Cart
Encyclopedia
Vehicle
A vehicle is a device that is designed or used to transport people or cargo. Most often vehicles are manufactured, such as bicycles, cars, motorcycles, trains, ships, boats, and aircraft....
designed for transport
Transport
Transport or transportation is the movement of people, cattle, animals and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations...
, using two wheel
Wheel
A wheel is a device that allows heavy objects to be moved easily through rotating on an axle through its center, facilitating movement or transportation while supporting a load, or performing labor in machines. Common examples found in transport applications. A wheel, together with an axle,...
s and normally pulled by one or a pair of draught animals. A handcart is pulled or pushed by one or more people. It is different from a dray or wagon
Wagon
A wagon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals; it was formerly often called a wain, and if low and sideless may be called a dray, trolley or float....
, which is a heavy transport vehicle with four wheels and normally at least two horses, which in turn is different from a carriage
Carriage
A carriage is a wheeled vehicle for people, usually horse-drawn; litters and sedan chairs are excluded, since they are wheelless vehicles. The carriage is especially designed for private passenger use and for comfort or elegance, though some are also used to transport goods. It may be light,...
, which is used exclusively for transporting humans. The restriction of "carts" to two wheels has become less strictly observed since they were commonly horse-drawn, particularly for those pushed by people.
The draught animals used for carts may be horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s or ponies
Pony
A pony is a small horse . Depending on context, a pony may be a horse that is under an approximate or exact height at the withers, or a small horse with a specific conformation and temperament. There are many different breeds...
, mule
Mule
A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...
s, ox
Ox
An ox , also known as a bullock in Australia, New Zealand and India, is a bovine trained as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle; castration makes the animals more tractable...
en, water buffalo
Water buffalo
The water buffalo is a domesticated bovid widely kept in Asia, Europe and South America.Water buffalo can also refer to:*Wild water buffalo , the wild ancestor of the domestic water buffalo...
or donkey
Donkey
The donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E...
s, or even smaller animals such as goat
Goat
The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over three hundred distinct breeds of...
s or large dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
s.
History
Carts have been mentioned in literature as far back as the second millennium B.C. The Indian sacred book RigvedaRigveda
The Rigveda is an ancient Indian sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns...
states that men and women are as equal as two wheels of a cart. Hand-carts pushed by humans have been used around the world. In the 19th century, for instance, some Mormon
Mormon handcart pioneers
The Mormon handcart pioneers were participants in the migration of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Salt Lake City, Utah, who used handcarts to transport their belongings...
s travelling across the plains of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
between 1856 and 1860 used handcarts.
Carts were often used for judicial punishments, both to transport the condemned – a public humiliation
Public humiliation
Public humiliation was often used by local communities to punish minor and petty criminals before the age of large, modern prisons .- Shameful exposure :...
in itself (in Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
defeated leaders were often carried in the victorious general's triumph
Roman triumph
The Roman triumph was a civil ceremony and religious rite of ancient Rome, held to publicly celebrate and sanctify the military achievement of an army commander who had won great military successes, or originally and traditionally, one who had successfully completed a foreign war. In Republican...
) – and even, in England until its substitution by the whipping post
Pillory
The pillory was a device made of a wooden or metal framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands, formerly used for punishment by public humiliation and often further physical abuse, sometimes lethal...
under Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
, to tie the condemned to the cart-tail and administer him or her a public whipping.
Types of cart
Larger carts may be drawn by animalAnimal
Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...
s, such as horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s, mule
Mule
A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...
s, or ox
Ox
An ox , also known as a bullock in Australia, New Zealand and India, is a bovine trained as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle; castration makes the animals more tractable...
en. They have been in continuous use since the invention of the wheel, in the 5th millennium BC. Carts may be named for the animal that pulls them, such as horsecart or oxcart. In modern times, horsecarts are used in competition while draft horse showing
Draft horse showing
Draft horse showing refers to horse shows exclusively for horses of the draft horse breeds. In North America, though a small number of draft horses are also shown under saddle, the term "Draft horse showing" refers to a specific horse show competition that primarily features driving exhibitors...
. A dogcart
Dogcart
A dogcart is a light horse-drawn vehicle. There are several types:* A one-horse carriage, usually two-wheeled and high, with two transverse seats set back to back. It was known as a "bounder" in British slang...
