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74-596: The Swiss PostAuto service evolved as a motorized successor to the stagecoaches that previously carried passengers and mail in Switzerland, with the Swiss postal service providing postbus services carrying both passengers and mail. Although this combination had been self-evident in the past, the needs of each diverged towards the end of the twentieth century, when the conveyance of parcels was progressively separated from public transportation. This split became official with

148-405: A Wells Fargo stagecoach arriving at or leaving an American frontier town. The yard of ale drinking glass is associated by legend with stagecoach drivers, though it was mainly used for drinking feats and special toasts . The stagecoach was a closed four-wheeled vehicle drawn by horses or hard-going mules . It was regularly used as a public conveyance on an established route usually to

222-478: A movie (sometimes a TV show or a sporting event) and have a set of rules for who drinks when and how much based on on-screen events and dialogue. The rules may be the same for all players, or alternatively players may each be assigned rules related to particular characters. The rules are designed so that rarer events require larger drinks. Rule sets for such games are usually arbitrary and local, although they are sometimes published by fan clubs. In reference to film,

296-410: A Stage Coach (If God permits), which starts every Thursday at Five in the morning. The novelty of this method of transport excited much controversy at the time. One pamphleteer denounced the stagecoach as a "great evil [...] mischievous to trade and destructive to the public health". Another writer, however, argued that: Besides the excellent arrangement of conveying men and letters on horseback, there

370-469: A basis for drinking games. The song "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC is used in which a player begins drinking when the word thunder is sung and switches to the next player the next time it is sung. Sport related drinking games involve the participants each selecting a scenario of the game resulting in their drink being downed. Examples of this include participants each picking a footballer in a game while other versions require multiple players to be selected. Should

444-521: A card was played, it was supposed to be accompanied by humorous words, so if a Jack or Unter was played, the player might say something like "my merry Unterkasser " ( Lustig mein Unterkasser ) or "long live my Unterkasser " ( Vivat mein Unterkasser ). If his opponent beat it, he might say "hang the Unterkasser " ( Hängt den Unterkasser ). The loser had to chalk up a figure such as a swallow,

518-684: A case of beer the fastest. Often drinking large amounts will be combined with a stylistic element or an abnormal method of drinking, as with the boot of beer , yard of ale , or a keg stand . Tolerance games are simply about seeing which player can last the longest. It can be as simple as two people matching each other drink for drink until one of the participants "passes out". Power hour and its variant, centurion , fall under this category. Many pub or bar games involve competitive drinking for speed. Examples of such drinking games are Edward Fortyhands, boat races , beer bonging , shotgunning , flippy cup (a team-based speed game), and yard . Some say that

592-460: A circle, and players take turns choosing a glass to take a shot from at random. There is also a game called "Beer Hunter" (titled after the Russian roulette scenes in the film The Deer Hunter ). In this game, six cans of beer are placed between the participants: one can is vigorously shaken, and the cans are scrambled. The participants take turns opening the cans of beer right under their noses;

666-654: A coach could travel at full gallop across levels, combined with more staging posts at shorter intervals, cut the time required to travel across the country sometimes by half. A Cobb & Co (Australia) proprietor arrived in New Zealand on 4 October 1861, thus beginning Cobb & Co (New Zealand) stagecoach operation. Beginning in the 18th century, crude wagons began to be used to carry passengers between cities and towns, first within New England by 1744, then between New York and Philadelphia by 1756. Travel time

740-654: A connection with the Swiss towns of Schaffhausen and Ramsen . The German town Singen benefits from a connection to Switzerland via a PostBus service to and from Ramsen . During most of the 20th century, PostAuto coaches were made in Switzerland by either Saurer , Berna, or FBW . In June 2018, members of the Executive Board of PostAuto were dismissed by Swiss Post after PostAuto manipulated its accounting records concealing profits in order to collect excess subsidies. Stagecoaches A stagecoach (also: stage coach , stage , road coach , diligence )

814-417: A day and a half, including a night stop at Bab al-Wad (Shaar HaGai), the trip in the opposite, downhill direction took 12 hours. The stagecoaches belonged to private owners, and the wagoners were mostly hired, although sometimes the wagoner was also the owner of the wagon. The license to operate the stagecoaches was granted by the government to private individuals in the cities and to the colony committees in

