Cart

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Template:Short description Template:DMCA Script error: No such module "about".

File:Horse & cart, Town, Beamish Museum, 21 November 2013 (cropped).jpg
Horse and cart (England, 2013)
File:Dockworkers in Cap-Haitien.jpg
Dockworkers and hand cart (Haiti, 2006)

A cart is a two-wheeled vehicle designed for transport. It can be pulled by humans or draught animals such as horses, donkeys, mules and oxen, or smaller animals such as goats and large dogs.

The word cart is often used incorrectly to indicate four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicles. Over time, the word "cart" has expanded to mean nearly any small conveyance without regard to number of wheels, load carried, or means of propulsion. The word car has often been modified to cart through colloquialization. For example, several small sport and hobby cars carry "cart" in their name such as pedal carts (manually pedaled), soap-box carts (gravity run), and go-carts (gas engine). Similarly, golf cars are more commonly known as golf carts.[1]Template:R/superscript

A cartwright is a builder of carts, and a carter is the person operating a horse and cart for haulage.[2] The surname "Carter" derives from the occupation.

History

File:Eastern Han Bronze Chariot (10336760463).jpg
Han dynasty bronze figures, 1st or 2nd century AD

The history of the cart is closely tied to the invention of the wheel. Pre-dating the wheel there were dragged devices like sledges and travois. The earliest known wheels date back to around 3400 to 3000 BC. The combination of the wheel and axle enabled the development of early wheeled vehicles which transformed human mobility and trade. The earliest wheeled vehicles had four-wheels (wagons), however two-wheeled vehicles (carts) required about 40% less pulling force than a four-wheeled vehicle of the same weight and were more maneuverable.[3]Template:R/superscript[4]Template:R/superscript[5]Template:R/superscript

With the domestication of animals such as oxen and horses, carts became central to ancient economies. Animal‑drawn carts and wagons were widely used across civilizations for farming, trade, and migration. Their evolution—from solid wooden wheels to lighter spoked designs—marked a major technological advance, improving efficiency and enabling long‑distance transport.[6]Template:R/superscript[5]Template:R/superscript

Human-powered carts

Large carts

Small carts

Small human pushed or pulled conveyances commonly called carts can have any number of wheels (not limited to two). The term handcart can mean any of numerous small conveyances.[8]Template:R/superscript

  • Hand truck: A two-wheeled upright handcart for moving boxes, sacks, large appliances and other loads
  • Baggage cart: for travelers to carry luggage in places like airports and train stations
  • Shopping cart: a wheeled basket supplied by a store for use by customers inside the premises as they move around selecting items prior to paying for those goods
  • Serving cart: for transporting prepared food for serving to customers such as in a restaurant or airplanes; may be named for what it carries, such as tea cart for tea service, or pastry cart for offering desserts at a restaurant

Animal-powered carts

Carts may be drawn by animals, such as horses, donkeys, and oxen. They have been in continuous use since the invention of the wheel. Carts may be named for the animal that pulls them, such as horsecart, donkey cart, oxcart or dog cart (not to be confused with dogcart which is a horse-drawn vehicle that carried dogs).[9]Template:R/superscript

Carts have many different shapes, based on what is being transported and the shape of the draught animal. When being pulled by a single animal, carts have a pair of [[Glossary of carriage and driving terminology#template:plain text|shafts]] that support and balance the cart, and the weight of the shafts on the animal is carried by a padded harness saddle. When a cart is being pulled by a pair of animals, it has a single [[Glossary of carriage and driving terminology#template:plain text|pole]] between the pair. Draught traces attach to the vehicle on one end, and to a collar, yoke, or other parts of the harness. Traces are made from leather, chain, rope, or other materials.[10]Template:R/superscript

Horse-drawn carts

Page Module:Hatnote/styles.css has no content.

