Was There A Way To Get Heat In Stagecoaches In Winter?

Factual Questions
21

I thought I would have a look at the English system of stage coaches:

http://www.gail-thornton.co.uk/gail/horse-drawn-vehicles.php

I have done some searching and I can find no mention of coaches having any form of heating. Indeed, rail coaches were not heated either at first, and neither were early motor cars. Most of the passengers were outside anyway, with up to 12 (or more) on top and four inside. The inside passengers paid more and in winter it is quite possible that they might bring a hot water bottle under their clothes. For the most part, they just wrapped up as well as they could.

Thinking about it, any form of stove inside the coach would have been very unpleasant from fumes and smoke, as well as a considerable fire hazard.

22

In Roughing It, Mark Twain describes trying to sleep while his stagecoach travelled by night.

23

Horses have significantly better night vision than do humans, so traveling at night seems like a fairly reasonable notion even in the unlit wilderness. I think most drivers learned that if your team does not want to do it, you are I’ll-advised to proceed.

24

I had the impression that instead of blankets, they used furs.

25

Not a stagecoach, but I rode an old, heritage train 1905 Prairie Dog Central one year in the very early spring. It was quite chilly on the train, but they did have little metal containers for hot coals under/near some of the seats for thw winter, which were not lit for this trip. I asked about them and they said they definitely lit them for their winter/Christmas trips.

Maybe something similar to that?

26

Yes, Sam gives a great description:

27

The rules Wells Fargo postedin their stagecoaches in the 1880’s, under Number 4:

28

[QUOTE=usedtobe]
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.

[/QUOTE]

The current headquarters are still at 420 Montgomery, and that’s home to only one of several Wells Fargo museums. If you haven’t been recently, it was remodeled a couple of months ago.

Traveling by stagecoach was slow and expensive. I saw something there today that said the fare from San Francisco to (IIRC) St. Louis was $200 back in 1850 or so, or around $6000 in today’s dollars, and for that price, you bounced along at an average of five miles per hours or 60-70 miles per day.

29

I wonder why they never thought to use the exhaust from the horses…

30

Bravo! :smiley:

31

I once read something that someone from the days of stagecoach travel had written. She was describing travel in a stagecoach during cold weather. She talked about how wonderful the drivers were because they passed out very heavy (and brand new) horse blankets to each passenger. Plus, each passenger was given a heated rock in a rolled blanket for warmth. Also, a metal bucket filled with heated rocks was placed inside the stage & passengers could switch to a warmer rock when theirs became cold. She also mentioned that at each stagecoach stop, the driver would bring the passengers brand new heated rocks, and a fresh bucket of hot rocks. The cooled off rocks & bucket would be returned to the stagecoach stop, to be heated for the next set of passengers arriving by stage. I had to laugh because the writer commented on how she expected travel in cold weather to be much more of a hardship. But, she said that due to the attentive drivers, the trip was actually quite pleasant. I doubt that modern day travellers would find the trip pleasant, and that’s what made me laugh.

32

If one has the time, a careful reading of the works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky will probably shed light on Russian practice, which would no doubt have been a model for much kinder conditions in the American west.

33

I was under the impression that the travelers had to get out and walk in hilly terrain. That would warm them up.

34

I wouldn’t be surprised if someone, somewhere had his own coach constructed with a space for a brazier of coals, or at least heated irons or stones. Louis XVI of France reportedly had a wine cellar (!) in his private coach.

35

Or sandy. Read Mark Twain’s “Roughing It.”

36

A friend has an apparently antique heater he claims was intended for horse drawn sleighs. He bought it to use in a motorcycle sidecar.

It is an ornate cast iron grillwork box containing a gimble mounted oil lamp. His understanding was that whale oil was the intended fuel. AFAIK he has never used it.

37

They could light the coach itself.

“Light a man a fire and he’ll stay warm all night. Light a man on fire and he’ll stay warm the rest of his life.”

38

Here is a page about foot-warmers, some of them described as American;

for the most part these were used in the unheated railway carriages of the time, but something similar may have been used in stagecoaches.

I’m particularly intrigued by this chemical footwarmer
http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/insidethecollection/2012/04/steamfest-2012-mystery-object-revealed/

Invented in 1880, I had heard of such things but had no idea how they worked.

39

The description matches that of re-usable chemical ones that are still used today: Heating pad - Wikipedia

Basically the only change is the addition of the metal disk inside to trigger the reaction.

They’re not as large as the ones described, I don’t think. They’re hand-held, about palm sized. Often sold as massage accessories or as, ahem, “novelties” nowadays.

I had a couple of little heart-shaped ones that each lasted for a good solid hour of noticeable warmth.