Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/83

* CNOSUS. CNOSUS, nr.'sus, or Gnosis (Lat.. from Gk. Kvairds, KitOsos, or less correctly KkjitoAs, Anositis). An ancient city of Crete, on the nortli side of the island, 3 miles from the coast, near the modern Candia (q.v.), famous in legend as the home of King Jlinos (q.v.). The Dictiean cave in the neighborhood was a legendai'y birth-place of Zeus, though in later times somewhat sup- planted ny the Ida>an cave on Mount Ida as a seat of worship. Here also legend placed the famous labyrinth (q.v.), in which the ilinotaur was confined. In later times Cnosus was inhab- ited by Dorians, and shared with Gortyna the chief power in the island. Of late the site has be- come important from the excavations made by A. J. Evans during I89!)-I000 and the following years. These have shown that the site of tlie early town was abandoned near the end of the Slyce- nfean period, never to be rcinhabited. A village of the JIycena?an period has been discovered, and also a palace of far greater size and splendor than any yet known, bearing witness to the great power of the rulers of Cnosus in the heroic age. Ihe decorations include wall-paintings on stucco, and reliefs of an artistic merit hitherto unsus- pected in so remote a period (about B.C. 1500- 1200) outside of Egj'pt. Tlie art, however, is not Egj-ptian, but must be attributed to the pre- Dorian civilization of Greece. In the palace were also found a great number of clay tablets bearing inscriptions in two varieties of writing, neither of wnich can be read, though it seems clear that some of the tablets contain invento- ries of chariots, shields, and other stores. See Aech.eology; Mycenjsan Age. COACH (Fr. cache, Ger. Ktitsche, probably from Hung, hocsi, coach, named after a little place called Koes (pronounced Koch) in western Hungary ) . A heavy inclosed four-wheeled car- riage for the conveyance of passengers. The con- struetiou of the coach difl'ers from that of other inclosed vehicles in the following particulars: (1) The roof forms a part of the framing of the body, and in this respect the construction is different from other covered carriages in which the roof is simply a canopy supported b}' iron rods or wooden pillars. (2) coaches from the earliest times were suspended on springs. The coach sent by Ladislas. King of Hungary, to Charles VII. of France, is described as a carriage the body of which 'trembled.' (3) A coach is always designed with more than one seat for passengers. According to Thrupp (.see Bibliography be- low), coaches were first made in the town of Kocs, Hungary, and were so called from the name of the towni, just as landaus and berlins are named from the towns which produced them. The same author traces their development from the huge agricultural wagons used on the Conti- nent in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which were so constructed that, by different ad- justment, they could carry a long timber, a cask of wine, a load of hay, or a family. The coaches of the Middle Ages were very elaborate affairs, used only by royalty and nobility, and for purposes of state. As late as 1.550 there were only Jthree coaches in Paris; one of these belonged to the Queen, another to Diana of Poi- tiers, and a third to a nobleman who was too corpulent to ride a horse. In 1031 a 'glass coach,' that is, a coach with glass windows, was built for the Infanta of Spain. The first coach ever seen in England was made 65 COACH. in 1555 by Walter Rippon for the Earl of Rut- land; in lo(i4 the same builder made a showy vehicle for Queen Elizabeth. Later in her reign the rojal coaches were constructe<l with sliding panels, so that the Queen could show herself to lier subjects whenever she desired. State Coaches. The Romans during the Em- pire had a system of public vehicles for hire which traveled over definite routes and probaI)ly at stated times. During the Middle Ages no sich system of public conveyance prevailed. Toward the end of the si.xteenth century wagons began to travel regularly between the principal towns of England to carry goods and people. These wagons were called stages. They were soon superseded by coaches. In 1602 we'find a writer ccndemning this innovation because "these coaches make country gentlemen come to London on small occasion, which otherwise they would not do but on urgent necessity; nay, "the con- veniency of the passage makes their wives often come up, who, rather than make such long jour- neys on horseback, would stay at home. Here, when they come to town, they must be in the fash- ion, get fine clothes, and by this means get such a habit of idleness and love of pleasure that they are uneasy ever after." In spite of such protests coaches became more and more popular, and by 1750 an elaborate system of routes had been established. In 1784 these coaches began to carry the mail. The flourishing period of the stage-coach was at the opening of the nineteenth eenturj' About this time an extensive good- roads movement had been inspired by the sys- tems of Macadam and Telford. The stage-coaches acquired a speed of ten miles an hour on the most important English routes. In America stage routes, although established between some of the principal cities, were never de'veloped to the ex- tent to which they were in England. The intro- duction of transportation by steam proved a speedy and successful rival. This form of car- riage — the railway-car — has been given the name of coach, and, indeed, the early passenger-cars were modeled in shape after the coaches. For further history, see Coaching. At the beginning of the twentieth century coaches are built both for public and private use, and in design they are closely akin to those in use in England during pre-railroad days. They may be described as consisting of two parts — the carriage and the bodij. The former comprises the axles, perch (or reach), futchells, and transom (or bed), and many minor component parts, which together with the wheels form a complete vehicle or carriage upon which the bodj' part is supported by the springs. The latter are secui'cd to the bed and body by clips, and are always made of several stiff plates, because of their greater elasticity as compared with one plate of steel of the same length. The pole fits between the inside futchells. and completes the carriage part. In the best-made carriages the dimensions of a pole are: 3% inches wide, and 41,4 deep, measured at a point 2 feet from the splinter- bar. For horses averaging between 15 and 1(> hands, the length of the pole is usually 9 feet from the front of the splinter-bar to the .cross- head or the pole-head ; for smaller horses, cobs, etc., about 3 inches shorter. The bodt/ is prac- tically the same in all coaches, and is usually 4 feet 10 inches in length, 4 feet wide, and 4 feet 2 inches high. It is built as lightly as pos-