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888-691: A few miles per hour. Shakespeare 's first plays were performed at coaching inns such as The George Inn, Southwark . By the end of the 17th century stagecoach routes ran up and down the three main roads in England. The London-York route was advertised in 1698: Whoever is desirous of going between London and York or York and London, Let them Repair to the Black Swan in Holboorn, or the Black Swan in Coney Street , York, where they will be conveyed in

962-533: A half after leaving Manchester." A similar service was begun from Liverpool three years later, using coaches with steel spring suspension. This coach took an unprecedented three days to reach London with an average speed of eight miles per hour (13 km/h) . Even more dramatic improvements were made by John Palmer at the British Post Office . The postal delivery service in Britain had existed in

1036-462: A low price (about a shilling for every five miles [8 km]) but with such velocity and speed in one hour, as that the posts in some foreign countries make in a day. The speed of travel remained constant until the mid-18th century. Reforms of the turnpike trusts , new methods of road building and the improved construction of coaches led to a sustained rise in the comfort and speed of the average journey - from an average journey length of 2 days for

1110-594: A monopoly on the supply of stagecoaches to the Royal Mail and a virtual monopoly on their upkeep and servicing for the following few decades. Steel springs had been used in suspensions for vehicles since 1695. Coachbuilder Obadiah Elliott obtained a patent covering the use of elliptic springs - which were not his invention. His patent lasted 14 years delaying development because Elliott allowed no others to license and use his patent. Elliott mounted each wheel with two durable elliptic steel leaf springs on each side and

1184-530: A network of stagecoach routes existed. Stagecoaches, often known by the French name "Diligence" - a smaller model with room for six passengers and a bigger one for ten, drawn by two horses (in the city, on the plain or on a good road) or three (on intercity and elevated roads) - were the main means of public transportation in Ottoman Palestine between the middle of the 19th century and the beginning of

1258-446: A player drinking a penalty cup. If a guest was considered a 'coward' for dropping out of the game, he could be branded as a 'deserter' and not invited back to further drinking bouts. There was another game where little puppets and dolls dressed as western foreigners with blue eyes ( Iranian peoples ) were set up and when one fell over, the person it pointed to had to empty his cup of wine. Drinking games became popular among elites in

1332-404: A player score or be sent off, a drink must be taken. Another version requires a drink for every touch a player takes of the ball. Some drinking games can fall into multiple categories such as a Power hour which is a primarily an endurance-based game, but can also incorporate the arts if players are prompted to drink by a playlist that changes songs every 60 seconds. Similarly, Flip cup combines

1406-550: A popular game among young adults consists of printing out a mustache and taping it on the television screen. Every time the mustache fits appropriately to a person on the screen, one must drink the designated amount. Live drinking games such as Los Angeles–based "A Drinking Game" involve recreating films of the 80s in a "Rocky Horror" fashion, with gift bags, drinking cues, and costumed actors. A suggestion to "do six shots for SEAL Team 6 " following every mention of Osama bin Laden at

1480-635: A popular solution. They built their first Concord stagecoach in 1827 employing long leather straps under their stagecoaches which gave a swinging motion. Describing a journey he took in 1861, in his 1872 book, Roughing It , Mark Twain wrote that the Concord stage was like "an imposing cradle on wheels". Around twenty years later, in 1880, John Plesent Gray recorded after travelling from Tucson to Tombstone on J.D. Kinnear's mail and express line: That day's stage ride will always live in my memory – but not for its beauty spots. Jammed like sardines on

1554-580: A regular schedule. Spent horses were replaced with fresh horses at stage stations , posts, or relays. In addition to the stage driver or coachman who guided the vehicle, a shotgun messenger armed with a coach gun might travel as a guard beside him. Thus, the origin of the phrase " riding shotgun ". Always a headed vehicle, fitted with roof seats or gammon boards, from the early 19th century. ... Driven from an elevated box seat, its footboard supported by brackets. At first unsprung or dead axle, but later hung on braces, elbow and finally Telegraph springs, as with

