Elastic Traces.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 4984, 17 April 1889, Page 2

Elastic Traces.

Everyone has noticed that a dray horse is often obliged to use all his. weight, and strength to start a vehicle which moves along easily enough when once set in motion, and it is quite conceivable that springs in the bar* ness might make the work easier by distributing the movement of starting over a longer period of time. Acting on the suggestion of M. Celler, chief engineer, the directors of the Eastern Railway of France, began six years ago, to harness all the horses employed in shitting cars at their Paris station with their traces made of chains having a strong spiral spring inserted in them. A large number of horses are employed in tin’s service at the station, and the effect of the change has been very satisfactory. A considerable gain has been made in the durability of tho harness and the regularity of the work, through the diminution of the number of chains broken in the service, while the horses have done their work betler and with less fatigue. The blow of tho collar on the shoulders at starting is far less violent and less injurious to the animal than under the old system, and the horses, finding that a strong continued pressure will effect as much as the jerk which was formerly necessary, seem to gain courage, and pull steadily and directly, instead of wasting their strength in ineffectual plunges. During the six years of trial the directors of the company have become so convinced of the superiority of the new mode of harnessing that it has been adopted in all portions of the vast network of lines under their control.— Scientific American.