Roll on Down the Road Trivia Quiz

Answer: Great Britain

The Brougham carriage is believed to have been designed by Baron Henry Brougham, a one-time Lord Chancellor of England. It had a low body and appeared to have had the front part of the coach cut away. It had a forward facing seat designed for two passengers.

In the front was a coachman's seat that usually only held one person. There were many variations on the original design and they were often used as hacks or taxis. This type of carriage was popular in Great Britain and the United States.

Answer: Conestoga

The distinctive Conestoga wagon originated in the Conestoga River region of Pennsylvania in the mid-to-late 18th century, where it was used as a method of freight transportation. It consisted of a simple wooden wagon, with large wheels, and a canvas cover attached to curved hoops.

The floor of the Conestoga wagon curved upward at the front and back to keep the contents from shifting or falling off while being transported. It had back gates that could be lowered during loading and unloading. The Conestoga wagon was a heavy wagon that could haul loads of six tons.

Answer: Spoked wheel

The chariot was built for speed as opposed to the carriage of heavy loads. The light-weight spoked wheel was an integral part of its invention. The chariot was used in battle, for travel, and for racing. The earliest of these wheeled vehicles came about in the Mediterranean area around 2000 B.C., with the earliest known examples originating in Mesopotamia.

The spoked wheel, as opposed to a solid wheel, allowed for the speed needed to make these transport vehicles a popular weapon. Most chariots were built to be used with the driver standing up and did not have seats of any kind.

Answer: Rickshaw

The rickshaw was a popular human-powered wheeled vehicle, usually used to carry one occupant and pulled by one person. They are believed to have originated in Japan around 1869 and quickly became very popular all over the country before spreading to other parts of the Orient.

They quickly became the primary mode of transportation in a country where most of the horses were owned by the military. Their use declined after the invention of motorized vehicles, but are still used in some areas. They were made of wood, usually had a fold-back cover, and had large spoked wheels.

Answer: False

This statement is completely false. This is a minecart, which was used in the mining of many different types of commodities. Usually made of metal, they had grooved wheels which rode along a rail in the same way a train did. These were heavy well built carts/wagons that came in various sizes, depending on what was being mined.

Some were human powered, and some used horses. They had no seats, and gates that opened at each end for loading and unloading. They can be found abandoned in many closed mines across Europe and North America.

Answer: Sulky

The sulky is a lightweight cart that is often seen in harness racing. It is notable for its lack of a body. It is essentially a wheeled seat usually built for speed. While early models were made entirely of wood, today's sulky is often made of aluminum, steel, or carbon fibre.

There are also models of the sulky designed for personal transportation and racing that are pulled by large dogs instead of horses.

Answer: False

This is a horse drawn sleigh or sledge and was designed for riding on ice and snow, not a sandy desert. Sleighs of many types have been used for centuries in northern Europe and Russia as a common method of winter transportation. They range in style from simple, undecorated farm sledges, to fancy snow sleighs like the one in the photo.

The blades can be changed for riding on grass, smooth stone, and even mud. The names for this method of transportation vary by nation but most used horses as a means of power.

Answer: Milk

In the rural areas of Belgium, Switzerland, and The Netherlands, dogcarts were commonly used for the delivery of milk from local dairies. They were also used by traveling peddlers for a variety of commodities. The Swiss Mountain dog and the Bernese Mountain dog were commonly used, as they had the size and strength to pull a loaded dogcart. Used in many parts of Europe, the use of the dogcart has declined when some countries banned their use on animal welfare grounds.

They were still in use at the turn of the 21st century in both Belgium and France for the delivery of milk from small farms to larger dairies.

Answer: Landau

Invented in the 18th century, the Landau carriage derives its name from the German city of Landau where it was first designed and produced. This social carriage has two seats which face each other and a soft top. The top is divided into two sections which fold back behind each seat.

It was usually pulled by a team of horses and would hold between 4-6 riders as well as the coachman on a separate seat on the front. It usually sported a half-door, which allowed for easy and graceful entrance and exit, to and from the vehicle.

The Landau was and still is, used by many of the royal houses of Europe, when transporting the family during processions and parades.

Answer: A corpse

This photo depicts a horse-drawn hearse, which would have most likely contained a corpse, not farm products or armaments. These elaborately decorated carriages were used during funeral processions to transport the deceased to their final resting place.

The term 'hearse' comes from a Middle-English word 'herse', which referred to the type of candelabra often placed on top of a coffin. These strong wooden carriages usually had open sides, with black curtains that could be raised or lowered according to family wishes.

They had a back gate which folded down for loading and unloading the coffin and a high front seat for the carriage driver. They are still in use in some parts of the U.S. and Europe as an option when planning funeral arrangements, although the vast majority of hearses today are automobiles.