Diligence

History

At the 17th century, the public car is the Coche, without Ressort nor suspension. It is originating in Hungary. In the beginning (16th century), it was a case of wicker supported by a timber structure. It evolves to a case out of wooden, with pillars supporting a roof in dome, and summary suspensions in leather belts of. Little by little, one protects the passengers by walls out of leather and one installs transverse benches.

When it is conceived to go at high speed, it takes the name of stage coach of diligence , then will become simply diligence .

The Fits with body which succeeds the stage coach is the basic private car: it can be very summary, but one preserves of it the image of a luxury car especially used by the court. However cars of the type “fits with body” were used for public transport in the cities and on the roads.

Towards 1660 appears the post chaise, of English origin. Its frame is suspended between the Essieu X by leather thin straps and springs. It is conceived for the fast transport of the mail, but takes a small number of passengers (one or two). Later, the Malle-poste (Email coach in Great Britain) ensures a mixed service of mail and travellers (four to six, sometimes to eight passengers maximum). The characteristic of the cars of station is their greater speed, which remains however quite relative, and the higher tariffs for the travellers.

In 1775, Turgot makes build a new type of baptized diligence Turgotine, car from 4 to 8 places drawn by six to eight horses. The end of and with, rather rudimentary diligences called gondoles ensure the service road of the cities of the Parisian periphery.

The vastness of spaces of North America popularized diligences of the company Wells Fargo, drawn by several horses.

Great diligence

Starting from 1818, the great services of transport are organized. Diligences become increasingly important. With its apogee, great diligence is divided into three compartments: from the front to the back, the cut (sometimes the convertible ), the truck or the interior and the rotunda . Generally, the composite cars, with several compartments, of which there was a large variety of models, had a nomenclature based on the simple car models: half-compartment , convertible , truck , pram , etc

The luggage are placed above, under a cover, and places are reserved for the amateurs of outdoor, or the smokers, on the imperial . The attachment is carried out by a to notch, assisted by a Postillon enfourchant the first horse of left (the quartermaster ).

Diligence disappears gradually on the main roads from circulation, supplanted by the railroad. She survives on secondary lines, a solution sometimes adopted being to dissociate the case of diligence at the end of a road way, and to place it on a platform of coach to continue the voyage by railway.

Sources

Joseph Jobé, At the time of the coachmen , Lausanne, Published-Lazarus, 1976. ISBN 2-88001-019-5

See too

List of the horse-drawn vehicles

Stage coach - Fits with body - Berline - Gondole - Pavillon

External bonds

a diligence (photography of time in black and white).
Museum of barouches, Laa year der Thaya, Austria (English)

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