D-ring Harness Origins

[Carl Russell]

I thought it would be good to post a few pics of the three forms of D-rings that I consider to be within the defined area of research that I am looking for. As we can see from many pictures the D-ring seems to have been manufactured into traces as early as 1890’s. However it still remains a mystery if the original manufacturers actually intended it to be used within a harnessing system such as we know it today, including front and rear traces, front and rear side straps, back pad/saddle, and belly band.

This first one is what I consider to be the early form of the “modern” D-ring. This is an example of what I see in the harness in the Bellows Falls VT 1907 photo, as well as the one from Woodstock 1890. As I pointed out to Mark, I have no actual information to back this up, but my feeling has always been that this was the earliest rendition, leading to the others later. Maybe we will find out about this at some point. In this picyutre you can see front and rear trace attached with clips, and the loop for attaching the rear side strap is empty.

I took this picture in the dark of my barn, so upon reflection it isn’t the style I thought, but what I thought I was capturing was a complete ring with a through-bolt for the rear trace. I am sure I have one like that and will get it.

This is the style I use currently. A brass D-ring (about 3/8″ dia stock) with a through-bolt for the rear trace, and an attachment for the rear side-strap. As you can see, because of the converging angles and related stresses that Andy has described, the ends of the straps and traces take some abuse. The belly strap is not included in this picture, but you can see that the ring can get pretty full of leather.

Carl

[Andy Carson]

Carl,
Good idea to post the D-ring examples. I agree that the West Failee (1907) example had this, but I can’t be sure about the Woodstock (1890) photo. I went to the vt historical site and zoomed in. The front of the ring is definately round, and the attachment to the rear tugs is strait, but my view of the britchen attachment is blocked by the rear tug. It looks like it’s not type 2 or 3 (from your photos). The steep angle that the britchen strap assumes, and the fact that it is twisted, makes me think it’s not a type 1 arrangement either. With a type 1 ring, everything is sewn in solid and who would sew in a half twist? I am not sure what to make of the woodstock photo. Also, it looks like a bolt might run through the rear tug attachment. Hard to interpret…

[Carl Russell]

Andy, your comment about the twisted breeching strap makes me want to clarify that only front and rear traces are stitched to the D-ring. The rear side-strap (breeching), belly band, back-pad strap, and front side strap are all just looped on.

I found one of the rings with the through bolt…. You should be able to see a bend where the ring meets the squared loop so that the rear trace and breeching strap are not in the same plane. The Through-bolt is where the rear trace attaches, and the breeching strap attaches to the square loop.

These babies are actually hand-made, which may add some more confusion to dating this innovation….. If this is the earliest style, they may have been individually made by blacksmiths for local harness makers….

I also got thinking about these hand made D-rings considering that in all of the New England pictures I’ve looked through, the ones from VT, NH, ME are more likely to have the D-ring (at least in the traces), than any of the set-ups from Boston, NYC, or other urban settings.

I’m beginning to think that this may have been a real hill-country, hand-made, innovation propagated within the circles of interstate commerce and interaction between blacksmiths, harness makers, and horsemen. This may be a partial explanation for why we see it in use, but not in the Harness Review, nor in catalogs, nor in the patent office. This may also explain why Les Barden didn’t see them in a commercial setting until 1930’s. (Of course this is all conjecture…… just my mind working over the variables).

Carl

[mitchmaine]

your theory seems to make sense carl. we SEEM to have one very distinctive set of harness show up clear across northern new england with no historical record or documentation of any kind. we could be missing important clues, and probably are, but they(the missing clues) just may prove your argument. historical societys here all seem to close up for the winter making the job difficult and its nearly impossible to get into the state prison(that is probably a good thing), but the old state prison, along with the harness shop and all its history are gone forever, along with, saddly, most of the oldtimers who could simplify our job greatly. still at it, mitch

[Andy Carson]