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1628-418: A relaxation, it seems as if we could never have survived the trip. The horses were changed three times on the 80-mile (130 km) trip, normally completed in 17 hours. The stagecoach lines in the U.S. were operated by private companies. Their most profitable contracts were with U.S. Mail and were hotly contested. Pony Express , which began operations in 1860, is often called first fast mail service from

1702-821: A subsidiary of PostBus Switzerland, operated bus services in France. The company was headquartered in Lyon , with operations from Haguenau , in Alsace , to Béziers , in Languedoc-Roussillon . In September 2019 the business was sold to Keolis . PostBus Switzerland also operates the bus service for Liechtenstein . In Liechtenstein, they trade under the name Liemobil (Liechtenstein Bus). The German villages of Büsingen am Hochrhein (an exclave of Germany entirely surrounded by Swiss territory) and Randegg are also served via

1776-459: A wheel or a pair of scissors depending on the number of minus points gained and was only allowed to erase them once he had drunk the associated amount of beer. Silver wager cups, also known as wedding cups, were used in Germany from the late 16th to mid 17th century. The smaller cup is on a pivot so both vessels can be face-up and filled with liquor. In wedding ceremonies, the man would drink from

1850-400: Is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are drawn by six horses. Commonly used before steam-powered rail transport was available, a stagecoach made long scheduled trips using stage stations or posts where

1924-506: Is made in the tavern Oepfelchammer in Zürich, Switzerland. It is called "Balkenprobe" and one has therefore to climb up a beam at the ceiling and move to another beam and then to drink a glass of wine with the head hanging down. Thinking games rely on the players' powers of observation, recollection, logic and articulation. Numerous types of thinking games exist, including Think or Drink, 21 , beer checkers , bizz buzz , buffalo , saved by

1998-416: Is of late such an admirable commodiousness, both for men and women, to travel from London to the principal towns in the country, that the like hath not been known in the world, and that is by stage-coaches, wherein any one may be transported to any place, sheltered from foul weather and foul ways; free from endamaging of one's health and one's body by the hard jogging or over-violent motion; and this not only at

2072-434: The 2012 Democratic National Convention necessitated a prominent disclaimer on the satire site that posted it, as the quantity of alcohol ingested would probably have been lethal. "Datsyuk Game" involves a Datsyuk highlight reel being played and contestants drink every time the word Datsyuk is mentioned. The ceremonial playing of the Russian national anthem before the game is another tradition. Music can also be used as

2146-643: The Cambridge -London route in 1750 to a length of under 7 hours in 1820. Robert Hooke helped in the construction of some of the first spring-suspended coaches in the 1660s and spoked wheels with iron rim brakes were introduced, improving the characteristics of the coach. In 1754, a Manchester -based company began a new service called the "Flying Coach". It was advertised with the following announcement - "However incredible it may appear, this coach will actually (barring accidents) arrive in London in four days and

2220-471: The Mail Coach . ... Most stage coaches were named and painted in special liveries . The American mud wagon was an earlier, smaller, and cruder vehicle, being mostly open-sided with minimal protection from weather, causing passengers to risk being mud-splashed. A canvas-topped stage wagon was used for freight and passengers, and it had a lower center of gravity, making it harder to overturn. Until

2294-725: The Missouri River to the Pacific Coast, but the Overland Mail Company began a twice-weekly mail service from Missouri to San Francisco in September 1858. Transcontinental stage-coaching ended with the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. The railway network in South Africa was extended from Mafeking through Bechuanaland and reached Bulawayo in 1897. Prior to its arrival,

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2368-512: The 18th century with the turnpike system and better engineering of public roads. ... Forced from its main trunk routes by railway competition from the late 1830's, although some lingered in remoter areas until the 1850's. In North America a few Concord Coaches survived until the first half of the 20th century. The first crude depiction of a coach was in an English manuscript from the 13th century. The first recorded stagecoach route in Britain started in 1610 and ran from Edinburgh to Leith . This

2442-518: The 20th century. The first stagecoaches were brought to Palestine by the German religious group known as the " Templers " who operated a public transportation service between their colonies in the country as early as 1867. Stagecoach development in Palestine was greatly facilitated by the 1869 visit of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I . For this distinguished guest, the road between Jaffa and Jerusalem

