The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-09-12
EVOLUTION OF THE SULKY.
DAN HFTFIELD TELLS TIE STORY
FROM EUFFOLK's DAT TO ALIx'S.


The Old Gray Trottor Pulled . dig OF 125
Pounds - Modern Pneumatics Arc 100
Pounds Liwhter-The First sulky without
sprinEs-Bent AxIos Suggested by Mace.
In the smoker Of the train that took New
York horsemen up to Goshen on the day OF the
Patche Gentry pacing race. old Dan Het-
field tilted back his stii-brimmod. soft
crowned hat: laid his feet across the other
seat, pulled out big black cigar and started
In TO toll the story Of the evolution OF the sulky.
Hstfeld halls from Railway and 10 noted all
over Jersey as Judge Of game chickens. trot-
ting horses aud local political prospects. He
dates back to tho days OF Lady Suffolk and
Hiram Woodruff. and was one OF the first OF
the old-tims whselrights who made business
OF building track sulkies for trotters.
"Yes, I've seen the trottinR record lowered
from 2:3O to 2:03k In my day" said he. and
want to tell you that the man who builds sui
kiss has had just about as much TODD with II az
the man who breeds trotters or the man who
trains and drtvea 'sm. You young fellows that
were hugRln' bottle and cuttin' teeth about
the time Goldsmith's Maid was outtin' the
record down to 2:14. don't know what It cant
for horse to trot In 2:30 back In 1916. when
old Suffolk was on ton. without saying word
about the old tracks with their fiat turns. or
and rigging to balance horse. Just let ME try
to tell you what track sulky was like In those
days. You didn't see any pneumatic tires and
arched truss axles. braced all over with steel
tubing. Not much
Tho sulky old Suffolk pulled mpst have
weighed 1875 pounds. 1t had straight axle
made OF hickory with steol ends driven into
the wood about fifteen inches. The seat was
set up high from the axle, and rested On heavy
springs. good deal like one OF these hackney
gigs you see IN Central Park nowadays. The
factis. there were no real eulkies in those days.
They were only light gigs. and not very light
at that. The wheels were five feet high. with
spokss over an inch thick; hubs that were four
inches through and nearly seven inches long.
and the tires were pretty close to an inch wide.
The crossbar was set away forward, and per-
fsctly straight. and the shafts were bent only
very little. Nowadays. OF course. the shafts
and the ss-bar are curved to At the horse.
"Isupposs trotter had TO be hooked any
whore from eighteen inches to two feet further
away from the sulky In those times. to avoid
cro os That wa. 6ie handicap to O. spSsd.
for the sulky was a whole lot harder to pull.
and then 1t would sway and slip aud culver on
and pretty near throw the driver of his perch.
The system of bracihg was nothing at al in
Why Why they " used to raise the seat away up two
feet or m ore above the axle with hardly anything
thew Gd1 n.
horse. BTscing ( pretty near n. main ihias
years that the secret OF sulky building is to dis
tribute the braoine SO a. to put an equal strain
oblss you r to take Oh weight Without losing
snlky. RS i'm proved braclns more than any.
thing elise that has cut down the weight Of ths
track sulky from 125 pounds In Lady Suffolks
day to about thirty pounds or even tyenty-1ve
Peter Dubois made the FIRST track sulky
ever saw without springs. That was some
where ABOUT 1859. ! would say at a guess.
cause 1t let the drivers seat down and made
the vehicle much more rigid. think that
place OF the old hck DRY axle. but won't be sure.
Anyhow. wood or iron. the axle was as straight
as gun barrel and tho horse had to be hooked
ssulky :, for Flora Temole, as I rem n',s
wheelbarrow between her legs when she was
goinE fss, To- To give her plenty o; room ior
common i think !. Weighed eiehty:ars or
ninety pounds. After the springs had been
done away with. the next great improvements
was the bow nX It's a disnuted question as TO
nal toW az nv va. saw.i out Of the butt {"
plank by your humble servant. l tried to get II
to the grain OF the Eo9 3d., as near as
through the axle. This was about the year
George N. Patchsn He took the Patchen
sulky down to the Camden fair and 1t attraaeted
a lot 81 attention among horsemen. Dan Mace
scheme Of bending the, wood Instead Of saving
BY the time Dexter came out these bent
axles were all the go. Either Cadrey or Dp-
S thu %Id t ah.t dny a Rose s
pounds. and was built and braced quite a bit
like the bust Of the, old high whs el sulkiea.
1t a great deal more rigid than the old ones.
and the axle was srched up SO that the horse
brsced from the AK to the shafts in several
places, distributing the strain and doing away
with the weight In the old sulkies It was
inches long and the shafts we're attached to
these braces about half way up. so TINT the
There were great improvements in bracing
after Dexter's day. and the axles were bent
higher and higher until you could run the
him hit. 1t. The improvement in braces was
mainly in making them lighter and using more
sulky YOU will flnd about a dozen on the seat
! and axle alone. The very best Norway iron is
used for brace ends and is welded to steel mid
The lIsh.es!s high wheel suIki.ss were sald to
pounds guess. The average sulky In general
every day use weighed nearer, 50 pounds than
20. Goldsmith Maid trctted to her record
! 80 pounds, In Maud SIS day tho weight had
| hsen cut down to AZ pounds or thereabouts
| By this time they had brought out the truss
axle. which lightsnad and strengthened a
double bar spread apart by means Of short
braces In the middle and brought together at
| the ends where it runs down to the place where
| the wheels 20 on. A truss axle can be arched
| higher than any other and It IL in almost uni
versal use among sulky builders at present.
| 1T seems strange that Nancy Hanks should
have pulled heavier sulky than either Maud
| &. or Sunol when she cut the worlds record
down to 2 'o4. But that's Just what she did.
converted int Pneumatic. and tbss
| weight to something like 80 pounds Some
| OF those converted bikes that were rugged up
| In 1892 inst after the pneumatic wheels came
| out weighed as much as 80 pounds, but they
were much easier than a 40-pound sulky OF
the old style with high wheels. l have heard
Monroe Salisbury say the fastest pneumatic
! sulky he ever saw was one OF those heavy
converted things. My opinion Ia that weigh,
doesn't cut ope-half tho figure it did before The
pneumatic wheels came into use, Some Of tbs
| lighteSt snlkies nowadays are built SO light
| that It isn't possible to make them stiff anC
| rigid Think OF q sulky that only weighs "a