Chaise

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Drawing of a chaise in Paris, 1799 Journal des Dames et des Modes, Costume Parisien, 1 septembre 1799, An 7 (155) Bokay, RP-P-2009-1378.jpg
Drawing of a chaise in Paris, 1799
A chaise Chaise (PSF).jpg
A chaise

A chaise ( /ʃz/ shayz), sometimes called shay, is a light two-wheeled carriage for one or two people. It may also have a folding hood. [1] :55 The coachmaker William Felton (1796) considered chaises a family of vehicles which included all two-wheel one-horse vehicles such as gigs and whiskies, whereas a similar carriage pulled by two-horses was considered a curricle. [2] :80

Contents

Etymology

The name, in use in England before 1700, came from the French word chaise, meaning chair. [3] [lower-alpha 1] The spelling shay is a colloquial variant of chaise, particularly in North America. [5] :146 A variant chay is slang and sometimes refers to other types of vehicle. [6]

Design

The chaise is a two-wheeled carriage pulled by a single horse, usually with a chair-backed seat suitable for one or two persons. Felton writes that it is the finished look which dictates which type of chaise they are, but their construction is one of only two types: "the one, a chair-back body for gig or curricle, which hangs by braces—the other, a simple half-pannel whiskey, which fixes on the shafts". [7] :45

A light chaise having two seats is a double chair.[ citation needed ] A chaise-cart is a light carriage used for transporting lightweight goods instead of people. [1] :55 A sjees is often referred to as a Friesian chaise. [4] :128 A post chaise is a vehicle designed for private long-distance travel via posting stations, originally with two-wheels (known as chaise-a-porteurs or posting chariot) but later becoming a four-wheeled vehicle while retaining the word "chaise" in the name. [5] :42 [4] :217

Riding chair Riding chair at Mount Vernon.jpg
Riding chair

A riding chair was a chaise body with no top. [8] This type of a chaise was also known under multiple other names: Windsor riding chair, solo chair, gig. The riding chair originated in England, but using the Windsor chair was an American contribution, with the earliest known mention from Charleston, North Carolina in 1757. [9]

Whiskey

Cane whiskey (Felton 1796).jpg
Half-panel whiskey (Felton 1796).jpg
A cane whiskey (top), and a half-panel whiskey with a falling hood

A whiskey (also spelled whisky, plural whiskies [2] :300) was a lightweight two-wheeled chaise that seated one or two persons. It was so named because it would "whisk" along at great speeds. It was often constructed with caned sides and no dashboard which further lightened the vehicle. Shafts were fitted under the body and it was hung on shallow-sideways platform springs. It was popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. [5] :173 [4] :295 [7] :113

American shay

An American shay showing the wooden cantilever suspension style Old One Horse Shay.jpg
An American shay showing the wooden cantilever suspension style

According to Berkebile, "The chaise was one of the most popular vehicles used in colonial America, and did not pass from the scene until mid-nineteenth century. It was widely used by all social classes." [2] :82 In America, the chaise was constructed with a standing or falling hood, whereas the same vehicle without a hood was called a chair. The body was either directly on the shafts or used leather thoroughbraces, or was constructed with wooden cantilever springs and braces which is thought to be an American development. [2] :80–2

The vehicle was commonly called a shay in New England, and the word shay was further popularized by Oliver Wendell Holmes's 1858 poem The Deacon's Masterpiece, or The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay . [2] :82,249 [10]

"Shay" was also a term used in Nova Scotia. One memoirist writes of an early 19th century judge using "a vehicle, then generally called a chaise, or as a rustic would style it, a shay." [11]

One-hoss shay

In economics, the term "one-hoss shay" is used, following the scenario in Holmes' poem, to describe a model of depreciation, in which a durable product delivers the same services throughout its lifetime before failing, or being retired, with no salvage value. [12] [13] :S150

See also

Notes

  1. Chaise: Taken from the French word 'chair' and used generally in the naming of various vehicles such as the Post Chaise. In the 1800s numerous French designs and ideas were copied in England which inevitably led to the common use of French words in describing that which became generally accepted as an English vehicle. The Char-a-Banc is a classic example. [4] :65

Related Research Articles

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A carriage is a two- or four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for passengers. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping or, on those made in recent centuries, steel springs. Two-wheeled carriages are usually owner-driven.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hansom cab</span> Horse-drawn vehicle for hire

