Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/736

 724 COACH COACH-WHIP SNAKE coaches in New York, New Jersey, and New England has much decreased within a few years, but large numbers are still made, espe- cially at Concord, N. H., for hotels, transfers, and for export to the far west and to Mexico and Central and South America. The French diligences are unwieldy vehicles, and only adapted for smooth roads. They are formed in three compartments, the front one called a coupe, having a seat for three persons facing forward; the middle apartment, the interieur, has seats for six, like a hackney coach ; and behind this is the rotonde, with seats for six or eight passengers, who sit with their backs to the sides of the carriage. On the front part of the top is the banquette, sometimes covered with a hood, with seats for four passengers. The driver rides one of the horses, of which five or six are commonly employed. Few pieces of mechanical work require so great and varied skill as the construction of coaches. Their use demands lightness, and yet they must withstand the roughest service. They are to be subjected to continual strains and wrenchings, coming from every direction, ex- posed to all extremes of dryness and moisture, heat and cold, and used where repairs may be impracticable. The best materials are there- fore selected and shaped with mathematical exactness. The frame is the nicest piece of joiner's work, made with the toughest ash, that has grown in exposed situations, and been hardened by a seasoning of two years or more. Oak and hickory, equally well prepared, are adapte4 for much of the work; and to the excellence of the latter wood may be refer- red some of the superior points of American coaches. The planking is of strong elm, and the panels of the light but stiff Spanish cedar. Mahogany and rosewood are also sometimes used; and for the same and other purposes, pine, bass, and lancewood. The frame, axles, &c., are thoroughly ironed with pieces of the best refined metal, made and fitted especial- ly for this purpose, and often tested by se- vere strains. The springs require the best of steel. The leather employed is prepared for this particular use, and is of various kinds, from the heaviest harness leather to the fine enamelled and morocco for upholstery. Fine cloths, silks, damasks, plushes, &c., in great variety, are used for the lining; and an espe- cial fabric called coach lace has long been a considerable article of manufacture in New England, for parts of the trimming and the holders. The preparation of many of 'these and other articles for the express purpose are subjects of distinct trades. Of all parts of the coach, none call for greater skill in their con- struction than the wheels. The spokes are placed to receive the whole weight and shock of the carriage, always in the direction to compress longitudinally the fibres of the wood, while no more of this is left to add to the weight than is necessary. The greatest ease of draught requires large wheels, but also that the line of draught from the shoulder of the horse to the level of the centre of the forward axle should incline at an angle of 15 with the horizon. This limits the size of the forward wheels to from 40 to 44 in. in diameter, and requires that the horses should then work as closely as possible to the carriage. The hind wheels are from 50 to 56 in. in diameter, and the width of the track 4 ft. 8 or 4 ft. 10 in. The nave of the wheels is lined with a metallic box ingeniously contrived to exclude dust, se- cure the wheel from running off, and retain a supply of lubricating oil. For coaches de- signed for rough roads, leather straps are used to support the body, and these are secured to upright steel springs upon each axle. The painting of the body is probably a more elabo- rate process than is practised upon any other work. Three or four coats of priming in com- mon oil color are successively applied, and af- ter this as many more of white lead and yel- low ochre for a body. The surface is after- ward rubbed smooth with pumice stone and water, when it is ready for the selected colors and ornamental designs. Over these are laid several coats of copal varnish. COACH-WHIP MAKE (psammopJiis fiagelli- formig, Catesb'y; genus maaticophw, B. and Gd.), an American species characterized by a Coach-whip Snake. long and narrow head, projecting upper jaw, superior orbital plates large and projecting much over the eyes ; nostrils large, lateral, and near the end of the snout; eyes large, iris dark gray ; neck small, body long, and tail at- tenuated like a whipcord, which it also re- sembles in the braided appearance produced by the arrangement and dark border of the scales. The scales are smooth and usually have two points at the apex ; on the neck they are small, on the fore part of the body narrow and rhomboidal, on the tail short and broad. The color of the head, neck, and one- third of the body is glossy black, becoming paler toward the tail, which is tawny brown ; the scales on the tail have dark margins: the lower surface in front is bluish slate, behind white clouded with brown ; the colors vary in their shades, but near the head it is always black. In a specimen 61 in. long, and 2^ in., in circumference, the head was 1J in., the body 44 in., and the tail 16 in. ; the abdominal