Joseph Hansom was an accomplished architect, his designs included the Birmingham Town Hall and some of England’s most beautiful churches. But he is best remembered for an invention that changed how people got around on city streets in the 19th century—something that came to be known as the “Hansom cab.”
Hansom patented his design in 1834 and it quickly overtook the Hackney carriage as the preferred vehicle for hire. Unlike the Hackney, which had four wheels and was pulled by two horses, the Hansom had two wheels and was pulled by only one horse. Because it was smaller (and required less horsepower), the Hansom was more manoeuvrable, less expensive, and therefore more affordable. The Hansom was designed so that the driver sat behind and above the passenger compartment, communicating with the passengers through a trap door on the top.
A two-wheel horse-drawn vehicle was called a “cabriolet,” which Hansom shortened to “cab” when he introduced his new design. The “Hansom Safety Cab” soon crossed the ocean and became the dominant vehicle for hire in New York City and other American cities. In England the vehicle was commonly called a “Hansom,” but in the U.S. it was called a “cab.” In both countries, the Hansoms featured mechanical devices called “taximeters,” which calculated fares, thus leading them to be called “taxis,” as their motorized descendants are still called today.
Joseph Aloysius Hansom, father of the taxicab, was born in York, England, on October 26, 1803, two hundred twenty years ago today.
