The Slower Road

(also from the May 1903 issue of The Carriage Monthly) …

Technical Training

“The carriage builders of the United States are doing more, directly and indirectly, for the development of technical education in their craft than perhaps is being done by any other. Strong pleas are being advanced by leading manufacturers in many industries for the development of technical education in all lines. Prominent among the advocates of such education is Theo. C. Search, the predeccessor of D. M. Parry as president of the National Association of Manufacturers. Mr. Search, in his advocacy of this idea, calls attention to the remarkable development of technical education in Germany. He tells us there are hundreds of manual training schools in Germany supported by city and state governments, by corporations, religious associations and by private individuals, where all manner of technical education is imparted. Among other things, Mr. Search says that American manufacturers have been exceedingly successful in reducing the cost of production to a minimum by the invention of machinery capable of the maximum output with the minimum labor. Machines have been invented by thousands, appliances without number devised, and all sorts of economic plans employed to increase the output and to minimize the number of hands employed. The time has come when we can see the limit of economies in these directions. So far they have enabled us to meet foreign competition by cheapening the product below the foreign price, but the day of reckoning will arrive when the foreigner will have all our economic appliances, all our push and drive, and something else which we have not, namely, trained skill. In running a manufacturing plant the race is the same as in baseball: team work will win against a combination of “stars” who may be brilliant in some directions, but who cannot win a game.” — from the May 1903 Carriage Monthly, courtesy of the CMA Library & Archives

… from the editors of the May 1903 issue of The Carriage Monthly, that is.

Progressive Excellence:

“It is no boast to say that American carriages are the best in the world. This statement will be controverted by many English makers. When the refutation is carefully analyzed it will be found that the claims for superiority in English-made vehicles of the better class are lacking in merit from the American standpoint. The foreign exhibits of carriages, made during the past decade, were carefully examined by practical builders, by experts and designers, without learning much from the best foreign work. Superiority in carriage work cannot be determined by simply referring to ornamentation or external finish. There is such a thing as internal finish, and in this respect the American carriage builder excels. This finish is not apparent to the average eye, nor perhaps even to the expert eye, but there is a mechanical finish which represents the highest type of skill, ingenuity and design. Every carriage builder knows that it is possible to vary the cost of a carriage even as much as 50 per cent, and yet to have two carriages representing that difference in cost look so much alike that not one in a hundred purchasers could tell one from the other. This, of course, does not apply to the cheaper grades of vehicles. The trade of making vehicles “in the white” stimulated what might be termed internal finish, for want of a better term. Work in the white enables the buyer or builder to see and know pretty nearly what he is getting. Work in the white is by no means an American system, but it has done very much to develop carriage building to what it is along its higher lines. When we look at work in the white we can see what is wood, what is iron, what is steel; how they are treated, assembled and joined, and how the grain of one piece wood has been laid to secure the greatest possible strength with the maximum lightness. The one feature of American carriage building is the exquisite joining. This joining does not show in the finished vehicle. Joints are the theoretical weak spots in a vehicle. To use material so that there will be practically no joints, but one solid, yet elastic, piece of work is the objective point. A carriage is strained at every point of its surface, so to speak, theoretically at least. These strainings constitute the wearing, yet in a well-made vehicle it is difficult to discover side strains long after the carriage has been built.

“The expert maturing of wood is a very important point, especially with hickory for spokes and felloes and with elm for hubs. In the best carriages this wood is naturally seasoned; in the cheaper vehicles artificial drying is resorted to, which sometimes, and very often, drives the sap out too quickly, the fibres being compressed by heavy weights instead of being compressed by the natural process. This difference in drying, of course, cannot be detected by the eye. The strain in a carriage naturally comes on the body, rockers, springs, spring bolts, king bolt and fifth wheel. The art of the carriage builder lies in so arranging and usng the lumber, iron and steel so as to practically make a unit of all, at the same time giving to the completed work the elastic quality which is inherent in material, and which the structure of a carriage demands.

“American carriage builders are giving to these fine points of construction a great degree of study and attention. They are studying the nature and material more closely. They are getting at the soul of wood to understand how to use it without violating its instincts, as it were, for wood has instincts, and so have iron and steel, as well as human beings.” —from the May 1903 issue of  The Carriage Monthly, courtesy of the CMA Library & Archives

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Tomorrow, I’ll post the editors’ opinions (from that same issue) on the state of “Techincal Training” here in the U.S. and abroad.

We enjoyed this 1960-era footage (with voice over) of Mr. and Mrs. Haydon’s Hackney horses and ponies and are confident you will too …

… but you’ll have to click on the link and watch it on its home website, ’cause we can’t embed it here.

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=307

The most recent “fascinating old photo” I posted here (see the previous entry) has generated some impressive sleuthing efforts among our members. Several people sent me the results of their Internet searches, but one clue turned out to be the most likely of all.

In 1893, the World’s Columbian Exposition was held in Chicago to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the New World. The event was also known as the Chicago World’s Fair.

I did some sleuthing myself and found this …

To assist fairgoers, Rand, McNally & Co. published A Week at the Fair, Illustrating the Exhibits and Wonders of the World’s Columbian Exposition, with Special Descriptive Articles … Also Maps, Plans, and Illustrations.

Chapter 2 includes this section on Driving to the Fair:

“The Michigan Avenue boulevard forms a most attractive route to the Fair, and the finest street in the world (as Max O’Rell styled it) is well worth traversing for those who have the time and can afford the carriage-hire. At numerous livery stables, well-appointed carriages can be secured at reasonable rates, and a line of handsome four-horse coaches runs regularly between the city and the Exposition grounds. The boulevard is bordered by the houses of Chicago’s wealthiest citizens, and the route is fully described in the various guides to the city issued by the publishers of this guide. The luxurious route to the Fair is that selected by the Columbia Coach Company, embracing the choicest section of the Chicago boulevard system. Leaving the hotels, the route leads down Michigan Avenue to Oakwood Boulevard, thence by way of Grand and Drexel boulevards to Washington and Jackson parks. The well-sprinkled and dustless roads traversed are devoted entirely to pleasure-driving, and present an ever-changing scene of life, which might be characterized as the holiday side of Chicago. For miles on either side stand the palatial residences of Chicago’s wealthiest citizens, while the magnificent grounds encircling these ideal homes afford a refreshing glimpse of the pleasures of urban life. The coaches designed for this line [our “mystery vehicle” from yesterday; see the engraving below, which was published with this text] combine all the advantages of the modern landau with those of the old-time “Tally Ho,” in supplying each passenger with an outside seat and an unobstructed view. The drivers are old-time whips, who have been historic actors in the principal events of which the history of the West is made up. The overland route to the Pacific has been their stamping ground, and those who have guided their six-in-hands through the tortuous ravines and defiles of the Rockies will have but a vacation in making the trip up and down the boulevards of Chicago. Here are drivers who, to carry out the boasts of these men, scheduled ten miles an hour between the Missouri River and San Francisco, and who can drive a four- or six-horse coach through places where the Eastern driver could not lead the animals by their halters. As nearly as may be in this sybaritic age, the passenger will realize what a trip across “the plains” used to be in the palmy days when old Ben Holliday, of Platte County, Mo., was the autocrat of all first-class travel between ocean and ocean; a journey which may now be made in a gorgeous Pullman car equipped with every luxury. The well-matched coach horses will make the spin in any case in easy time, as relays will lighten the journey. The delights of the journey will far excel any possible written description. The fare has been fixed at an amount which will insure an exclusive and select patronage. Crowding will not be permitted, and the journey either way will be one of comfort — restful at night, exhilarating in the morning.” (A Week at the Fair, 1893)