A wagon is a four-wheeled vehicle primarily used for carrying heavy goods. They are distinguished from carts (which have two wheels) and from lighter four-wheeled vehicles primarily for carrying people, such as carriages.
Wagons are usually pulled by animals such as horses, mules or oxen. They may be pulled by one animal or by several, often in pairs or teams. However, there are examples of human-propelled wagons, such as mining corfs.
A wagon found stuck in the mud, more than 5000 years ago, near what is now Zürich in Switzerland is one of the earliest known examples of wheeled transport. It had two pairs of solid wooden wheels, each attached to an axle which turned with them. The wagon was very heavy (perhaps about two thirds of a ton, or 700 kg).
By the third millennium BC wagons had acquired a regal status in addition to their practical uses. They could transport the king on his throne at about two miles per hour in a public ceremony, but royal tombs reveal that the wagon was valued enough to be required in the next world.
The wheels of these early wagons were made either from a single piece of wood or from three joined planks; sometimes they turn on the axle, sometimes with it.
In migration and military settings, wagons were often found in large groups called wagon trains. Military use of wagon trains is ancient, the Romans built a network of roads for their armies and baggage trains to move throughout the empire.
The British winter of 1435 was so cold that wagons were able to ride on the River Thames as far downstream as Gravesend 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of London.
Wagon-ways, wooden tracks on which trolleys ran, were used in mines in Europe from the mid-16th century. By the end of the century wagon-ways were being built above ground, using either wagons with flanged wheels running on parallel wooden balks, or flangeless wheels on grooved stone blocks. The wagons were usually drawn by horses, although where the topography was suitable they were allowed to roll freely downhill under the control of a brakesman.
Iron rails for the wagon tracks were introduced at Whitehaven Colliery in Britain in 1738; cast-iron wheels also came into use around the same time.
A wagon was formerly called a wain and one who builds or repairs wagons is a wainwright.
As a common, important element in history and life, wagons have been the subjects of artwork. Some examples are the paintings The Hay Wain, The Haywain Triptych and on the Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar.
As the population of the Thirteen Colonies in America grew, people migrated westward looking for inexpensive lands and new opportunities. The wagon had to carry all the supplies for the trip and all a family's personal belongings.
A significant vehicle in the development of the American west made its first appearance in 1755 when George Washington and Edward Braddock, his English commander, needed transport for their baggage train. Preparing to move an army west through the Allegheny mountains to attack the French on the Ohio river, they acquired wagons built by German settlers in the Conestoga valley in west Pennsylvania.
Pulled by four or six horses and initially designed at first purely for freight, these wagons had the unusual feature of a floor dipping to a low point in the centre to avoid the cargo shifting on rough ground. For the same reason they had large broad wheels to cope with ruts and mud.
The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest set out on the Oregon Trail with a thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri in 1843. The Oregon Trail, which stretched 2,200 miles, was the longest of the land routes used in the Western expansion of the United States.
It took American settlers six months to reach the west coast by wagon during the 1840s.
The renowned Conestoga wagon, the backbone of any Oregon Trail playthrough, was almost never used by westward settlers as it was too heavy to pass the soft prairie trails.
Ruts leftover from the wagon trains traveling the Oregon Trial, are still visible today.
During the first presidential campaign of William Jennings Bryan in 1892, candidates for elections In the Southern states of America would parade through the streets led by a band of musicians performing on a horse-drawn wagon. As a publicity stunt, a candidate would mount the wagon as it passed through his own constituency in an effort to woo voters. From this comes the phrase "climbing the bandwagon."
The phrase "On the wagon" refers to guards taking convicts to the gallows stopped off for a drink while the condemned was kept outside on a wagon.
Wagons are usually pulled by animals such as horses, mules or oxen. They may be pulled by one animal or by several, often in pairs or teams. However, there are examples of human-propelled wagons, such as mining corfs.
