07 February 2010

Hearses

"...the term hearse derives originally from the old French term herce harrow, which was a framed farm implement holding teeth or tines and used as something like a plow. Middle English later co-opted the shortened form, herse, to refer to a stand that held candles during the Christian Tenebrae service and eventually came to mean a structure that held candles or hangings that were suspended above a coffin. This association with coffins eventually made its way to the modern form, signifying a vehicle for conveying a dead person to the place of burial. Early hearses were horse-drawn affairs, which is why modern hearses are still often referred to as 'coaches'.

Since hearses tend to be made for short-haul, relatively sedate driving they don't have a lot of power. For the most part, the engines and transmissions are unchanged from the passenger-car equivalents, but the added weight tends to make these beasts a bit slow on the uptake. Hearses are definitely built for comfort, not speed. Although they often operate 7 days a week, their short haul and low-speed nature tends to preserve them rather well, and hearses can remain in use for years. This also makes collecting good quality hearses fairly easy, since they tend to be exceptionally well-maintained..."
Photo credit, more info (and a couple hearse jokes) at Car Lust.  Via Could It Be Madness - this?

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