, however, is usually a cart designed to carry hunting dog
Hunting dog
A hunting dog refers to any dog who assists humans in hunting. There are several types of hunting dogs developed for various tasks. The major categories of hunting dogs include hounds, terriers, dachshunds, cur type dogs, and gun dogs...
s: an open cart with two cross-seats back to back; the dogs could be penned between the rear-facing seat and the back end.
The term " cart " (synonymous in this sense with chair) is also used for various kinds of lightweight, two-wheeled carriages, some of them sprung cart
Sprung cart
A sprung cart was a light, one-horse , two-wheeled vehicle with road springs, for the carriage of passengers on informal occasions. Its name varied according to the body mounted on it....
s (or spring carts), especially those used as open pleasure or sporting vehicles. They could be drawn by a horse, pony or dog. Examples include:
- cocking cart: short-bodied, high, two-wheeled, seat for a groom behind the box; for tandemTandemTandem is an arrangement where a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction....
driving
- dogcartDogcartA dogcart is a light horse-drawn vehicle. There are several types:* A one-horse carriage, usually two-wheeled and high, with two transverse seats set back to back. It was known as a "bounder" in British slang...
: light, usually one horse, commonly two-wheeled and high, two transverse seats set back to back
- donkey cart: underslung axle, two lengthwise seats; also called pony cart, tub-cart
- float: a dropped axle to give an especially low loadbed, for carrying heavy or unstable items such as milk churnChurnChurn may refer to:* Butter churn, a device used for churning butter* Churning , the process of creating butter out of milk or cream* Churn drill, a large, older drilling machine that bores large diameter holes in the ground- People and places :...
s. The name survives today as a milkfloat.
- governess cartGoverness cartA Governess cart is a small two-wheeled horse-drawn cart. Their distinguishing feature is a small tub body, with two opposed inward-facing seats. They could seat four, although there was little room for four large adults. The driver sat sideways on one of these seats. The centre rear of the body...
: light, two-wheeled, entered from the rear, body partly or wholly of wickerwork, seat for two persons along each side; also called governess car, tub-cart
- ralli cart: light, two-wheeled, horse-drawn, for two persons facing forward, or four, two facing forward and two rearward. The seat is adjustable fore-and-aft to keep the vehicle balanced for two or four people.
- stolkjaerre: two-wheeled, front seat for two, rear seat for the driver; used in Norway
- tax cart: spring cart, formerly subject to a small tax in England; also called taxed cart
- Whitechapel cart: spring cart, light, two-wheeled, especially for family or light delivery service
The builder of a cart may be known as a cartwright; the surname "Carter" also derives from the occupation of transporting goods by cart or wagon.
Traces are made from a range of materials depending on the load and frequency of use. Heavy draught traces are made from iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
or steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
chain. Lighter traces are often leather and sometimes hemp rope
Rope
A rope is a length of fibres, twisted or braided together to improve strength for pulling and connecting. It has tensile strength but is too flexible to provide compressive strength...
, but plaited horse-hair and other similar decorative materials can be used.
The dray is often associated with the transport of barrels, particularly of beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
.
Of the cart types not animal-drawn, perhaps the most common example today is the shopping cart
Shopping cart
A shopping cart is a cart supplied by a shop, especially supermarkets, for use by customers inside the shop for transport of merchandise to the check-out counter during shopping...
(British English
British English
British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
: shopping trolley), which has also come to have a metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
ical meaning in relation to online purchases (here, British English uses the metaphor of the shopping basket
Basket
A basket is a container which is traditionally constructed from stiff fibres, which can be made from a range of materials, including wood splints, runners, and cane. While most baskets are made from plant materials, other materials such as horsehair, baleen, or metal wire can be used. Baskets are...
). Shopping carts first made their appearance in Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...
in 1937.
In golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
, both manual push or pull and electric golf trolley
Electric golf trolley
An electric golf trolley is a battery powered cart that is designed to carry a golf bag, complete with clubs and other golf equipment. It eliminates the need for golfers to carry their own clubs or hire a caddy, and requires much less effort than a manual push or pull trolley.Electric golf trolleys...
s are designed to carry a golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
ers bag, clubs and other equipment. Also, the golf cart, car, or buggy, is a powered vehicle that carries golfers and their equipment around a golf course faster and with less effort than walking.
