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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (July 5, 1908)
-v- THE OREGON. SUNDAY JOURNAL, PORTLAND, SUNDAY J. MORNING, JULY 5, 1903 rr v 17? It V A ROMANCE IN THE . EVOLUTION OFMY LADYS METHODOF TRAVEL. xwmm , V 1 r WAT if,M - Mi, mm n IW. J WW ' ITH1N the lifetime of a num- ber of men and women of to day the world has witnessed a transition in methods of locomotion from the sedan chair to the airship. For sedan chairs were, used in London as late as 1830. ' ; That children of persons who used the sedate, hand-borne, fiedan -chair in their ' 'social or business johrneys might take flights through the air in-ihe very latest and ' j-tmost sensational methods of conveyance teas a dream that came to few of the wild est romancers of the past, and yet it is on the verge of actuality. One of the most interesting romances of human ambitions and achievements is bound up in the story that tells of the va rious methods of locomotion that successive centuries and expanding genius have given - mankind. It deals with the wheels that followed the sledge, the steam monster t Ha t sup planted the horse, the automobile that re tired the brougham, and is now concern ing itself with air .ships that promise to take the wings of birds and cleave the air like things of life. Truly, the tran sition from the sedan chair to the flying machine writes into , history a wonderful, romantic chapter. . .. iL J M & NJ 1 'A J tT"- .. 1 ' ' ,'f. mm 1 "1 .X tVifo r 2rr mm DM 5 : A 1 in n a i! A V 4 , .1,;, WHEN one consults authorities in an effort to learn something of the his tory of vehicles used by man, he ia led far back into the past. "Probably," states one authority and o&e regarded as authentic "the first instrument used for drawing burdens was the sledge." This, of course, has no reference to bur dens borne on the "backs of beasts a method that was employed, perhaps, by Adam Bnd his immediate descendants. One finds sledges pictured- upon the mon uments of ancient Egypt. A little later, when the Egyptians began employing huge blocks of tone in their monument and pyramid building operations, rollers of wood "were used. The next natural step was the substitution f wheels, cut in solid pieces from large logs, for rollers. And iu a little while, no doubt, came the substitution of wheels with spokes for the clumsy solid wheels. . Use of vehicles drawn by animals was in troduced, it is thought, soon after the domes tication of the horse and ox. From that period .Improvements were made from time to time. During the middle ages vehicles were slung on wooden strips to lessen the jar. Steel springs irre not introduced until about iTftO nH th elliptical spring was invented in 1S04. Hiilc hackney coaches, so called, first plied' .for lire in LondanVas early as 1605; their use did not become general for a fong time. And long after thev made their appear ance upon the street of cities, the older and renerally employed hore litter continued to convr-y jaengers from point to point in the country and from city to cky. For centuries the horse litter had been tjd am a o.rra carriage ry tnose unable to maintain cparatu conveyances , for themselra. As late ss K0 it waa to be sen upon th streets of lV.n';h citie and upon English highways. - Oo f the last references to the hon lit ' " -. . V' ' . '. ter was made in 1680, when'an accident to Gen eral Shippen was recounted: "He came in a horse litter wounded to London; when he paused by the brewhouse, in St. John street, a mastiff attacked iho horses, and he was tossed like a dog in a blanket." Many a fair maid and bustling matron of those long-gone davs made journeys of consid erable length in the horse litter either their own or hired for the trip. It was not a very comfortsble sort of con veyance, one surmiMs. but it was better at least, mo. dignified - than walking, and was in great favor with women who, for any reason, did not care to Vide horseback, and with gouty old gentlemen who found themselves., less tor tured by it than by the rougher exercise of the saddle. It is generally understood that the sedan chair , was born in Sedan. Erance; hence its name. Just when thn introduction of a new method of conveyance was made is not stated, but the "sedan chair was popular throughout Europe for many genprations; it was especially the polite mode of conveyance in England long after the hackney coach had made its appear ance. CHAIRS WERE ALL THE RAGE Great numbers if thre chairs were always available for immediate use, and numerous old engravings and