Sunday, March 12, 2017
Why didn't this develop?
Last year I mused about a style of horse carriage that isn't remembered. The salesman's buggy.
I failed to extend the musing. Why didn't this style get motorized? It should have been the direct ancestor of the business coupe, a vehicle for one man and his merchandise.
The one-man carriage survives in horse-powered form. Amish use it often:
Early motorized carriages skipped the one-man coupe entirely. They added motors to farm buggies or buckboards:
and then small two-passenger or four-passenger coaches.
When the motorized business coupe developed again, it was just a two-passenger coach with extra luggage space.
After WW2 there were some single-wide microcars based on motorcycles, like the Messerschmitt; but those were a fresh idea, not derived from the single-wide horse carriage. The motorcycle-based microcar still thrives in Japan, where it stokes to you as the Santa Claus:
but never stoked in America.
I failed to extend the musing. Why didn't this style get motorized? It should have been the direct ancestor of the business coupe, a vehicle for one man and his merchandise.
The one-man carriage survives in horse-powered form. Amish use it often:
Early motorized carriages skipped the one-man coupe entirely. They added motors to farm buggies or buckboards:
and then small two-passenger or four-passenger coaches.
When the motorized business coupe developed again, it was just a two-passenger coach with extra luggage space.
After WW2 there were some single-wide microcars based on motorcycles, like the Messerschmitt; but those were a fresh idea, not derived from the single-wide horse carriage. The motorcycle-based microcar still thrives in Japan, where it stokes to you as the Santa Claus:
but never stoked in America.
Labels: Asked and unanswered
¶ 12:14 PM
