A hay wagon in Germany, of a type common throughout Europe (the leiterwagen). The sides are actually ladders attached to serve as containment of hay or grain, and may be removed, such as for hauling timber.
A wagon or waggon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals or on occasion by humans, used for transportinggoods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people.
Wagons are immediately distinguished from carts (which have two wheels) and from lighter four-wheeled vehicles primarily for carrying people, such as carriages. Animals such as horses, mules, or oxen usually pull wagons. One animal or several, often in pairs or teams may pull wagons. However, there are examples of human-propelled wagons, such as mining corfs.
A wagon was formerly called a wain and one who builds or repairs wagons is a wainwright. More specifically, a wain is a type of horse- or oxen-drawn, load-carrying vehicle, used for agricultural purposes rather than transporting people. A wagon or cart, usually four-wheeled;[1] for example, a haywain, normally has four wheels, but the term has now acquired slightly poetical connotations, so is not always used with technical correctness. However, a two-wheeled "haywain" would be a hay cart, as opposed to a carriage. Wain is also an archaic term for a chariot. Wain can also be a verb, to carry or deliver, and has other meanings.
Contemporary or modern animal-drawn wagons may be of metal instead of wood and have regular wheels with rubber tires instead of traditional wagon wheels.
Wagons have served numerous purposes, with numerous corresponding designs.[4] As with motorized vehicles, some are designed to serve as many functions as possible, while others are highly specialized.
Terminology and design
The exact name and terminology used are often dependent on the design or shape of the wagon. If low and sideless it may be called a dray, trolley or float. When traveling over long distances and periods, wagons may be covered with cloth to protect their contents from the elements; these are "covered wagons". If it has a permanent top enclosing it, it may be called a "van".
A front axle assembly, in its simplest form, is an assembly of a short beam with a pivot plate, two wagon wheels and spindles as well as a drawbar attached to this. A pin attaches the device to a chariot, a wagon or a coach, making the turning radius smaller.[4]
Farm wagon
Farm wagons are built for general multi-purpose usage in an agricultural or rural setting. These include gathering hay, crops and wood, and delivering them to the farmstead or market.[4] Wagons can also be pulled with tractors for easy transportation of those materials.
A common form found throughout Europe is the ladder wagon[de], a large wagon the sides of which often consisted of laddersstrapped in place to hold in hay or grain, though these could be removed to serve other needs.[4] A common type of farm wagon particular to North America is the buckboard.
Freight wagon
Freight wagons are wagons used for the overland hauling of freight and bulk commodities.[5]
Freight wagons were designed for hauling loads, not people, and were not built for comfort. A driver did not have a seat in front of the wagon like the image most people have of wagons. A driver walked alongside the wagon or rode on top of one of the horses. There was no place in front for a person to sit. Many freight wagons, however, had a unique feature called a "lazyboard." This was a plank that could be pulled out and sat on, and then pushed back in if not needed. It was located on the left side of the wagon between the wheels and close to the brake. If a driver was too tired to walk, he could pull out the lazyboard, and take a rest. That is why it was called a "lazyboard." (Some sources spell "lazyboard" as two words. There is no standard spelling.) In America, lazyboards were located on the left side because carts were steered from the left side. The cart itself was on the right side of the road. Unless a driver wanted to walk in the ditch, he had to steer from the left side. In Europe, carts were steered from the right side. The cart itself was driven on the left side of the road, as vehicles are driven there today. A European freight wagon had its lazyboard on the right side. In both places the driver would walk in the center of the road. More than a hundred years ago, almost everyone knew what a "lazyboard" was. Today, almost nobody would know.[6]
In the United States and Canada, the Conestoga wagon was a predominant form of wagon used for hauling freight in the late 18th and 19th centuries, often used for hauling goods on the Great Wagon Road in the Appalachian Valley and across the Appalachian Mountains.