2516-512: The English Mail Coach. Although normally well-sprung and enclosed, seating eight or more passengers, some types had a semi-open seat, for three or more passengers, shared with the driver. This latter was known as the banquette. Although most vehicles were coachman driven, others were in the care of postillions . The number of horses varied according to difficulties of the route. Three, or a unicorn team were not unfamiliar, especially on

2590-514: The authorities. This could be overloading of passengers in excess of the licence or minor matters such as luggage too high on the roof. They did this in return for a portion of any fines imposed, sometimes as much as half. The tax paid on passenger seats was a major expense for coach operators. Harris gives an example of the tax payable on the London to Newcastle coach route (278 miles). Annual tax amounted to £2,529 for 15 passengers per coach (4 inside and 11 outside). Annual tolls were £2,537. The hire of

2664-471: The basket, and generally presents a pile, half as high again as the coach, which is secured by ropes and chains, tightened by a large iron windlass, which also constitutes another appendage of this moving mass. The body of the carriage rests upon large thongs of leather, fastened to heavy blocks of wood, instead of springs, and the whole is drawn by seven horses. The English visitor noted the small, sturdy Norman horses "running away with our cumbrous machine, at

2738-597: The bell, bullshit , tourettes, matchboxes , never have I ever , roman numerals , fuzzy duck , pennying , wine games, and Zoom Schwartz Profigliano . Trivia games, such as Trivial Pursuit , are sometimes played as drinking games. Drinking games involving cards include president , horserace , Kings , liar's poker , pyramid , ring of fire , toepen , ride the bus and black or red . Dice games include beer die , dudo , kinito , liar's dice , Mexico , mia , ship, captain, and crew , three man , and Triple Snakes . Movie drinking games are played while watching

2812-445: The body of the carriage was fixed directly to the springs attached to the axles . After the expiry of his patent most British horse carriages were equipped with elliptic springs; wooden springs in the case of light one-horse vehicles to avoid taxation, and steel springs in larger vehicles. Steady improvements in road construction were also made at this time, most importantly the widespread implementation of Macadam roads up and down

2886-522: The conversion of PostAuto into a separate subsidiary of the Swiss Post in February 2005. The buses operated by PostAuto are a Swiss icon, with a distinctive yellow livery and three-tone horn. The company uses an image of a posthorn as a logo on its buses and elsewhere. On some mountain roads, indicated by a traffic sign of a yellow posthorn on a blue background, the public transport, in particular

2960-440: The country. The speed of coaches in this period rose from around 6 miles per hour (9.7 km/h) (including stops for provisioning) to 8 miles per hour (13 km/h) and greatly increased the level of mobility in the country, both for people and for mail . Each route had an average of four coaches operating on it at one time - two for both directions and a further two spares in case of a breakdown en route. Joseph Ballard described

3034-991: The countryside the 1860s did see the start of a coaching revival spurred on by the popularity of Four-in-hand driving as a sporting pursuit (the Four-In-Hand Driving Club was founded in 1856 and the Coaching Club in 1871). New stagecoaches often known as Park Drags began to be built to order. Some owners would parade their vehicles and magnificently dressed passengers in fashionable locations. Other owners would take more enthusiastic suitably-dressed passengers and indulge in competitive driving. Very similar in design to stagecoaches their vehicles were lighter and sportier. These owners were (often very expert) amateur gentlemen-coachmen, occasionally gentlewomen. A professional coachman might accompany them to avert disaster. Professionals called these vehicles 'butterflies'. They only appeared in summer. Cobb & Co

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3108-497: The course of his business, and noted that it seemed far more efficient than the system of mail delivery then in operation. His travel from Bath to London took a single day to the mail's three days. It occurred to him that this stagecoach service could be developed into a national mail delivery service, so in 1782 he suggested to the Post Office in London that they take up the idea. He met resistance from officials who believed that

3182-423: The creation of new routes. Within the month the service had been extended from London to Norwich , Nottingham , Liverpool and Manchester , and by the end of 1785 services to the following major towns and cities of England and Wales had also been linked: Leeds , Dover , Portsmouth , Poole , Exeter , Gloucester , Worcester , Holyhead and Carlisle . A service to Edinburgh was added the next year, and Palmer

