fooey on automobile history

[ritaxis]

Went haring off to find out how automobile side windows opened at the turn of the century . . . to discover that they didn't have side windows, or any sufficient protection tio drive around in winter time, until the 20s, which is kind of too late.

How on earth am I to transport Yanek and the Duke's children around the landscape in the middle of winter then?  They'll freeze if they have to drive in an open car for several hours.  Carriages?  What about the horses?  Didn't they suffer horribly in that cold?

Comments

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I remember reading instructions on how to lay up a car for winter, and that pertained in the UK certainly until between WWI and WWII. Not everyone would, of course, but the idea that you drove all year round and that cars were for routine travel rather than for pleasure driving was only just becoming the norm.

Horses are fine in cold weather as long as it's cold and dry. So they do better in a European or Russian winter than a British one, though they're fine in the UK as long as they're stabled and dried off thoroughly after work and fed well. Mud is the enemy of travel in winter and snow and ice can be helpful. With the right shoes, horses cope perfectly well in snow and on ice and in cold climates they would pull sleighs rather than carriages in winter.

Horses' ability to gallop on snow has been turned into the sport of ski joering.

This might be exactly what you want. A horse-drawn sleigh outside a house in Hughesovka in 1900. Hughesovka, which is in the Ukraine was, bizarrely, founded by a Welshman named Hughes. I would think the climate would be about right for your story and as you can see, the passengers are all wrapped up in furs with furry hats.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Going from memory of anecdote here, but my dad's first car -- bought right after WW2 -- was of a model that could be fitted with an optional heater, which added about 10% to the cost of the vehicle! So most folks did without and drove wearing a heavy coat.