pictures show every phase of their service. They were very popular with ladies in fact, were considered almost indipenr,o in fash ionable circles and they were usd extensively cy men as wen. Onr of Hogarth's famous prints in "Th Rake's Progress" shows the young dsndy just alighting from a sedan chair and being arrested fot,oVbt. Nothing, perhsj. tted better into the ro mantic demands of the novelist ecgied k de picting the social life of past generations than did the sedan chair. There was a romance in itself about this richly upholstered and man-borne conveyance of the ladies and dandies of ages agone. One can imagine the fine women of the period, in their silks and brocades, being con veyed to fashionable events by liveried chair bearers who became coachmen and footmen in later years, when wheeled vehicles supplanted the chair. In 1634 Sir Francis Duncomb obtained let ters patent allowing him to let "covered chairs" sedan chairs for hire for fourteen years; It is not known whether he made a Success of this early attempt at monopoly, for, everi at thnt time, hackney coaches had become numerous. HACKNEYS GAINED GREAT VOGUE At firlt these had not been allowed to stand in the strVgts, but had to remain in the owners' yards until called for. Their owners and driv ers must have manifested some latter-day pro pensity for getting around such regulations, however. By 1635 these coaches had increased to such numbers that King Charles I issued a procla mation stating that the "general and promis cuous use" of hackney coaches in great num bers "causes disturbance to the king and queen personally, to the nobility and others of place and degree; they pester the streets, break up the pavement and cause increase in the price of forage." In the annals of old London one finds that carriages were first "driven at a rspid pace in 1654, and, also, that in 1662 hackney coaches were forbidden to ply for hire on Sundays. Statistics fhow that there were 2490 hack ney coaches in London in 1662, but the- number of horse litters and sedan chairs is not stated. About that tim the horse litter was Approach ing the end of its career, and the sedan chair was coming into favor. With the increasing popularity of the wheeled vehicle the carriage-maker's art ad vanced. The eighteenth century post chaise was eften very elegant in its sffpointments, and, perhaps as a rule, not so slender in its im portant parts as indicated by many drawings that pictured it. Very elegant, too, were many of the sub stantially luilt road coaches constructed for the country gentlemen of America. While the sad dle horse wss the favorite mode of conveyance of, the -men, "they used the coached frequently for long journeys, and there were oftea special : lt - ' l rii v . ' cx i v coaches for the women of the family. Indeed, the historical romances that began cropping out in such numbers some years ago would have missed some of their most pictur esque features had it not been for the family coach, with the grinning negro driver on tho seat, and the fair passengers, decked in furbe lows and laces, on their way from plantation to plantation to attend some fashionable function of the day. the principle of a watch. In duo time, however, and in order, came the steam-propelled vehicle, the gas carriage, th air carriage and the elec tric wagon. Wonderment was evoked by the first suc cessful automobiles, and yet they are now as firmly fixed in the order of our daily life as are the skyscrapers of the city. One reason for their popularity is because they have appealed especially to the heart of woman and woman's tt - i-anil w n im 1 1 'i " I V r-Wr Host of us, perhaps, are under the impres sion that the automobile is entirely the product of latter-day genius; thai tho swiftly gliding vehicle is among the latest 61 modern inven tions. And yet there is on record in1 the United States Patent Office, under date of October 17, 17S9, a patent granted ior steam automobile only it was called "a self-propelled carriage." Earliest patents for self-propelled carriages or- wagona covered devices thaf'relied. upon auric as tha motive " rwer, soine thins .upon . favor rules the inanimate as welt af the animate world. So itoes not seem such a far cry, in view of recent developments, to the airship as a' popular and general means of travel. Many a young jniss now devoting her days to the polish ing processes of the boarding school may own her airship in the days tc come, just as her mother now calls tor ter automobile when she .wuhea to go shopping or pay' a, round of social calls. - ..' (
