Blog 03-Chariot Stages II and III 03-28-22
With the development of the chariot after its invention as Stage I circa 1745 BCE, we have both reasonably good information of what improvements were made and archaeological artifacts depicting these, but also not as accurate a timeline as we would wish. I will therefore give a general overview, realizing exact details for all stages are not available.
The improvements can be grouped into two categories. The first was the wheel. The initial wheel was too small; it did not allow the chariot to maneuver on anything but a flat-surface battlefield. That was too restricting.
Therefore, the first development was enlarging the wheel. That meant inventing a bent-around wooden rim. That was resolved by developing a steam chamber. The rim was initially a long, flat board. Sections of it were soaked in steam, which allowed the section to be bent around a form. However, this had to be done quickly as the board hardened as it cooled, thus requiring multiple cycles in the chamber. Initially, as the wheel enlarged, the number of spokes remained at four, but with the additional space added to the rim, the number grew to six.
The initial spoke design had an intermittent issue. Not all spokes were equally durable. If the branch used to make the spoke had a defect in its length – such as a knot in the wood, that spoke was fragile. To increase the dependability of spokes, each spoke was doubled in length and cut in half lengthwise. It then went into the steam chamber to be bent into a “V” shape with a ninety-degree bend in it. Each end of the “V” was mated with another “V” next to it around the wheel. Thus four “V’s” made a complete set of spokes. Even if one half of any spoke had a defect, the was ameliorated by it the strength of the mating side of that spoke. How did they attach the two sides? By using leather wrappings. (Remember, they didn’t have glues strong enough for the compression-rebound cycles of the wheel.)
The second design development was decoupling the chariot bed from the axle. Initially the bed carrying the riders was a hard wooden platform resting on top of the axle. That was heavy in weight and transferred any shock immediately to the shooter, influencing his aim. The chariot tongue was also directly attached to the axle, transferring shock to the horses. By moving the bed from on top of to in front of the axle, the bed’s weight was reduced by using a reed wicker design for its floor. This had several design improvements. First, it reduced the overall weight of the chariot to about seventy-five pounds. Second, it made the bed flexible, in effect giving it a “shock-absorber” resiliency by stretching out any ground effects over time. Last, by moving the tongue coupling from the axle to the front of the bed, it further improved the “shock-absorber” effect of the chariot bed.
The Florence Museum had an excellent exhibit available for a screen-view of a stage II Egyptian chariot. Search: ‘florence museum evolution of an egyptian chariot 18th dynasty.”