The hansom cab is a kind of horse-drawn carriage designed and patented in 1834 by Joseph Hansom, an architect from York. The vehicle was developed and tested by Hansom in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England. Originally called the Hansom safety cab, it was designed to combine speed with safety, with a low centre of gravity for safe cornering. Hansom's original design was modified by John Chapman and several others to improve its practicability, but retained Hansom's name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buggy (carriage)</span> American four-wheeled carriage

A buggy refers to a lightweight four-wheeled carriage drawn by a single horse, though occasionally by two. Amish buggies are still regularly in use on the roadways of America. The word "buggy" has become a generic term for "carriage" in America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curricle</span> Two-wheeled carriage drawn by two horses

A curricle is a light two-wheeled carriage drawn by two horses abreast. Usually open with a falling hood, it seats two people, plus a liveried groom on a seat or small platform between the rear springs—whose weight might be required to properly balance the carriage. Curricles are harnessed with a pole between the horses, and have an iron crossbar which rests over the harness saddle and supports the weight of the pole. The lightweight "swept" body is hung from a pair of outsized swan-neck cee-springs at the rear, with a minimal dashboard and a pair of lamps in front. For park driving, such as in the Bois de Boulogne or along the seafront at Honfleur, two liveried mounted grooms might follow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Post chaise</span> Horse-drawn traveling coach

A post-chaise is a fast carriage for traveling post built in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It usually had a closed body on four wheels, sat two to four persons, and was drawn by two or four horses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gig (carriage)</span> Two-wheeled carriage

A gig is a light, two-wheeled open carriage with large wheels, a forward facing seat, and shafts for a single horse. The gig's body is constructed above the shafts, and it is entered from step-irons hanging from the shaft in front of the wheels. Gigs are enclosed at the back, and have luggage space under the cross-seat. Early gigs were crude and unsprung; later gigs were elegant for town driving and were constructed with springs. The term "gig" is short for "whirligig".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horse-drawn vehicle</span> Vehicle pulled one or more horses

A horse-drawn vehicle is a piece of equipment pulled by one or more horses. These vehicles typically have two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers or a load. They were once common worldwide, but they have mostly been replaced by automobiles and other forms of self-propelled transport but are still in use today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Postilion</span> Rider of horse while driving a carriage

A postilion or postillion is a person who guides a horse-drawn coach or post chaise while mounted on the horse or one of a pair of horses. By contrast, a coachman controls the horses from the vehicle itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dogcart</span> Type of wheeled open carriage

A dogcart is a two-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle pulled by a single horse in shafts, or driven tandem. With seating for four, it was designed for sporting shooters and their gun dogs, with a louvred box under the driver's seat to contain dogs. It was developed in the early 1800s to afford more seating than the gig, which seats only two. Seating is two back-to-back crosswise seats, an arrangement called dos-à-dos from French. There is a hinged tailboard which lowers slightly and, supported by chains, acts as a footrest for the rear-facing passengers. Some dogcarts had a mechanism to slide the entire body forward or rearward along the shafts to help balance the weight for the horse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tanga (cart)</span> Type of cart

A tonga or tanga is a two-wheeled cart drawn by a single horse. It is used for transportation in the Indian subcontinent. There is a canopy over the body, one seat faces forward for the driver and one passenger, and one seat faces the rear for a second passenger. Some space is available for baggage below the carriage, between the wheels. This space is often used to carry hay for the horses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Landau (carriage)</span> Four-wheeled open carriage with two doors primarily for passenger transport

In coachbuilding, a landau is a four-wheeled carriage with a roof that can be let down. It was a luxury carriage. The low shell of the landau provides maximal visibility of the occupants and their clothing, a feature that makes a landau still a popular choice for Lord Mayors in the United Kingdom on ceremonial occasions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Droshky</span> Russian carriage

A droshky or drosky is a term used for a four-wheeled open carriage used especially in Russia. The vehicle has a long bench on which the driver or passengers sit as if on a saddle, either astride or sideways. From droga, the pole that connects the front and rear axles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trap (carriage)</span> Type of horse-drawn carriage

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volante (carriage)</span> Two-wheeled Cuban horse carriage

Volante is a two-wheeled open carriage with a retractable hood that was popular in Cuba in the mid-1800s. The vehicle was directed by a postilion rider. The large wheels are positioned behind the seat and are over 6 feet in diameter with an 8.5 inch hub. Most of the volantes were imported to Cuba from England, France, or the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cabriolet (carriage)</span> Light horse-drawn vehicle

A cabriolet is a light horse-drawn vehicle, with two wheels and a single horse. The carriage has a folding hood that can cover its two occupants, one of whom is the driver. It has a large rigid apron, upward-curving shafts, and usually a rear platform between the C springs for a groom. The design was developed in France in the eighteenth century and quickly replaced the heavier hackney carriage as the vehicle for hire of choice in Paris and London.