Interesting… looking at these, esp the ones with the long bolts, convinces me that the Woodstock photo is a d-ring too. I agree with your interpretation of this being a rural invention. It is very interesting that the horse community in general recognized the need for an invention of this type (as evidenced by the similar patents). Despite this need, the many people did not adopt this design at all for maybe 50 years. Even now the adoption is pretty regional. It’s amazing to be that such a potentially important innovation could have been kept secret (or nearly secret) through the golden age of horse usage… I might have thought people might not be open to new hitching ideas, but the photos and harness catalog dispute this idea. I keep trying to think of some sort of disadvantage that might have slowed it’s spread, but haven’t been able to come up with anything other than that it might be harder on the leather and that it might have been outcompeted by mass produced harness in many areas of the country. I am not sure if this is enough…

[Carl Russell]

So I observed another phenomenon in some vintage photos from Maine. http://www.vintagemaineimages.com/bin/Detail?ln=13883

This picture says it is from 1895 logging in Maine. It shows a Side-backer style, but the side strap is broken by a ring, making front and rear side straps, while the traces are on solid piece.

This has no date, but shows the same thing…

This is one missing link for me…. in some cases we have traces separated by a D-ring, and in some other cases now we see side straps separated with a round ring. It seems that these innovations were applied to simplify repair, and probably save on leather. With these two options available it seems like it wouldn’t require much to inadvertently come across a decision that would combine both.

Still no back pad…it seems pole weight is not a very big deal in the scheme of things.

Nice load.

Carl

[mitchmaine]

hey carl, in your photos, does nthe grey horse have a split rear tug as well? i zoomed way in on it and where the belly strap hooks in it almost looks like another ring hiding beneath the sidestrap. as well as two belly bands? i can’t tell.

anyway, i got a phonecall from a very nice lady at the maine state museum. i called a day or two ago with our question about d-ring. and she said (she is the photography curator) that she searched d-ring harness and said she came up with state prison catalogs from 1896, 1886, and 1881 with price lists on d-ring. there was also a mention or something in the 1868 caqtalog pertaining to d-ring. but she didn’t pull up anything, and we haven’t seen anything yet so all bets are holding for the moment. she gave me an appointment for next tues. afternoon. we’ll see what she can show us. she also has 24000 photos related to harness. we are still looking for the origin, true? the photos are always great and if she comes up with an earlier true d-ring i’ll see if i can download some. and maybe there is an explanation to the mystery square d harness we have been running in to. the state prison made all kinds of harness and shipped out one or two set per week. their true or later d-ring was leather, naturally, and very heavy, as i recall. bio and nylon are half the weight. i still have my grand dads d-ring hanging in the cellar over the freezer. more later, mitch

[PhilG]

OK, I want to know why all these loads are so HUGE ! I want to see a load of logs like that being pulled in 2012, otherwise I am just going to asume that they loaded up some extra logs for the photo and then trimmed down for the pull. Or maybe I just need to trade in my belly backers for D rings?

[Tim Harrigan]

I know in some cases they would ice down the skid trails for easier travel.

[Carl Russell]

@PhilG 32027 wrote:

OK, I want to know why all these loads are so HUGE ! I want to see a load of logs like that being pulled in 2012, otherwise I am just going to asume that they loaded up some extra logs for the photo and then trimmed down for the pull. Or maybe I just need to trade in my belly backers for D rings?

Phil I agree with you………… you should trade in the belly-backers :p

No I do agree with you, I’d love to see a load like that in 2012. My terrain is too steep around here for double sleds, but I am going to be trying to get some good loads on my single sled this winter….

I saw way too many large loads like these to think they were just for show. Remember this was the only way they moved stuff, with horses, and they took it seriously. Also on frozen roads they could move so much more than on dirt, they made it count.

Carl

[karl t pfister]

Yeah really big loads of logs moved on the best sledding days especially with two teams hooked together on the tough hills then just 2
horses on the flatter sections of road . at least that is what I was told happened down here in the Londonderry VT area .

We also have a Swedish connection here dating into the 1880’s ? The state of Vermont did send emissaries there ,to encourage
men to come and work in the woods . sorry I can’t contribute to the origin discussion ,but

Thanks for the great research guys, especially for all the photos !! Karl

[mitchmaine]

@PhilG 32027 wrote:

OK, I want to know why all these loads are so HUGE ! I want to see a load of logs like that being pulled in 2012, otherwise I am just going to asume that they loaded up some extra logs for the photo and then trimmed down for the pull. Or maybe I just need to trade in my belly backers for D rings?

