D-ring Harness Origins

[Carl Russell]

No I didn’t find anything more than Mitch had mentioned, but I did come across this old photo, probably circa 1930’s, showing the harness on a heavy work wagon. Rarely find examples of the harness in use from those days.

[Scott G]

That’s a helluva a load! Rolls of cable are some of the heaviest OTR loads there are.

[mitchmaine]

great picture carl. that does look like a load. also, i can see that the picture is curled, but by the line of window ledges and the curb, would you say the horses were actually holding the wagon back a bit? looks like a strain on the britchin. he looks like a young teamster. harness looks snug. what do you think of the harnessing job? the wagon is like a jigger wagon. only really heavy built. great picture, thanks carl. they have tons of old photographs up at the state museum, that i have heard about but too lazy to go look through. some cold blustery day i got to take a ride. mitch

[jac]

Great foto Carl… are those collars the high topped kind we have in Scotland by any chance or is that a local design ?? John

[Andy Carson]

Very interesting picture. If you follow the line from the front side straps though the d-ring onto the rear tugs up until they attach to what I presume to be a singletree, you will notice the line is almost perfectly straight. Most D-ring harnesses that I have seen in use of in photos have a shallow angle (maybe 5-15%) between the front side strap and the rear tug, which is assumed because of the weight of the pole or front of the cart. Maybe the tongue on this wagon is really light, but I would still think it would require a whole lot of tension to keep the line this straight. Perhaps this is just a difference is harnessing techique? Compared to more “modern” adjustments, it looks like the back straps are very long in the photo above, and the belly band is very loose. Perhaps the back band is so loose that part of the weight of the tongue is carried by the collar and britchen? This could explain why there appears to be tension on the britchen… I don’t know if this is intentional, but maybe having the harness set up this way would allow the horses to be more responsive to braking the wagon without allowing the wagon to gain momentum before the horse brakes. I would guess this would be more important in places where roads were good enough to allow horses to haul truly immense weights (as in the photo). Perhaps the D-ring was an early adaptation for hauling very heavy wagon loads? Maybe later, with a few adjustments, people found out it could be used for all sorts of other heavy draft applications? Just speculation…

[Andy Carson]

I am working on a theory that the d-ring (or early versions of the d-ring) are somehow associated with this type of underslung wagon. These types of wagons were called sloven wagons, or taber wagon as in the attached article. The main reason I think the two might be associated is that these underslung wagons were developed in new Brunswick and Maine in the late 1800s and early 1900s, which in a general way might correspond to a the time and place of the d-ring. That’s a big guess, but I thought I would float the idea. It looks like there are many designs for these underslung wagons, but at least one design (perhaps the origional design) attaches the front axle to the bed through heavy guage eyebolts (see the yellow wagon in the link below). They don’t illustrate how the pole is attached to the front axle but based on the shaft attachment which you can see in the third photo, I suspect it’s a solid attachment. That type of connection would provide lift to the pole, and could explain why it looks so light in carls photo and in photo number two in the link below, where I can’t really tell what is holding up the pole. With an eyebolt attaching the front axle to the bed and a simple fixed pole, pulling or braking would force the pole up or down somewha because of the wagon acting on the eyebolts. Perhaps early d-rings where an adaptation to keep the pole from swinging up and down or at least redistibute downward forces onto the saddle??? It should be noted that later designs of the underslung wagons, like the taber wagon, use different technology and/or beefy braced kingpins that seem less likely to cause this sort of front axle tilting. Carl’s photo though, shows the old style sloven-types where still in use many years after the invention of the improved versions. Again, I am not sure if these are linked to the d-ring, but it’s interesting to think about.
http://forum.scalemodelhorsedrawnvehicle.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1215

[mitchmaine]

they were called jigger wagons around here, and i have one without wheels. but they came in drop axles, where the axle dropped a foot or so down at the hub and passed under the wagon bed, or the straight axle jigger wagon where the wagon body was suspended under the axle by chains. i’ve only seen them as fifth wheel steering under cut into the body, but the may steer other ways. interesting theory that you havepresented. my inquiries have led to a dead end on the d-ring harness so far, but one thing i did discover is that the sled wagon, as it was called, or the double bob sled with cross chains that we recognize, was developed or invented by a jonas colby of moose river up in jackman (maine) in 1853 for hauling long wood. previous to that, wood was move on a single sled similar to carl and brads method.

[Andy Carson]

Did the users of the sled wagon use a d-ring or d-ring precurser in 1850? That would predate the underslung wagon (from what I’ve read) and it would blow my theory. Trying to think of regionally unique tools or situations and think about how a d-ring might have addressed problems unique to these tools or situations. Just guessing really.

[Michel Boulay]

A teamster neighbor of mine bought a wagon like that a couple of years back from an old fellow, they called it a sloven. He took it apart did some repairs and gave it a coat of paint and park it on the side of the road for a couple of months. Stored it for the winter that year but didn’t bring it out again. I’ll ask him about it and try and take pics to post.

Mike

[mitchmaine]

@Countymouse 31767 wrote:

Did the users of the sled wagon use a d-ring or d-ring precurser in 1850? That would predate the underslung wagon (from what I’ve read) and it would blow my theory. Trying to think of regionally unique tools or situations and think about how a d-ring might have addressed problems unique to these tools or situations. Just guessing really.

no mention of the d-ring harness with the sled wagon. and photos show d-ring back to about 1900, prior to that, photos show local harness seems to be side backer. nothing conclusive, but i have a number of a few historians who will certainly scratch their heads when i mention harness. if they bother to return the calls. maybe we will have tyo start calling it new brunswick d-ring harness.

