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THE OREGON. SUNDAY JOURNAL, PORTLAND, SUNDAY J. MORNING, JULY 5, 1903
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A ROMANCE IN THE .
EVOLUTION OFMY LADYS
METHODOF TRAVEL.
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' 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.
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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
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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
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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. - ..'
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