Model of a tipping cart, c. 1750

Model of a tipping cart.

Model of a tipping cart, c. 1750. This model cart is associated with Dr. Stephen Demainbray (1710-1782), a lecturer on experimental philosophy to King George III. He may have acquired it during his time in France in 1750.

This is a model of a tipping cart which is made of mahogany. It may well originate from France and is believed to be one of the demonstration models which were used by Stephen Demainbray, an itinerant lecturer on 'Experimental Philosophy' between 1749 and 1769 and tutor to the future King George III, before they later became part of the King's own collection. Demainbray contributed to the 'road debate' of the 1750s in which the size of wheel rims and their effects on the poor state of the roads became a very contentious issue after the passing of the Broad Wheels Act of 1753. This model shows the French fashion for putting iron pins in the narrow wheel rims, a practice which the model-maker and lecturer in natural philosophy, J. T. Desaguliers, disapproved of because it churned up the roads far more than the larger, slower, broad-wheeled vehicles which, after the passing of the Act, received preferential tolls. The axle of the cart's body is above and in front of the wheels' axle. The body can be fastened by pinning two pieces of mahogany between the shafts.