In economics, depreciation is the gradual decrease in the economic value of the capital stock of a firm, nation or other entity, either through physical depreciation, obsolescence or changes in the demand for the services of the capital in question. If the capital stock is in one period , gross (total) investment spending on newly produced capital is and depreciation is , the capital stock in the next period, , is . The net increment to the capital stock is the difference between gross investment and depreciation, and is called net investment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Felton (coachmaker)</span> London coachmaker

William Felton was a London coachmaker from 36 Leather Lane in Holborn, and 254 Oxford Street near Grosvenor Square, and noted for his 1796 illustrated two-volume book, A Treatise on Carriages; comprehending Coaches, Chariots, Phaetons, Curricles, Gigs, Whiskies, &c Together with their Proper Harness in which the Fair Prices of Every Article are Accurately Stated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stage station</span> Place of rest provided for stagecoach travelers

A stage station or relay station, also known as a staging post, a posting station, or a stage stop, is a facility along a main road or trade route where a traveller can rest and/or replace exhausted working animals for fresh ones, since long journeys are much faster with fewer delays when using well fed and rested mounts. Stage is the space between the places known as stations or stops — also known in British English as posts or relays.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">State coach</span> Ceremonial carriage

A state coach, also known as a gala coach, is a highly decorative ceremonial coach used in Europe by a monarch or head of state on state occasions. A four-wheeled vehicle for four passengers, it may be drawn at a walk by six or more horses with postilions, or be driven by two or more horses. The term is also used to indicate a formal town coach used by nobility and the wealthy for formal occasions, drawn by a pair of matching horses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sjees</span> Dutch horse cart

A Sjees is a traditional Dutch two-wheeled carriage pulled by one or two horses, which originates from Friesland in the north of Netherlands. Also called a Friesian chaise, it resembles a chaise or gig carriage but with unique regional distinctions. The undercarriage, wooden axle, large wheels, and shafts are usually painted white. The body, which is supported on cee-springs and leather braces, has a curved dash and seats two people. Typically, the body is decorated with elaborate painting, gilding and carvings, and the upholstery is brightly colored velvet or leather.

References

  1. 1 2 Cowie, L.W. (1996). The Wordsworth Dictionary of British Social History. Wordsworth Editions. ISBN   1-85326-378-8. OL   22262013M.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Berkebile, Donald H. (1978). Carriage Terminology: An Historical Dictionary. Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press. ISBN   9781935623434. OL   33342342M.
  3. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Chaise"  . Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 802.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Walrond, Sallie (1979). The Encyclopaedia of Driving. Country Life Books. ISBN   0600331822. OL   4175648M.
  5. 1 2 3 Smith, D.J.M. (1988). A Dictionary of Horse Drawn Vehicles. J. A. Allen & Co. Ltd. ISBN   0851314686. OL   11597864M.
  6. "chay n., also chay-cart, shay". Green's Dictionary of Slang .
  7. 1 2 Felton, William (1996) [1796]. A Treatise on Carriages (Reprint of both volumes). Astragal Press. ISBN   1879335700. OL   21753408M. (Original Vol I, Original Vol II)
  8. Huntington, A.S. (1892). Under a Colonial Roof-tree: Fireside Chronicles of Early New England. Wolcott and West. p. 33. Retrieved 26 November 2023.
  9. Evans, N.G.; Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum (1997). American Windsor Furniture: Specialized Forms. Hudson Hills Press. p. 227. ISBN   978-1-55595-064-4 . Retrieved 2 July 2024.
  10. Holmes, Oliver Wendell (1905). The one-hoss shay, with its companion poems. Illustrated by Howard Pyle. Houghton, Mifflin and Company. OL   6961416M.
  11. A Brief History of Public Proceedings[...]in the Province of Nova Scotia[....], pg. 5 (Image 11). Accessed 21 August 2024
  12. "One-Hoss Shay". OECD . Glossary of Statistical Terms. Archived from the original on 31 October 2013. Retrieved 30 May 2013.
  13. Diewert, Erwin; Wei, Hui (February 2017). "Getting Rental Prices Right for Computers: Reconciling Different Perspectives on Depreciation". Review of Income and Wealth . 63 (s1): S149–S168. doi:10.1111/roiw.12249. The "one hoss shay" or "light bulb" model of depreciation assumes that the service flow of the asset is constant over the lifetime L of the asset and then it is retired at the end of L periods of use.