ Some ingenious persons have deduced from the foregoing that a wheel runs best on an axle having a conical arm (the arm is the extremity of the axle which fits into an axle-box in the nave or stock of the wheel) , in which case the axle would not dip, but the wheel would be put on to a perfectly horizontal axle. The motion of a wheel thus placed would be anything but artistic, though there would not be so much friction on an arm of this sort as on an arm of the dipped axle. ”

“ When the panels are to be painted green, blue, or red, and the painter wishes to carry these colours on to the carriage part, it is better to use them for striping only, and let the ground colour be black.
A carriage part painted black may be made to harmonise with any colour used on the body, as the striping colours can be selected so as to produce any desired effect. Brilliant striping can be brought out on dark colours only, while, if the ground colour be light, recourse must be had to dark striping colours to form a contrast. ”

“ The carriage-builders do not lead, but they have always the means of pressing talent enough into their service whenever a sufficient demand offers them a remunerating return. Coaches were first invented on the Continent, but it was in England that they were improved into public stages, capable of being run 10 miles and upwards per hour for days and weeks together.
This was not done at once, or by any one man: it was the combined result of numberless small improvements, forced on by the necessity of overcoming practical difficulties. Coach-builders have not been remarkable as a scientific body. ”

“ That English artists are not remarkable for the invention of new carriages is no proof of their want of talent; they have invention in abundance if there were sufficient motives to call it forth, and as a matter of fact invention is but poorly paid for. ”

“ The axles and carriage timber have been reduced to mere thin sticks. The four wheels are made so slender as to resemble a spider’s web. Instead of the circumference of the wheel being composed of a number of felloes, they consist of only two of oak or hickory wood, bent to the shape by steam. The ironwork is very slender and yet composed of many pieces, and in order to reduce the cost these pieces are mostly cast, not forged, of a sort of iron less brittle than our cast iron. The bodies are of light work like what we call cabinet work. ”

“ Taste may be considered as another word for truth or proportion, both morally and physically. Much false taste exists in the community, and always has existed, but the total amount is continually lessening. The reason of the false taste is the imitative nature of man, which in an uncultivated state follows without examining. But even as it is the nature of water to attain a state of rest after violent oscillation, so it is the tendency of truth and proportion to grow out of the chaos of either thought or matter. ”

“ In London it is chiefly confined to patent wheel factories, a few steam-driven saws, patent mills worked by hand, and drilling and punching machines. But until the use of machinery is more generally adopted in London, it is probable that the trade of building carriages for export will drift more and more to the provinces and the continent. The saving effected by machinery in cab and omnibus building would be great, because the patterns vary so little, and all the other parts of a carriage would correspond with another, and counter-change when repairs were needed. ”

“ Not unfrequently a carriage is ordered for one horse only; when it is partly made, or perhaps finished, fittings are ordered for two horses; and it sometimes happens that the two horses put to the light one-horse carriage are coach-horses, between sixteen and seventeen hands in height. Such horses, though well adapted to a family carriage, are quite out of their place attached to a light one. Although they can draw it at a good pace, and over almost any obstacle in the road, and do their journey without fatigue, the carriage suffers sooner or later. ”

“ This principle of allowing the horses greater freedom for action is well worthy of the attention of coach-builders. The manner in which our horses are confined by tight, heavy strapping and traces, by tight pole chains, by bearing reins, and the indiscriminate use of blinkers to the bridles, has been much overdone in England. If a horse with a heavy load and driven fast over slippery roads should stumble, it is most difficult for him to recover himself. ”