A Porter's trolley
Porter (carrier)
A porter, also called a bearer, is a person who shifts objects for others.-Historical meaning:Human adaptability and flexibility early led to the use of humans for shifting gear...
is a type of small, hand-propelled wheeled platform. This can also be called a baggage cart
Baggage cart
Baggage carts, luggage carts or trolleys are small vehicles pushed by travelers to carry individual luggage, mostly suitcases. There are two major sizes: One for big luggage and one for small luggage...
.
since the 13th century.
Autocarts are a type of small, hand-propelled wheeled utility carts having a pivoting base for collapsible storage in vehicles. They eliminate the need for plastic or paper shopping bags and are also used by tradespersons to carry tools, equipment or supplies.
A soap-box cart (also known as a Billy Cart, Go-Cart, Trolley etc.) is a popular children's construction project on wheels, usually pedaled, but also intended for a test race.
The term "Go-Kart
Go-kart
thumb|A [[Kart racing|racing kart]] at the [[Commission Internationale de Karting|CIK-FIA]] European Championship 2008A go-kart is a small four-wheeled vehicle...
", which exists since 1959, also shortened as "Kart", an alternative spelling of "cart", refers to a tiny race car with frame and two-stroke engine; the old term go-cart originally meant a sedan chair or an infant walker
See also
- ArabaAraba (carriage)An araba is a carriage , wagon or cart drawn by horses or oxen, used in Turkey and neighboring Middle Eastern countries. It is usually heavy and without springs, and often covered.-References:* Educational Technology Clearinghouse, University of South Florida. Drawing.**...
- Baby transportBaby transportBaby transport consists of devices for transporting and carrying infants. A "child carrier" or "baby carrier" is a device used to carry an infant or small child on the body of an adult...
- Baggage cartBaggage cartBaggage carts, luggage carts or trolleys are small vehicles pushed by travelers to carry individual luggage, mostly suitcases. There are two major sizes: One for big luggage and one for small luggage...
- BaroucheBaroucheA barouche was a fashionable type of horse-drawn carriage in the 19th century. Developed from the calash of the 18th century, it was a four-wheeled, shallow vehicle with two double seats inside, arranged vis-à-vis, so that the sitters on the front seat faced those on the back seat...
- Bicycle trailerBicycle trailerA bicycle trailer is a motorless wheeled frame with a hitch system for transporting cargo by bicycle. It can greatly increase a bike's cargo capacity, allowing point-to-point haulage of objects up to 4 cubic yards in volume that weigh as much as half-a-ton.-Types:Different types of trailer are...
- BroughamBroughamBrougham could betransport:* Brougham , a single-engined aircraft of the 1920s and 1930s.* Brougham , a light four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage* Brougham , an automobile with a similar style; later applied to any luxurious car...
- Bullock cartBullock cartA bullock cart or ox cart is a two-wheeled vehicle pulled by oxen . It is a means of transportation used since ancient times in many parts of the world. They are still used today where modern vehicles are too expensive or the infrastructure does not favor them.Used especially for carrying goods,...
- CabrioletCabriolet (carriage)A cabriolet is a light horse-drawn vehicle, with two wheels and a single horse. The carriage has a folding hood that can cover its two occupants, one of whom is the driver. It has a large rigid apron, gracefully upward-curving shafts, and usually a rear platform between the C springs for a groom...
- CarriageCarriageA carriage is a wheeled vehicle for people, usually horse-drawn; litters and sedan chairs are excluded, since they are wheelless vehicles. The carriage is especially designed for private passenger use and for comfort or elegance, though some are also used to transport goods. It may be light,...
- ChariotChariotThe chariot is a type of horse carriage used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Ox carts, proto-chariots, were built by the Proto-Indo-Europeans and also built in Mesopotamia as early as 3000 BC. The original horse chariot was a fast, light, open, two wheeled...
- FloatFloat (horse-drawn)A float is a form of two-wheeled horse-drawn cart with a dropped axle to give an especially low loadbed.They were intended for carrying heavy or unstable items such as milk churns. The name survives today in that of the milkfloat....
- Golf cart
- Governess cartGoverness cartA Governess cart is a small two-wheeled horse-drawn cart. Their distinguishing feature is a small tub body, with two opposed inward-facing seats. They could seat four, although there was little room for four large adults. The driver sat sideways on one of these seats. The centre rear of the body...
