Thanks to the achievements of progress, in the modern world there are many different ways to travel. However, a little over a century ago, in the pre-electric era, man did not have such a wide selection of vehicles. On the other hand, at that time there were some types of transport that are difficult for a modern layman to imagine, since they disappeared. For example, the meaning of the word “konka” is unfamiliar today to the majority of different urban residents. But in the XIX century. This type of transport was very popular. What is its feature and why is it outdated? Let's figure it out, and also find out if there are other interpretations of this noun.
Ukrainian river Konka
Considering the lexical meaning of the word "Konka", it is worth considering that this name simultaneously means several concepts at once. Oddly enough, but they are practically unconnected.
Firstly, the term “konka” is the name of a river in the Zaporizhzhya region (Ukraine). In Ukrainian, this pond is called "Kіnska" ("Horse").
This hydronym was formed from the noun “horse”. The fact is that back in the XVIII century. This river was the border of the Russian Empire with the Crimean Khanate. The inhabitants of the Crimea called this reservoir “Horse Waters” (“Konku Ilkys”) because of the huge number of wild horses wandering on the banks of the river.
Konka in France
Considering the question of what Konka is, one cannot but mention the French commune called Conca (Konka). It is located in Corsica.
This commune was formed at the very beginning of the 19th century. and to this day is one of the favorite vacation spots for tourists around the world in the summer.
Unlike the Ukrainian Konka, the French has nothing to do with horses, their names are simply consonant with each other - this is the so-called interlanguage homonymy.
Dario Konka
The meaning of this word as a hydronym and toponym has already been considered above. Now it’s worth paying attention to a famous person who bears such a surname. We are talking about the beloved by many football fans of the Argentine midfielder - Dario Leonardo Konka.
Despite his small stature (168 cm) and solid age, as for an athlete (born in 1983), this person is today one of the best and highest paid football players in the world.
Although Dario was born in Argentina, most of his career he played for the Shanghai Tellace Chinese football club. However, from December 2017, perhaps everything will change, and he will continue his career at the Flamengo club, for which he is playing now. If you don’t decide to end your career or become a coach at all.
The best known meaning of the word konka
In addition to proper names, the term “konka” also means the name of the now obsolete type of urban transport called a horse tram.
In fact, the horse-drawn urban road that the horse tram traveled in the 19th century was the ancestor of the modern electric tram.
Features of this type of transport
Having understood what a konka is, it is worth considering in more detail the features of this type of transport.
In fact, it was a kind of intermediate link between the horse-drawn carriage and the tram.
From the crew, the konk kept the appearance of the car, as well as the tradition of using horses as a driving force. However, unlike wagons and wagons, a horse-drawn tram did not go everywhere, but only where the rails were laid. This made it possible to move the loaded crew much better and faster with just a couple of horses. At the same time, on especially difficult parts of the track, in competition, additional horses had to be harnessed.
By the way, due to the unusual appearance and method of transportation, many called this type of transport an oats tram, a bridged or horse-drawn tram.
Appearance in the Russian Empire
Having considered the question of what is Konka, it is time to pay attention to the history of this unusual type of transport.
The horse tram first appeared in the USA in 1828. Over the next twenty years, the horse tram conquered all of Europe. During this time, this type of transport began to be used in almost all progressive cities of the world. Most of the skates were in the USA and Germany. Least of all - in Switzerland.
In the Russian Empire, the first horse-drawn city railway was built in 1854, naturally, in the capital of the country. However, at that time it was used to transport goods, not passengers. And only six years later, in St. Petersburg, the konka as a type of passenger urban transport really started working. From that moment on, her popularity continued to grow.
Over the next thirty years, the total length of horse-drawn railways in the Russian Empire grew to six hundred kilometers. Thus, Russia took the third place in terms of the length of the rail for the skates in the world.
By the beginning of the 20th century in almost all major cities of the Russian Empire, horse trams were already actively used.
Sunset horse-drawn urban roads
Despite great popularity, by the beginning of the XX century. the electric tram began gradually, but inexorably to displace the show jumping (the definition of this word was given above). Despite the lower cost of the new mode of transport, most owners of horse-drawn railways actively fought against this electric miracle. Realizing that the future is behind the trams, at the same time they did not want to take risks, being afraid of losing the funds invested in the competition. As a result, in many cities, tram rails were simply laid next to the tracks of the horse tram.
Faced with this situation, many investors wishing to use electric innovation decided to go the other way. They simply began to buy horse-drawn rails and adapt them to tram tracks.
Such a policy required less financial investment and was very profitable for workers. The fact is that, having converted the equipment for the Konka into a tram, the owner did not fire workers, but retrained them. Thus, they not only did not lose their jobs, but in some cases received an increase in wages.
Koenigsberg and Moscow became the first cities in the Russian Empire to replace show jumping with a tram. So, in the future capital of the USSR, starting in 1912, a horse tram was never used again.
Since the second half of 1917, almost throughout the territory of the former empire, the horses were closed. The last city that stopped using this type of transport was Minsk. This happened in 1928, when he was already part of the USSR.
Where was the last horse tram in the world
Having dealt with the question: “What is Konka?” - as well as having examined all the meanings of this word, it is time to find out whether this type of transport has survived even somewhere in the world today.
The last horse tram existed in the British city of Douglas, located on the Isle of Man. Starting from 1876 and up to 1927, he carried residents and guests of the city every day, without days off and holidays.
However, the profitability of this type of transport gradually began to fall, so from 1927 the Douglas Konka worked only during the summer holidays - from May to September.
During the Second World War, all horses were confiscated by the government for military purposes. For this reason, until 1946, the horse-drawn city road did not work.
In the post-war period, the Douglas Konka worked for almost seventy years.
However, in recent decades, it has ceased to pay off, causing the city instead of profit, continuous losses. For some time, the leadership of Douglas kept it as a means to attract tourists to the city. But at the beginning of 2016, it was decided to close this type of transport forever. Thus, with the closure of the Douglas ridge, the horse tram ceased to exist in the world forever, becoming the inheritance of history.