One of the best parts of this thread are all the logging/team photos generated by it. Scott golden posted a bunch on face book that were really great showing loading bob sleds with a gin pole. That was one step that was always missing for me. I had seen lots of the photos of the big loads and wondered how the heck did they get that wood up there. Some logbrow.
phil, there is a short film that you can find on youtube about logging in the 1930’s called stump to ship, and it show lots of big sleds and big loads moving lots of wood. The thing I tend to forget sometimes is the available manpower that logging companies had to cut and yard wood with. We seemed locked in a mindset today of one farmer or one logger doing the work of ten with some monster machine, and certainly the economics seem against us. like tim said, they had whole crews dedicated to freezing stretches of road at night, or putting hay down on steep bits.
I found a photograph of a man at the top of the hill paying out snubline to an invisible load of logs going down a ravine, and the birch his rope was set around looked like it would burst into flame any second. That must have been a fun job. All those photographs can seem unbelievable at times. The size of the loads and the slope of the hillsides. Riverdrivers sleeping on the banks of the river in their wet boots so the boots wouldn’t freeze solid during the night. Who were those guys? Our greatgrandparents.

[Andy Carson]

The loads are impressive. I looked up the friction coefficient of steel on ice and got 0.03 static and 0.015 dynamic (from http://www.tribology-abc.com/abc/cof.htm). This is in the range of car tires on pavement! On the flat, this would mean it would take 60 lbs draft per ton to start a load and only 30 lbs per ton to keep it going. Horses exerting 600 lbs force could move 20 tons. Mild slopes would have a huge effect at these weights and the roadway would have to be very well planned to be nearly level or downhill (with hay or snublines) throughout. I think this is an intellectually accomplishment for the people who figured this system out, hard work too, but there was alot of thought, planning, and technology as well.

[Claddagh Farms]

What a great thread!!

I chose the D-Ring years ago based on information presented on this site. Then I moved to Maine.
The farm I bought here has been around since the 1790’s at least, although not in it’s present state. The house I live in was built in 1840. Montville supplied the shipping industry in Belfast with wood workers, tool smiths, blacksmiths and all sorts working in the town. The original barn for this farm was huge by all accounts. It was in great dis-repair in the 60’s when it was burnt/torn down. Apparently it held a veritable museum of local craft & harness parts. A sad loss to this discussion.

There are some photos of various owners in the late 1800’s in front of the farm with their horses. I am trying to track them down. I will work harder now, to see what sort of harness these horses are in.

When I asked Elmin Mitchel over to help me hook my horse, one day, he was surprised to see a “Yankee Harness”. He said no one ever uses them any more and they were a rare thing to begin with. He congratulated me on my choice. He started working on my farm in 1939, aged 10. He kept on working here because of the teams and the harness. The farmer he worked for was older and had ties to the farm dating back to the owner of the house in the 1890’s. I’ll ask Elmin if he can remember the D-ring being used on this farm, in this part of Maine when he was young. I’ll also check into the photos.

The D-Ring is perfect for my farm in particular as it all slopes down hill. I’ve often wondered why they built the new, better house where they did in the 1840’s, on the middle of a ridge. It is very well laid out. Someone spent a lot of time discerning where the sun fell during the year to choose building and field placement. But the long, uphill drive, which at one point must have been circular for wagons and sleighs to pull up in front of the main entry, screams for the D-ring’s benefits. It’s a hard pull uphill for one horse, and trouble going down. I won’t pull my manure spreader down hill on the drive with the team fully loaded, least it run up on them. I couldn’t imagine a taking the family out in the sleigh with ice underfoot, as must have once been done.

[mitchmaine]

keep digging neal. i am trying the thomaston historical folks, because the prison was there, and they made that type harness. but we may never know. and thats ok too, cause its a wonderful bit of harness all by itself. i went to a sleigh rally here a month ago. over a dozen teams carting people all over (without snow of course), and i did a silent survey, and not one yankee harness in the lot. mostly belly backer and a couple side backer. in maine. go figure.
elmin is a great resourse for about anything. you must know g.w. ? and scott king just moved up that way. he and i used to cut timberframes together.

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