"flying horses", "exercise", "quadrille" -- and "fandango" 1831

Thu Aug 11 19:51:38 UTC 2011

George,

The "exercise" reference seems explained by the item below, the most
forthcoming of the quotations I've seen.  I looked at Early American
Newspapers (where I too found the 1796 citation) and 19th Century
American Newspapers.

1831:  Daily National Intelligencer, (Washington, DC) Thursday,
November 17, 1831; Issue 5860; col E   [19th C. Amer. Newspapers]

      Flying Horses.
This interesting exercise is found to be productive both of Health
and Amusement.
      The Proprietor, Mr. T. Clarke, respectfully informs the Ladies
and Gentlemen of Washington and vicinity, that he intends giving an
exhibition of the
      Flying Horses,
      At Carusi's Assembly Rooms, on Tuesday, Nov 8,
      For the Exercise and Pleasure of Riding and Catching the Ring
on the Point of a Sword, practised as an exercise between two or four
persons. It is an interesting exercise, and at the same time
conducive to health.
      Physicians have recommended the Swing Car of Diana, Fandango,
and many other inventions, for exercise and health; but to all of
them there has been some particular objection made, which this
invention obviates. the Proprietor invites the attention of the
inhabitants of this vicinity to the trial of his Domesticated Horses,
and every attention will be paid to their pleasure and convenience.

["Ring[s]" is similar to later carousels (e.g., the 1876 Coney
Island/now at Martha's Vineyard "Flying Horses" carousel; see
Wikipedia).  Thus I infer this exercise apparatus is not some kind of
swing, unlike Dan's, but rather rotating.  "Four persons" presumably
explains George's "quadrille" mention; additionally, the OED
associates both "quadrille" and "carousel" with equestrian
displays/exercises.  Genteel enough -- and easy enough on the dance
flooring? -- to be conducted in an Assembly Room, and ridden by
Ladies.  But was this apparatus propelled by the riders, or by a
motor?  "Carousel" dates from 1673, with the quotation using the
words "invencon" and "engines"; "merry-go-round" dates from 1729 and
next 1807.  Were these propelled by motors, live horses or other
draft animals (unlikely in an Assembly Room, surely), or the riders' feet?]

["Swing-car" probably refers to something like those on a
Ferris-wheel.  The Friends' Intelligencer, Vol. 31, allegedly 1875
[Google Books} has the following:

Merry-go-rounds, and a gigantic wheel-apparatus, with a swing-car
suspended from each spoke, are very popular.

Note that the first "Ferris-wheel" was 1893 (Wikipedia).  Does the
1875 device antedate it?]

"Fandango" 1831:  The OED doesn't appear to have any invention under
"fandango", just the dance etc.

There are a number of additional mentions of a "flying horse[s]"
devices in EAN and 19th C. Amer. Newspapers, from the 1830s and on.

Hazard's register of Philadelphia, 1835, appears to say that flying
horses were illegal in Philadelphia at that time.  [Google Books]

Joel

At 8/11/2011 11:22 AM, George Thompson wrote:
>My past, I think, is pretty much coeval with yours; but we don't go back to
>the late 18th century.
>
>I do suppose that these flying horses were a merry-go-round, but I am
>puzzled as to how they could have operated so as to be a source of exercise
>for the riders.  A back-and-forth swing is exercise, either in kicking one's
>feet against the ground at the nadir, or in throwing one's body back and
>forth to move the center of gravity.  The riders on the railroad at Hoboken
>in the 1830s sat in the car and moved it by turning a hand crank.  this must
>have worked either by turning the wheels the car rolled on, (like pedalling
>a bicycle), or by turning a cogwheel under the car that engaged something on
>the track.
>
>In a modern fair, we might see wooden horses sitting on a circular disk
>which is rotated by a motor at the center, or wooden horses hanging from a
>ribwork that's spun by a motor.
>In the second contraption, without a motor, the riders could get exercise
>and move themselves and each other by kicking against the ground; if there
>were riders on several horses they would balance the thing and could move it
>a bit faster by coordinating their kicks than a single rider could, but
>still they wouldn't get the effect of centrifugal force that a motorized
>ride does.
>The first could, I suppose, be moved by hand cranks like the ride at
>Hoboken, but sitting on a wooden horse at the outside of a 25 or 30 foot
>radius disk while pedalling to move the disk doesn't sound like much fun,
>even for people who thought that going 8 miles an hour was going too fast.
>
>There's also the example of the Steeplechase ride at Steeplechase Park at
>Coney Island, which I was actually on, when a little boy.  Long gone, now,
>since the mid-50s.  In that ride, there were 5 or 6 horses each on a
>separate track that ran around the outside of a large building.  Each horse
>moved independently.  It was powered by gravity, but I suppose on a level
>track the horses could have been moved by pedalling.   I rode the thing with
>my father on the next horse, and quickly noticed that I could count on
>beating him to the finish line if I took the horse nearest the building.
>  This shows that I had the mental acuity to have been a successful jockey,
>and if only I hadn't grown to be 6'2" and weigh 200 lbs, I might have had a
>very different career than I have had.
>
>GAT
>
>On Wed, Aug 10, 2011 at 11:50 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> > At 8/10/2011 04:40 PM, George Thompson wrote:
> >
> >>      Presumably these were all some sort of Whirligig, or Roundabout, or
> >> Merry-go-round, &c.; though perhaps some sort of a back-and-forth swing?
> >>
> >
> > I definitely associate "flying horses" with carousels
> > (merry-go-rounds), not swings.  The ones that go up and down as the
> > merry go round. (That is, I must have heard or read it at some
> > time.)  But perhaps this is too far in the past for you young
> > whipper-snappers.
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > ------------------------------**------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
>--
>George A. Thompson
>Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ.
>Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org