[Andy Carson]

Mike, yes, pictures would be great, as I am mostly curious about how the front axle was attached to the wagon and how the pole was attached to the front axle on these early designs. I was suprized to read about how common these sloven wagons were, as I had never seen anything like them before, but they may have been common enough to cause a new type of harness to be developed. Later designs (like the taber) seem to forcus on “beefing up” or “bracing” the king pin type arrangement on the front axle and alter the geometry of how the pole is attached. I conclude that there is an intrinsic weakness in the origional design in this location. I think it is logical to conclude that there was some weakness in the origional pole attachment geometry as well, since this is also changed. The link I put in above mentions “front axle tilt” as a issue with the sloven design, but I don’t exactly what this means and don’t know if this would be solved by a different kingpin arrangment, a different pole arrangment, or both. How these designs might be addressed by a different harness is pretty speculative without some photos, diagrams, or descriptions of the origional sloven design. I looked at the taber design and have had a hard time coming up with a rational explaination as to why that wouldn’t work very well with a western style harness. Also, in old photos of the taber design, it seems some people use non-d-ring harnesses.

[mitchmaine]

hey andy,

there is a difference between king pins, like auto steering, and a king bolt, which is one bolt centered in the axle to steer the axle separate from the wagon body. the body of these jigger wagons was flat parralell to the ground and hung under the front x. the rear axle was the drop or crank axle and interrestingly weren’t hooked to each other by any means but the body itself. the maine archives has a silas taber who might be our taber guy. he was a potato farmer from houlton, and apparently the jigger wagon, by way of local lore has it that it was designed for potato barrels. and taber just fit a better front axle on it. here in our part of the state, sloven was a common term for a sled and dray. funny that.
on the d-ring, i gat ahold of one historian (who was only a couple nyears older than me), and the one who he said could have told me the story passed away two years ago. i’ve had a long time to ask this question and should have when i had the chance. funny how you lose cofidence in a historian who is only your age.
has anybody thought to ask les barden about the origin of the harness? i’d believe anything he said.

[Michel Boulay]

Mitch, I have yet to see any D-ring harness here in New-Brunswick, have mention it to a couple of teamsters, even a harness maker and they don’t seem to have any knowledge of this kind of harness. But that is only a few people that I have ask. There is an Agricultural Fair in Sainte-Marie de Kent NB with a horse pull competition and horse showing. Been going there for the past twenty some years and have never seen a D-ring. Maybe its a harness that was around but is in no use anymore??? I’m curious about that and will certainly inquire more. The Fair’s web site is http://www.expokent.ca for your curiosity.

Andy, I will certainly get around to taking some pics of the sloven. Depending on where it is stored I don’t know when I will be able though. I google “sloven wagon” and came up with several web sites with info on these wagons. They still use at least one that you see in a picture at the Acadian Historic Village to transport visitors. Most of them are single but there is a pic of four in hand.

Mike

[Andy Carson]

thanks mike. That there aren’t any d-ring type harnesses in NB, even amung experienced harness makers and teamsters, pretty much blows my theory about the d-ring being linked somehow to a sloven or similar underslung wagon as in Carl’s photo… I am happy that the harness seems to appear around 1900. I think the people were very serious about horse power at the time and the d-ring is probably a response to a specific problem. Interesting thing is that there were lots of horse related inventions at the time, many of them quite creative and advertised aggressively. The taber wagon is a good example of this as you can still Google up the taber diagrams. I haven’t seen any historical ads for the d-ring, though. Interesting, ESP at a time when horses and harnesses were so important. Maybe the origional makers or designers thought of the d-ring as a specific solution to a specific problem, and might not have wide appeal. If this is the case, we might get a clue by looking at old (as old as possible) photos of horses in d-rings. Are they hauling similar things? I think this is a mystery that we can solve, or at least come up with a likely explanation.

[Carl Russell]

I spoke to Les Barden today about this. He is unaware of any direct source for the origins of the D-ring harness. He guesses that it may have been developed between 1900-1930. He thinks it may have played on the Boston Belly Backer. We talked about looking for old hardware manufacturers who would have made the D-ring itself to put into the harness.

Andy, he was especially appreciative of your discussion about draft deflection pressure. There are several factors associated with the design of the D-ring harness that make it hard to believe that the original designer just stumbled on this by trying something. It is entirely likely that a very intelligent and thoughtful harness maker, or engineer (as horses were still the primary source of power) who took into consideration the inefficiencies and complications associated with fitting harnesses to live animals in the application of power. He may have never really gained any notoriety as the decline of the working horse combined with the somewhat complicated nature of the harnessing system.

One comment that Les made was that he remembers the harness on horses in the 1930’s, but doesn’t recall whether they were harnessed with any purposeful fitting. Over the years he says that he put a lot of thought into seeing the ways that the design could be applied, but that he has never yet met anyone who actually could give him any insight beyond what he determined by himself. This is not a comment about his own intellect as much as his observation that any significant knowledge about the correct adjustment of the harness basically was obsolete years ago.

I have some photos of other horses in the d-ring farming etc, an they may give more food for thought….. when I have another chance.

Carl

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