3256-517: The cups were frequently manufactured during the 1880s to 1910s. The simplest drinking games are endurance games in which players compete to out-drink one another. Players take turns taking shots, and the last person standing is the winner. Some games have rules involving the "cascade", "fountain", or "waterfall", which encourages each player to drink constantly from their cup so long as the player before him does not stop drinking. Such games can also favor speed over quantity, in which players race to drink

3330-501: The early 1840s most London-based coaches had been withdrawn from service. Some stagecoaches remained in use for commercial or recreational purposes. They came to be known as road coaches and were used by their enterprising (or nostalgic) owners to provide scheduled passenger services where rail had not yet reached and also on certain routes at certain times of the year for the pleasure of an (often amateur) coachman and his daring passengers. While stagecoaches vanished as rail penetrated

3404-686: The early Zionist colonies. The license holders paid a special tax for this right and could employ subcontractors and hired wagons. The stagecoaches linked Jerusalem with Jaffa, Hebron and Nablus, the Zionist colonies with Jaffa, Haifa with Acre and Nazareth. They were also used for urban and suburban transportation in the Haifa region. The colony of Rehovot is known to have promulgated detailed regulations for stagecoach operation, soon after its foundation in 1890, which were greatly extended in 1911. Fares were fixed, ranging between 1.10 Grush for traveling to

3478-458: The existence of drinking games dates back to antiquity. Drinking games have been banned at some institutions, particularly colleges and universities . Kottabos is one of the earliest known drinking games from ancient Greece , dated to the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Players would use dregs (remnants of what was left in their cup) to hit targets across the room with their wine. Often, there were special prizes and penalties for one's performance in

3552-522: The existing system could not be improved, but eventually the Chancellor of the Exchequer , William Pitt , allowed him to carry out an experimental run between Bristol and London. Under the old system the journey had taken up to 38 hours. The stagecoach, funded by Palmer, left Bristol at 4 pm on 2 August 1784 and arrived in London just 16 hours later. Impressed by the trial run, Pitt authorised

3626-567: The flatter roads of the north west. In Germany, Austria and some parts of Switzerland the Diligence was known as the Post Coach or Malle Post. —D. J. M. Smith in A Dictionary of Horse Drawn Vehicles The diligence from Le Havre to Paris was described by a fastidious English visitor of 1803 with a thoroughness that distinguished it from its English contemporary, the stage coach . A more uncouth clumsy machine can scarcely be imagined. In

3700-425: The four coach vehicles needed was £1,274. The 250 horses needed for this service also needed to be paid for. Operators could reduce their tax burden by one seventh by operating a six-day-a-week service instead of a seven-day service. The development of railways in the 1830s spelled the end for stagecoaches and mail coaches . The first rail delivery between Liverpool and Manchester took place on 11 November 1830. By

3774-686: The four laps. A variant is known in German speaking countries as Bierkastenlauf (beer crate running) where a team of two carries a crate of beer along a route of several kilometers and must consume all of the bottles prior to crossing the finish line. Some party and pub games focus on the performance of a particular act of skill, rather than on either the amount a participant drinks or the speed with which they do so. Examples include beer pong , quarters , chandeliers (also known as gauchoball, rage cage, stack cup), caps, polish horseshoes , pong , baseball , and beer darts. Pub golf involves orienteering and pub crawling together. A unique drinking game

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3848-575: The front is a cabriolet fixed to the body of the coach, for the accommodation of three passengers, who are protected from the rain above, by the projecting roof of the coach, and in front by two heavy curtains of leather, well oiled, and smelling somewhat offensively, fastened to the roof. The inside, which is capacious, and lofty, and will hold six people in great comfort is lined with leather padded, and surrounded with little pockets, in which travellers deposit their bread, snuff, night caps, and pocket handkerchiefs, which generally enjoy each others company, in

