Carriage is a general name for any vehicle intended for the conveyance of passengers either on roads or railways. Carriages are structures mounted on two or more wheels, and in form, build, and accommodation they are exceedingly diverse. The origin of the term is of course the same as carry, late Lat. carricare, to convey in a cart; carr-us, 'a car,' a word of Celtic origin. The earliest carriages were probably constructed for warlike purposes; but at a period so remote as the time of Joseph, carriages were used also at least for royal pageants (Gen. xli. 43). Among the Greeks, chariot-races formed an important feature in the Olympic games; the Romans had two, three, and four horse chariots; and according to Herodotus the Scythians had a covered chariot, the top of which was removable, and capable of being used as a tent. Of the carriage of modern times, the earliest record belongs to about the year 1280, when Charles of Anjou entered Naples, and his queen rode in a caretta, a small decorated car, the parent of the modern chariot or chariote. Soon thereafter, in 1294, Philip of France issued an edict prohibiting the wives of citizens from using cars or chairs, and later, Pius IV. (1559-66) exhorted his ecclesiastics to discountenance the womanly fashion of riding in coaches.
The first carriage ever seen in England—apart from the war-chariots of the early Britons—was made in 1555 by Walter Rippon for the Earl of Rutland, and subsequently the same coach-builder made one for Queen Mary. These cannot have been very successful vehicles, for Taylor, the Water-poet, a determined enemy of the innovation, says: 'The first ever seen here was brought out of the Netherlands by one William Boonen, a Dutchman, who gave a coach to Queen Elizabeth, for she had been seven years a queen before she had any coach.' Later in the reign, the royal carriages had sliding panels, so that the queen could show herself to her loving subjects whenever she desired. During the closing years of Elizabeth's reign, and early in the 17th century, the use of pleasure-carriages extended rapidly in England. The coaches had first to struggle against the opposition of the boatmen on the rivers, and then against that of the sedan owners and bearers; but they gradually came into very general use.
These early vehicles were at best heavy and lumbering structures, without the springs and other mechanical adaptations which make a modern carriage a triumph of constructive art; and as they rumbled over the wretched roads, travelling in them must have been far from luxurious. The condition of the roads necessitated great strength and solidity in the vehicles; and improvements in carriage-building were of necessity preceded by improvement in the art of road-making. The suspending of the coach body by leathern straps, to insure ease of motion and freedom from violent jerks, was an amelioration introduced early in the 18th century. Subsequently these straps were attached to C-springs—an arrangement used to the present day in coaches proper. The elliptic spring on which most carriages are now mounted was invented in 1804 by Mr Obadiah Elliot, and since that time the improvements in carriages have been very numerous.
It would serve no useful purpose to enumerate the principal varieties of carriages, many of which are peculiar to particular countries, and are known by local names. Among the numerous ways in which road-carriages vary, the most important are the number of wheels, the method of entering, and the seating of the vehicle, the nature of the covering when the carriage is inclosed or partially inclosed, the number of persons it is designed to accommodate, and the arrangements for horsing. Road-carriages have either two or four wheels; examples of two-wheeled vehicles being the common gig, the Tilbury, the dog-cart, the T-cart, the Irish car, and the hansom-cab. Such vehicles require a pair of rigid shafts, because the load must be divided between the wheels and the back of the horse. In four-wheeled vehicles the horse or horses have only a dragging load, and the animal or animals may be yoked either between hinged shafts or by leathern traces alone, or by traces and a central splinter-bar. Examples of open four-wheel carriages are the Phaeton, the Wagonette, and the Brake. Partly-covered carriages are the Droskey or Droitsha, the Victoria, and the Barouche. The Landau is the type of a carriage which at will can be entirely closed like the coach, or quite open by folding the covering flat back to both sides. The Coach is a permanently inclosed carriage, as is also the Brougham, which is only a miniature coach. The Mail-coach or Drag, like the Omnibus, has both outside and inside accommodation for passengers.
The manufacture of carriages, whether pleasure-vehicles or omnibuses, ranks in the highest class of mechanical labour. There is a necessity for the best materials and the best workmanship, since, owing to the severe strains and jerks to which the vehicles are subject, cheap construction is in the end unprofitable. Many different kinds of wood are employed in the construction. The body of the carriage is made by one set of workmen, the under-framing by another; the former partaking more than the latter of the nature of cabinet-work. The steel-spring making is delicate work, owing to the necessity for combining strength with lightness and elasticity; and the various pieces of ironwork require careful adjustment, especially the axles. The covering of the upper part of the body of a carriage with leather is one of the most difficult parts of the manufacture; one single hide is employed, the leather being worked round the corners by repeated currying while wet; and all must be rendered smooth, without even a puncture. The best coaches receive as many as twenty to thirty coats of oil-paint; and the polishing processes are numerous and carefully conducted. The carving, gilding, herald-painting, lace and fringe work, metal ornamentation, &c., are among the best examples of their respective handicrafts. See CAB, COACHING; Thrupp's History of Coaches (1877), and other works by Ware (Phil. 1875), Stratton (1878), and J. W. Burgess (1881).