Even larger freight wagons existed. For instance, the "twenty-mule team" wagons, used for hauling borax from Death Valley, could haul 36 short tons (32 long tons; 33t) per pair.[7] The wagons' bodies were 16 feet (4.88m) long and 6 feet (1.83m) deep; the rear wheels were 7 feet (2.13m) in diameter.[7]
A delivery wagon is a wagon used to deliver merchandise such as milk, bread, or produce to houses or markets, as well as to commercial customers, often in urban settings. The concept of express wagons and of paneled delivery vans developed in the 19th century.[8] By the end of the 19th century, delivery wagons were often finely painted, lettered and varnished, so as to serve as advertisements for the particular business through the quality of the wagon.[9][10] Special forms of delivery wagon include an ice wagon and a milk wagon.
There were many types of tank wagons. Water wagons held large tanks of water for delivery to areas without piped water or for military use.[11]:171 In the early 1900s, the American street flusher was a water tank wagon using a gas-powered pump to clean city streets.[11]:7 Liquid manure wagons were low tank vehicles for spreading manure on fields 1860s-1900s.[11]:156 Oil wagons operated from the 1880s to 1920s and held up to 500 gallons of oil or spirits.[11]:123–124
In the city center of Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany, since 1992 the city's plants are irrigated using a horse-drawn wagon with a water tank.[12]
Travelling circuses decorated their wagons to be able to take part in the grand parade—even packing wagons for equipment, animal cage wagons, living vans and band wagons.[11]:45 Popular in North America was, and still is, the float or show wagon, driven by six horses pulling a highly decorated show wagon with a token payload, and heavily painted with company or owner advertising.[11]:1 Horse-drawn wagons are popular attractions at tourist destinations for leisurely sightseeing.[11]
In migration and military settings, wagons were often found in large groups called wagon trains.
In warfare, large groups of supply wagons were used to support traveling armies with food and munitions, forming "baggage trains". During the American Civil War, these wagon trains would often be accompanied by the wagons of private merchants, known as sutlers, who sold goods to soldiers, as well as the wagons of photographers and news reporters.[13] Special purpose-built support wagons existed for blacksmithing, telegraphy and even observation ballooning.[14]
In migration settings, such as the emigrant trails of the American West and the Great Trek of South Africa, wagons would travel together for support, navigation and protection. A group of wagons may be used to create an improvised fort called a laager, made by circling them to form an enclosure. In these settings, a chuckwagon is a small wagon used for providing food and cooking, essentially a portable kitchen.
During the transition to mechanized vehicles from animal-powered, vehicles were built by coachbuilders and the bodies and undercarriages were substantially similar to the horse-drawn vehicles.
Auto Wagon - early 1900s gas-powered, patterned from the American buggy
High wheeler - 1910s - often made from converted horse-drawn wagons
In modern times, the term station wagon survives as a type of automobile. It describes a car with a passenger compartment that extends to the back of the vehicle, that has no trunk, that has one or more rear seats that can be folded making space for carrying cargo, as well as featuring an opening tailgate or liftgate.[15]
A chariot is a type of cart driven by a charioteer, usually using horses to provide rapid motive power. The oldest known chariots have been found in burials of the Sintashta culture in modern-day Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, dated to c. 1950–1880 BCE and are depicted on cylinder seals from Central Anatolia in Kültepe dated to c. 1900 BCE. The critical invention that allowed the construction of light, horse-drawn chariots was the spoked wheel.
A sled, skid, sledge, or sleigh is a land vehicle that slides across a surface, usually of ice or snow. It is built with either a smooth underside or a separate body supported by two or more smooth, relatively narrow, longitudinal runners similar in principle to skis. This reduces the amount of friction, which helps to carry heavy loads.
A cart or dray is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by one or a pair of draught animals. A handcart is pulled or pushed by one or more people.
A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. 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 informal and usually owner-driven.
A trailer is an unpowered vehicle towed by a powered vehicle. It is commonly used for the transport of goods and materials.