3922-544: The game, or the most talkative player, or the host, or the player with the greatest alcohol tolerance, etc. had to drink. There were even drinking game referee officials, including a 'registrar of the rules' who knew all the rules to the game, a 'registrar of the horn' who tossed a silver flag down on calling out second offenses, and a 'governor' who decided one's third call of offense. These referees were used mainly for maintaining order (as drinking games often became rowdy) and for reviewing faults that could be punished with

3996-521: The game. Drinking games were enjoyed in ancient China , usually incorporating the use of dice or verbal exchange of riddles . During the Tang dynasty (618–907), the Chinese used a silver canister where written lots could be drawn that designated which player had to drink and specifically how much; for example, from 1, 5, 7, or 10 measures of drink that the youngest player, or the last player to join

4070-462: The hard seats of an old time leather spring coach – a Concord – leaving Pantano , creeping much of the way, letting the horses walk, through miles of alkali dust that the wheels rolled up in thick clouds of which we received the full benefit ... It is always a mystery to the passenger how many can be wedged into and on top of a stagecoach. If it had not been for the long stretches when the horses had to walk, enabling most of us to get out and "foot it" as

4144-431: The larger vessel first, then turning the figure right side up, pass it to the woman, who would drink from the smaller cup; the challenge was for the two drinkers not to spill any liquor. They were also sometimes used during wine drinking boughts were a wager was placed if participant(s) could drink the contents of both sides without spilling a drop. In Germany they are known as Jungfrauenbecher , or maiden cups. Replicas of

4218-509: The late Qing period as part of the privileged class' urban leisure aesthetics. Novelists who invented literary-themed drinking games included Li Boyuan and Sun Yusheng. Drinking games also increasingly appeared as elements in novels of the period such as Yu Da's The Dream in the Green Bower . Drinking games in 19th century Germany included Bierskat , Elfern , Rammes and Quodlibet , as well as Schlauch and Laubober, probably

4292-462: The late 18th century, stagecoaches traveled at an average speed of about 5 miles per hour (8 km/h), with the average daily mileage traversed approximately 60 to 70 miles (97 to 113 km). With road improvements and the development of steel springs, speeds increased. By 1836 the scheduled coach left London at 19:30, travelled through the night (without lights) and arrived in Liverpool at 16:50

4366-431: The most important skill to improving speed is to relax and take fewer but larger gulps. There are a variety of individual tactics to accomplishing this, such as bending the knees in anticipation, or when drinking from a plastic cup , squeezing the sides of the cup to form a more perfect funnel. Athletic races involving alcohol including the beer mile , which consists of a mile run with a can of beer consumed before each of

4440-541: The nearby village of Wadi Hanin and 5.00 Grush for traveling from Rehovot to Jaffa. The stagecoach was required to work six times a week (except for the Shabbat ) and to carry free of charge the mails and medicines of the Rehovot pharmacy. Drinking game Drinking games are games which involve the consumption of alcoholic beverages and often enduring the subsequent intoxication resulting from them. Evidence of

4514-448: The next day, a distance of about 220 miles (350 km), doubling the overall average speed to about 10 miles per hour (16 km/h), including stops to change horses. [Stage coaches operated] between stages or stopping places, both in the ancient world and modern Europe/America. Revived in England during the late 16th or early 17th centuries, although a nationwide system was not organised until 1658. Considerable improvements came during

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4588-689: The postal buses, have priority over other traffic and traffic users must follow instructions by public transport drivers. Services are provided by PostAuto Switzerland, a subsidiary company of Swiss Post with its headquarters in Bern . The company is responsible for 869 bus routes with 2,193 buses in Switzerland, transporting over 140 million passengers annually on its 11,869 km (7,375 mi) long network. The routes are either operated directly by PostAuto itself, or by local bus companies under contract. PostAuto offers extensive services in public, public-private, and private transit, including: CarPostale France,

4662-537: The rate of six or seven miles an hour". At this speed stagecoaches could compete with canal boats , but they were rendered obsolete in Europe wherever the rail network expanded in the 19th century. Where the rail network did not reach, the diligence was not fully superseded until the arrival of the autobus . In France, between 1765 and 1780, the turgotines , big mail coaches named for their originator, Louis XVI's economist minister Turgot , and improved roads, where