See also: Wagon, Carriage, Coach, and Horse-drawn vehicle

The term "cart" is a category of horse-drawn vehicles which have two wheels. However as slang it has been used to mean any horse-drawn vehicle including those with four wheels—though mainly used to indicate farm wagons and commercial wagons which have corresponding two-wheeled equivalents or forerunners.[10]Template:R/superscript[11]Template:R/superscript[12]Template:R/superscript The horsecart category includes carts whether pulled by horses, ponies, donkeys, or mules, because the methods of harnessing is the same for all equids. Carts can be divided into freight-carrying carts and passenger carts, with the nicer passenger carts also named cars.[12]Template:R/superscript

For examples, see lists at:

Other historical carts

  • Dead cart: A cart used historically for transporting corpses during epidemics, plague outbreaks, or battlefield cleanup. Typically a simple utility cart adapted for the purpose, and could be horse-drawn or human-powered.[13]
  • Night-soil cart or night-cart: A cart used for collecting and transporting night soil (human waste) before the availability of modern sewer systems; typically a simple utility cart drawn by a horse or pushed by sanitation workers at night.[12]Template:R/superscript
  • Rag-and-bone cart: A cart used by itinerant collectors (rag-and-bone man) who gathered rags, bones, scrap metal, and other reusable materials in the 18th to 20th centuries; often hand-pushed or drawn by a small horse or donkey.[14]

See also

Page Template:Div col/styles.css has no content.

Images
  • Page Template:Sister-inline/styles.css has no content.Script error: No such module "Sister project logo". Media related to Script error: No such module "Commons link". at Wikimedia Commons
  • Page Template:Sister-inline/styles.css has no content.Script error: No such module "Sister project logo". Media related to Script error: No such module "Commons link". at Wikimedia Commons
  • Page Template:Sister-inline/styles.css has no content.Script error: No such module "Sister project logo". Media related to Script error: No such module "Commons link". at Wikimedia Commons
  • Page Template:Sister-inline/styles.css has no content.Script error: No such module "Sister project logo". Media related to Script error: No such module "Commons link". at Wikimedia Commons
  • Page Template:Sister-inline/styles.css has no content.Script error: No such module "Sister project logo". Media related to Script error: No such module "Commons link". at Wikimedia Commons

References

  1. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Kelechava, Brad (August 4, 2020). "ANSI/OPEI Z130.1-2020: Golf Cars Safety Specifications". American National Standards Institute.
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Smith, Sarah (June 21, 2024). "What is a Carter?". Unlock Your Past.
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Hirst, K. Kris (September 20, 2018) [April 4, 2012]. "The Invention of the Wheel and Wheeled Vehicles : The Impact of Wheeled Vehicles on Human History". ThoughtCo.
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Kleinschmidt, H. E. (October 1944). "Evolution of the Wheel". The Scientific Monthly. 59 (4): 273–282. Bibcode:1944SciMo..59..273K. JSTOR 18250.
  5. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Anthony, David W. (2007). The Horse, the Wheel, and Language : How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691058870. OL 11182657M.
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Piggott, Stuart (1983). The Earliest Wheeled Transport. Thames and Hudson. ISBN 9780801416040.
  7. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Definition of 'pushcart'". Collins online dictionary.
  8. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Definition of 'handcart'". Collins online dictionary.
  9. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Walrond, Sallie (1979). The Encyclopaedia of Driving. Country Life Books. ISBN 0600331822. OL 4175648M.
  10. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Vince, John (1989) [1987]. Discovering Carts and Wagons (3rd ed.). Shire Publications Ltd. ISBN 0-85263-885-X. OL 17414160M.
  11. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Smith, D.J.M. (1988). A Dictionary of Horse Drawn Vehicles. J. A. Allen & Co. Ltd. ISBN 0851314686. OL 11597864M.
  12. ^ a b c Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Berkebile, Donald H. (1978). Carriage Terminology: An Historical Dictionary. Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press. ISBN 9781935623434. OL 4534466M.
  13. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Defoe, Daniel (1848) [1722]. A journal of the plague year. London: W. Tegg & Co. OL 33180553M.
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Squeezing Out the Rag Men". The Times. March 9, 1965. p. 23.

Template:Horse-drawn carriages Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Navbox/configuration' not found. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Authority control/config' not found.

Retrieved from "http://cosmopedia.co/index.php?title=Cart&oldid=128620"