Just wondering about stagecoaches that traveled the West in the old days - did they have any method of supplying heat to the passengers on cold days/nights?
I recall seeing a film once of heating a brick(?) and placing it somewhere on the floor (maybe that was a sleigh?), but assuming people were paying top dollar back in those days to travel, other than blankets, was there any way to heat those carriages/stagecoaches?
This will officially be my weakest answer ever - but some of the bodice-ripper romances I read, describe something called a brazier within the stagecoach.
I’m sure someone will have a better answer soon. I feel shame.
I’m not trying to invalidate the question. It’s good and should stand.
However, I was always under the impression that long trek stage coaches only traveled during certain times of the warmer months because winter weather could literally be a killer.
Hot boxes made of steel. Put live coals inside them and wrap the box in coarse rags.
The Concord Stagecoach (the brand almost always shown in American Westerns) was rarely used for extended journeys (hundreds of miles) and it wasn’t often used in extremely cold as traveling in this would affect the driver, the hand riding “shotgun” and the teams of horses necessary to pull the stagecoach more than it would affect the passengers.
The passengers had to make due with warm clothing, blankets and covering the windows with the leather drop curtains which can be tied down from the inside. While it wasn’t warm by today’s toasty auto standards, it likely beat having to undertake the same journey on horseback or an open wagon.
NOTE: Only established lines used the concord stagecoach. Most other travelers went by wagon or horseback for trips not along the railings or prior to their being laid in an area.
Reference:
well I got ninja’d while typing my post*
What is it like to ride a stagecoach? No mention of stagecoach heat except for curtains. The stagecoaches were bigger than they looked in the old tv westerns.
I do recall reading about metal cans with hot coals for heat in carriages and wagons. Can’t recall what they were called.
I think the women in those novels typically don’t wear a brazier.
That could all be factual, and probably is, but no cites to prove it.
Uhm, did stagecoaches even *travel *at night? :dubious: I mean, it was dark, right? You can’t see in the dark, right? And there were no such things as headlights, right?
They were called “stagecoaches” because they traveled in stages, i.e., stopped at a way station after a day’s travel so everyone could get a meal and a decent night’s sleep.
It was dangerous enough on the open road out West without trying to travel at night! :eek:
This isn’t a definitive answer but postal wagons had stoves in them. If it was a needed item in a coach I don’t see why it couldn’t be added.
If you can get to San Francisco, see 410 Montgomery. (again, see user name).
This is Wells Fargo’s old HQ. There are two authentic coaches on the first floor, and, if still open and available to public, a mezzanine display with a model of a coach (much easier to see the detail) along with the story behind them.
They used to have a cash tray with $20 gold pieces there, as well.
Off topic - WFB has been bought twice. In both cases, the purchaser renamed themselves “Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.”. As the story goes, the first sale consisted of the stuff on display and very little else - by 1960, it was a tiny bank with a great back story.
Yes, I did a shitload of work for them over the years.
Next time you’re on a roadtrip in cold weather with four or five people in the car, try turning the heater to recirculate mode. Without a steady supply of outside air, a few bodies will keep a confined space like a car (or presumably a stage coach) pretty warm. Maybe not pleasant-smelling, but warm.
Your car, unless it is an open-air Jeep or the like, does NOT resemble a stage coach - as mentioned, they had roll-up leather flaps over the three large holes in each side, and there was no engine or drivetrain under the floor radiating heat. There was wood and steel - and wood was hardwoods - quite dense and a relatively good heat exchanger, as woods go. Bodies were dressed specifically to KEEP their body heat to themselves.
There’s also not air whipping by at 70 miles per hour, though.
For that matter, have you ever tried sleeping in a four man tent with four people in it? Even with just a flimsy nylon tent, so long as it’s tacked for minimal air circulation it’ll keep things relatively comfy well below freezing. Body heat alone wouldn’t have kept thing warm for all climates, but it would have for most climates in which it was feasible to operate a stagecoach.
Gig’s certainly had Gig-lamps…it made them look like they were wearing spectacles.
But Gigs don’t have 4 horse teams. I think you’d need a postilion if you were going to travel at night with a large team. I’ve never read any indication that stage coaches Out West traveled at night, but I think they did in England and Europe. You changed the postillion at the stage-post, at the same time you changed the horses.
Frederick Remington’s The Old Stagecoach of the Plains is a large, dramatic painting that indicates night runs. Or was it just his wish to paint a nocturne? (f you’re ever in Fort Worth, visit the Amon Carter museum; it’s definition of “Western Art” goes beyond Remington & Russell.)
Washington Irving’s Old Christmas depicts early 19th century stagecoaches & their drivers. Those coaches stopped at inns for the evening. And we read nothing of heat in the coaches–because this was Merrie Olde England, where it was cold enough to make one appreciate a roaring fire & a warming drink. But never too cold…
There is (or at least, once was?) one on display in their Downtown Los Angeles branch too.
Big metallic bottles filled with boiling water. The NSW railways were still using these in the mid 1980s to heat the carriages that had individual compartments.
Funny how they called it the boot in the stagecoach days, but then changed the name to “trunk” in cars, whereas the Brits kept the name “boot”.