4736-406: The same delicate depository. From the roof depends a large net work which is generally crouded with hats, swords, and band boxes, the whole is convenient, and when all parties are seated and arranged, the accommodations are by no means unpleasant. Upon the roof, on the outside, is the imperial, which is generally filled with six or seven persons more, and a heap of luggage, which latter also occupies

4810-403: The same form for about 150 years—from its introduction in 1635, mounted carriers had ridden between "posts" where the postmaster would remove the letters for the local area before handing the remaining letters and any additions to the next rider. The riders were frequent targets for robbers, and the system was inefficient. Palmer made much use of the "flying" stagecoach services between cities in

4884-514: The same game as Grasobern . But the "crown of all drinking games" was one with an ancient and distinctive name: Cerevis. One feature of the game was that everything went under a different name from normal. So the cards ( Karten ) were called 'spoons' ( Löffel ), the Sevens were 'Septembers' and the Aces were the 'Juveniles' ( junge Leichtsinn ). A player who used the normal names was penalised. Every time

4958-402: The skill of flipping cups with the speed of drinking quickly prior to flipping. There is a drinking game based on Russian roulette . The game involves six shot glasses filled by a non-player: five are filled with water, but the sixth with vodka. Among some groups, low quality vodka is preferred, as it makes the glass representing the filled chamber less desirable. The glasses are arranged in

5032-581: The stagecoach service between Manchester and Liverpool in 1815 as having price competition between coaches, with timely service and clean accommodations at inns. Stagecoaches in Victorian Britain were heavily taxed on the number of passenger seats. If more passengers were carried than the licence allowed there were penalties to pay. The lawyer Stanley Harris (1816–1897) writes in his books Old Coaching Days and The Coaching Age that he knew of informers ready to report any breach of regulations to

5106-399: The stagecoach's horses would be replaced by fresh horses. The business of running stagecoaches or the act of journeying in them was known as staging. Some familiar images of the stagecoach are that of a Royal Mail coach passing through a turnpike gate, a Dickensian passenger coach covered in snow pulling up at a coaching inn , a highwayman demanding a coach to "stand and deliver" and

5180-595: Was established in Melbourne in 1853 and grew to service Australia's mainland eastern states and South Australia. The diligence , a solidly built stagecoach with four or more horses, was the French vehicle for public conveyance with minor varieties in Germany such as the Stellwagen and Eilwagen . Diligence. Late 18th century name for a French public coach working on long distance routes. So-named from its reputation for promptitude and good time-keeping, as with

5254-516: Was followed by a steady proliferation of other routes around the island. By the mid 17th century, a basic stagecoach infrastructure had been put in place. A string of coaching inns operated as stopping points for travellers on the route between London and Liverpool . The stagecoach would depart every Monday and Thursday and took roughly ten days to make the journey during the summer months. Stagecoaches also became widely adopted for travel in and around London by mid-century and generally travelled at

5328-444: Was greatly improved, making possible the passage of carriages. Stagecoaches were a great improvement over the earlier means of transport used in the country, such as riding horses, donkeys or camels, or light carts drawn by donkeys. When the stagecoach ran into a difficult ascent or mud, the passengers were required to get off and help push the carriage. The trip between Jaffa and Jerusalem by stagecoach lasted about 14 hours spread over

5402-715: Was reduced on this later run from three days to two in 1766 with an improved coach called the Flying Machine . The first mail coaches appeared in the later 18th century carrying passengers and the mails, replacing the earlier post riders on the main roads. Coachmen carried letters, packages, and money, often transacting business or delivering messages for their customers. By 1829 Boston was the hub of 77 stagecoach lines; by 1832 there were 106. Coaches with iron or steel springs were uncomfortable and had short useful lives. Two men in Concord , New Hampshire , developed what became

5476-516: Was rewarded by being made Surveyor and Comptroller General of the Post Office. By 1797 there were forty-two routes. The period from 1800 to 1830 saw great improvements in the design of coaches, most notably by John Besant in 1792 and 1795. His coach had a greatly improved turning capacity and braking system , and a novel feature that prevented the wheels from falling off while the coach was in motion. Besant, with his partner John Vidler, enjoyed

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