Phaeton (carriage) Phaeton (carriage) A phaeton (also phaéton) was a form of sporty open carriage popular in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Drawn by one or two horses, a phaeton typically featured a minimal very lightly sprung body atop four extravagantly large wheels. With open seating, it was both fast and dangerous, giving rise to its name, drawn from the mythical Phaëton, son of Helios, who nearly set the earth on fire while attempting to drive the chariot of the sun. With the advent of the automobile, the term was adapted to open touring cars, also known as phaetons. The
Lorry (horse-drawn) were two-horse vehicles, partly because of the weight carried but also because the roll-resistance of the very small wheels had to be overcome. For the same reason, it was primarily an urban vehicle so that, on the paved roads, the small wheels were not an insurmountable handicap. In any case, the axles were sprung. As in many fields, as time went by, people used the word perhaps without understanding its detailed meaning, so that it became applied less precisely and other configurations were given the name. By 1911, as the motor-propelled lorry (a kind of truck) developed, a pedant would