Cart

A cart is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by one or a pair of draught animals. A handcart is pulled or pushed by one or more people. It is different from a dray or wagon, which is a heavy transport vehicle with four wheels and typically two or more horses, or a carriage, which is used exclusively for transporting humans.'Carreta', a type of cart of Argentina, 1864Cart with iron wheels in a farm at Chinawal village, IndiaA charrette, a wooden French cart (Cévennes)A horsecart in Santiago de CubaAn iron-tyred wooden-spoked cart wheelA simple wooden cart in AustraliaA Chinese Sui Dynasty (581–618 AD) cart figurine pulled by a bullMormon handcart pioneers crossing the Platte River, modern reenactment of 1856 expeditionA walking cart, used for long distance travel, seen at Michigan's Mackinac BridgeClay cart figurines, Catacomb culture, 3 mill. BC A cart is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by one or a pair of draught animals. A handcart is pulled or pushed by one or more people. It is different from a dray or wagon, which is a heavy transport vehicle with four wheels and typically two or more horses, or a carriage, which is used exclusively for transporting humans. Over time, the term 'cart' has come to mean nearly any small conveyance, from shopping carts to golf carts or UTVs, without regard to number of wheels, load carried, or means of propulsion. The draught animals used for carts may be horses, donkeys or mules, oxen, and even smaller animals such as goats or large dogs. Carts have been mentioned in literature as far back as the second millennium B.C. The Indian sacred book Rigveda states that men and women are as equal as two wheels of a cart. Handcarts pushed by humans have been used around the world. In the 19th century, for instance, some Mormons traveling across the plains of the United States between 1856 and 1860 used handcarts. The history of the cart is closely tied to the history of the wheel. Carts were often used for judicial punishments, both to transport the condemned – a public humiliation in itself (in Ancient Rome defeated leaders were often carried in the victorious general's triumph) – and even, in England until its substitution by the whipping post under Queen Elizabeth I, to tie the condemned to the cart-tail and administer him or her a public whipping. Tumbrils were commonly associated with the French Revolution as a mobile stage elevating the condemned on the way to the guillotine: this was simply a continuation of earlier practice when they were used as the removable support in the gallows, before Albert Pierrepoint calculated the precise drop needed for instant severance of the nerve column. Larger carts may be drawn by animals, such as horses, mules, or oxen. They have been in continuous use since the invention of the wheel, in the 4th millennium BC. Carts may be named for the animal that pulls them, such as horsecart or oxcart. In modern times, horsecarts are used in competition while draft horse showing. A dogcart, however, is usually a cart designed to carry hunting dogs: an open cart with two cross-seats back to back; the dogs could be penned between the rear-facing seat and the back end. The term 'cart' (synonymous in this sense with chair) is also used for various kinds of lightweight, two-wheeled carriages, some of them sprung carts (or spring carts), especially those used as open pleasure or sporting vehicles. They could be drawn by a horse, pony or dog. Examples include: The builder of a cart may be known as a cartwright; the surname 'Carter' also derives from the occupation of transporting goods by cart or wagon.Carts have many different shapes, but the basic idea of transporting material (or maintaining a collection of materials in a portable fashion) remains. Carts may have a pair of shafts, one along each side of the draught animal that supports the forward-balanced load in the cart. The shafts are supported by a saddle on the horse. Alternatively (and normally where the animals are oxen or buffalo), the cart may have a single pole between a pair of animals. The draught traces attach to the axle of the vehicle or to the shafts. The traces are attached to a collar (on horses), to a yoke (on other heavy draught animals) or to a harness on dogs or other light animals.