- Guard stoneGuard stoneA guard stone is a metal or stone piece located at the foot of a gateway or wall and which is intended to prevent vehicle wheels from damaging the wall.- Introduction :Guard stones were developed at the time of horse powered vehicles....
- Hand-truck
- Hansom cabHansom cabThe hansom cab is a kind of horse-drawn cart designed and patented in 1834 by Joseph Hansom, an architect from York. The vehicle was developed and tested by Hansom in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England. Originally called the Hansom safety cab, it was designed to combine speed with safety, with a low...
- HobcartHobcartA hobcart was a type of mobility device designed in the late 1960s by Dr. Steven Perry of Albrighton, Shropshire, UK. In his practice he had two young children, both of whom had spina bifida...
- Horse-drawn vehicles
- Jaunting carJaunting carA jaunting-car is a light two-wheeled carriage for a single horse, in its most common form with seats for two or four persons placed back to back, with the foot-boards projecting over the wheels...
- LandauLandau (car)Landau, when used in referencing an automobile, generally means a simulated convertible.It is originally a coachbuilding term for a type of carriage; see Landau . Many coachbuilding terms transferred over to automobile usage, since coachbuilders began making motor car bodies instead, and because...
- Lorry (horse-drawn)Lorry (horse-drawn)Among horse-drawn vehicles, a lorry was a low-loading trolley. It was used mainly for the carriage of other vehicles, for example for delivery from the coachbuilders or returning there for repair....
- Ralli carRalli carA Ralli car is a traditional type of horse-drawn cart, named after the Ralli family. The vehicle was commonly used as a general run-around for families. It has back-to-back seating with space under the seats for luggage or shopping bags....
- Red River ox cartRed River ox cartThe Red River cart was a large two-wheeled cart made entirely of non-metallic materials. Often drawn by oxen, though also by horses or mules, these carts were used throughout most of the 19th century in the fur trade and in westward expansion in Canada and the United States, in the area of the Red...
- Rickshaw
- RullyRullyRully is the name of several communes in France:*Rully, Calvados, in the Calvados département*Rully, Oise, in the Oise département*Rully, Saône-et-Loire, in the Saône-et-Loire départementRully may also refer to:...
- Shopping cartShopping cartA shopping cart is a cart supplied by a shop, especially supermarkets, for use by customers inside the shop for transport of merchandise to the check-out counter during shopping...
- Sicilian cartSicilian cartThe Sicilian cart is an ornate, colorful style of horse or donkey-drawn cart native to the island of Sicily, in Italy.-History:...
- Sprung cartSprung cartA sprung cart was a light, one-horse , two-wheeled vehicle with road springs, for the carriage of passengers on informal occasions. Its name varied according to the body mounted on it....
- SulkySulkyA sulky is a lightweight cart having two wheels and a seat for the driver only but usually without a body, generally pulled by horses or dogs, and is used for harness races...
- Taxicab
- Trolley (horse-drawn)Trolley (horse-drawn)Among horse-drawn vehicles, a trolley was a goods vehicle with a platform body with four small wheels of equal size, mounted underneath it, the front two on a turntable undercarriage. The wheels were rather larger and the deck proportionately higher than those of a lorry...
- Tumbril
- Un-sprung cartUn-sprung cartThe un-sprung cart was a simple, sturdy, one-horse, two-wheeled vehicle used by roadmen, farmers and the like for small loads of relatively dense material like road metal or dung. In Australia and New Zealand, it is frequently called a dray. Elsewhere, that is a name occasionally used...
- WagonWagonA wagon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals; it was formerly often called a wain, and if low and sideless may be called a dray, trolley or float....
- WainWainA wain is a type of horse-drawn, load-carrying vehicle, used for agricultural purposes rather than transporting people, for example a haywain. It normally has four wheels but the term has now acquired slightly poetical connotations so is not always used with technical correctness. However, a...
- WheelWheelA wheel is a device that allows heavy objects to be moved easily through rotating on an axle through its center, facilitating movement or transportation while supporting a load, or performing labor in machines. Common examples found in transport applications. A wheel, together with an axle,...
- WheelbarrowWheelbarrowA wheelbarrow is a small hand-propelled vehicle, usually with just one wheel, designed to be pushed and guided by a single person using two handles to the rear, or by a sail to push the ancient wheelbarrow by wind. The term "wheelbarrow" is made of two words: "wheel" and "barrow." "Barrow" is a...
- Wheel chair