Note 47 — Chapter the Ninth

It may be well to add here a note on the simpler springs which were in use at this time. These seem to have been of five distinct varieties—the straight or elbow spring, the elliptic spring, the regular-curved, and the reverse-curved springs, all these being either single or double, and the spiral spring. The straight spring was used in the stage-coaches, in the later phaetons, in the Tilbury, and in most of the two-wheeled carriages. The elliptic spring, invented by Elliott, was “used single in what are called under-spring carriages, where the spring rests on the axle, and is connected with the framework by means of a dumb or imitation spring so as to form a double or complete ellipse. This is technically called an under spring.” Its importance, of course, followed on its power of acting as a complete support, no perch being required to hold the two parts of the undercarriage together. Sometimes four of these springs were “hinged together in pairs,” and used thus in the larger four-wheeled carriages. When a regular-curved or C spring was used, “a leathern brace was suspended from it to carry the body or weight.” The reverse-curved spring was used in the older phaetons, and in the fore springs of the Tilbury, and springs similar to this had been used as body springs in place of suspension brackets or loops, or as upright springs, to the earlier coaches and chariots, under the technical name of S springs—“in which case leather braces were attached to them, and they were supported by a bracket or buttress of iron called the spring stay. The whip spring which succeeded them ... was used in the same way.” But in addition to these springs, there were all kinds of combinations, and the whole subject is too complicated for the lay mind to understand. The chief point, however, to notice is the changes in structure which were made possible by the elliptic spring of Elliott’s resting on the axle.