A wagon found stuck in the mud, more than 5000 years ago, near what is now Zürich in Switzerland is one of the earliest known examples of wheeled transport. It had two pairs of solid wooden wheels, each attached to an axle which turned with them. The wagon was very heavy (perhaps about two thirds of a ton, or 700 kg).
By the third millennium BC wagons had acquired a regal status in addition to their practical uses. They could transport the king on his throne at about two miles per hour in a public ceremony, but royal tombs reveal that the wagon was valued enough to be required in the next world.
The wheels of these early wagons were made either from a single piece of wood or from three joined planks; sometimes they turn on the axle, sometimes with it.
In migration and military settings, wagons were often found in large groups called wagon trains. Military use of wagon trains is ancient, the Romans built a network of roads for their armies and baggage trains to move throughout the empire.
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| Covered Roman wagon for tinkerwench |
The British winter of 1435 was so cold that wagons were able to ride on the River Thames as far downstream as Gravesend 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of London.
Wagon-ways, wooden tracks on which trolleys ran, were used in mines in Europe from the mid-16th century. By the end of the century wagon-ways were being built above ground, using either wagons with flanged wheels running on parallel wooden balks, or flangeless wheels on grooved stone blocks. The wagons were usually drawn by horses, although where the topography was suitable they were allowed to roll freely downhill under the control of a brakesman.
Iron rails for the wagon tracks were introduced at Whitehaven Colliery in Britain in 1738; cast-iron wheels also came into use around the same time.
A wagon was formerly called a wain and one who builds or repairs wagons is a wainwright.
As a common, important element in history and life, wagons have been the subjects of artwork. Some examples are the paintings The Hay Wain, The Haywain Triptych and on the Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar.
 |
| A detail of The Hay wain by John Constable. By Sailko |
As the population of the Thirteen Colonies in America grew, people migrated westward looking for inexpensive lands and new opportunities. The wagon had to carry all the supplies for the trip and all a family's personal belongings.
A significant vehicle in the development of the American west made its first appearance in 1755 when George Washington and Edward Braddock, his English commander, needed transport for their baggage train. Preparing to move an army west through the Allegheny mountains to attack the French on the Ohio river, they acquired wagons built by German settlers in the Conestoga valley in west Pennsylvania.
Pulled by four or six horses and initially designed at first purely for freight, these wagons had the unusual feature of a floor dipping to a low point in the centre to avoid the cargo shifting on rough ground. For the same reason they had large broad wheels to cope with ruts and mud.
The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest set out on the Oregon Trail with a thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri in 1843. The Oregon Trail, which stretched 2,200 miles, was the longest of the land routes used in the Western expansion of the United States.
It took American settlers six months to reach the west coast by wagon during the 1840s.
 |
| Pioneers Crossing the Plains of Nebraska |
The renowned Conestoga wagon, the backbone of any Oregon Trail playthrough, was almost never used by westward settlers as it was too heavy to pass the soft prairie trails.
Ruts leftover from the wagon trains traveling the Oregon Trial, are still visible today.
During the first presidential campaign of William Jennings Bryan in 1892, candidates for elections In the Southern states of America would parade through the streets led by a band of musicians performing on a horse-drawn wagon. As a publicity stunt, a candidate would mount the wagon as it passed through his own constituency in an effort to woo voters. From this comes the phrase "climbing the bandwagon."
The phrase "On the wagon" refers to guards taking convicts to the gallows stopped off for a drink while the condemned was kept outside on a wagon.
In 1901 the British engineer Hubert Booth patented an electrically powered machine, which he demonstrated extracting dust from carpets by suction; he called it a 'vacuum cleaner'. The machine was mounted on a horse-drawn wagon, and was equipped with a long tube for access into buildings.
During a transition to mechanized vehicles from animal powered, the term wagon was sometimes used such as with the Duryea Motor Wagon. In modern times the term Station wagon survives as a type of automobile.
Also a wagon can be the connected vehicles attached to a locomotive containing freight. (Those carrying passengers are called carriages).
Here's a list of songs about wagons.
Source Historyworld
Very nice & knowledgeable post all features are defined in a good way for more detail
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