A wheelwright is a craftsman who builds or repairs wooden wheels. The word is the combination of "wheel" and the word "wright" as in shipwright and arkwright. This occupational name became the English surname Wright. It also appears in surnames like Cartwright and Wainwright. It corresponds with skilful metal workers being called Smith.
The Conestoga wagon is a specific design of heavy covered wagon that was used extensively during the late eighteenth century, and the nineteenth century, in the eastern United States and Canada. It was large enough to transport loads up to six short tons, and was drawn by horses, mules, or oxen. It was designed to help keep its contents from moving about when in motion and to aid it in crossing rivers and streams, though it sometimes leaked unless caulked.
Benjamin Leroy Holt was an American businessman and inventor who patented and manufactured the first practical crawler-type tread tractor. The continuous-type track is used for heavy agricultural and engineering vehicles to spread the weight over a large area to prevent the vehicle from sinking into soft ground. He founded with his brothers the Holt Manufacturing Company.
A limber is a two-wheeled cart designed to support the trail of an artillery piece, or the stock of a field carriage such as a caisson or traveling forge, allowing it to be towed. The trail is the hinder end of the stock of a gun-carriage, which rests or slides on the ground when the carriage is unlimbered.
Twenty-mule teams were teams of eighteen mules and two horses attached to large wagons that transported borax out of Death Valley from 1883 to 1889. They traveled from mines across the Mojave Desert to the nearest railroad spur, 165 miles (266 km) away in Mojave. The routes were from the Harmony and Amargosa Borax Works to Daggett, California, and later Mojave, California. After Harmony and Amargosa shut down in 1888, the mule team's route was moved to the mines at Borate, 3 miles (5 km) east of Calico, back to Daggett. There they worked from 1891 until 1898 when they were replaced by the Borate and Daggett Railroad.
A gun carriage is a frame or a mount that supports the gun barrel of an artillery piece, allowing it to be maneuvered and fired. These platforms often had wheels so that the artillery pieces could be moved more easily. Gun carriages are also used on ships to facilitate the movement and aiming of large cannons and guns. These are also used in the funeral procession of any higher authority of any state and country.
A bullock cart or ox cart is a two-wheeled or four-wheeled vehicle pulled by oxen. It is a means of transportation used since ancient times in many parts of the world. They are still used today where modern vehicles are too expensive or the infrastructure favor them.
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.
An ox-wagon or bullock wagon is a four-wheeled vehicle pulled by oxen. It was a traditional form of transport, especially in Southern Africa but also in New Zealand and Australia. Ox-wagons were also used in the United States. The first recorded use of an ox-wagon was around 1670, but they continue to be used in some areas up to modern times.
A drayman was historically the driver of a dray, a low, flat-bed wagon without sides, pulled generally by horses or mules that were used to transport all kinds of goods.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to transport:
The dandy waggon is a type of railway carriage used to carry horses on gravity trains. They are particularly associated with the narrow gauge Festiniog Railway (FR) in Wales where they were used between 1836 and 1863.
Driving, when applied to horses, ponies, mules, or donkeys, is a broad term for hitching equines to a wagon, carriage, cart, sleigh, or other horse-drawn vehicle by means of a harness and working them in this way. It encompasses a wide range of activities from pleasure driving, to harness racing, to farm work, horse shows, and even international combined driving.
A float is a form of two-wheeled horse-drawn cart with a dropped axle to give an especially low load-bed. They were intended for use by deliverymen and the carrying of heavy or unstable items such as milk churns.
Stage wagons are light horse-drawn or mule-drawn public passenger vehicles often referred to as stagecoaches. Like stagecoaches they made long scheduled trips using stage stations or posts where the horses would be replaced by fresh horses. Stage wagons were intended for use in particularly difficult conditions where standard stagecoaches would be too big and too heavy.
↑ "Ein PS für 160 Blumenkübel"[One horsepower for 160 flower pots]. Gmünder Tagespost (in German). 31 July 2015. Archived from the original on 11 December 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
↑ O'Sullivan, Timothy (1863). "Bealton, VA". Library of Congress Prints & Photographs. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
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