Dance The Machine without Horses 4032

Jig · 32 bars · 3 couples · Longwise - 4 (Progression: 213)

Devised by

David Rutherford (1772)

Intensity

804/840/880/880 = 58% (1 turn), 44% (whole dance)

Formations

Hands across - 4 (HX;4P;)
Rights and Lefts (R&L)

Steps

Pas-de-Basque, Skip-Change

Published in

Book 12 [12]
Scottish Country Dances Books 7 to 12 (Combined A5 edition) [72]
Pocket: Books 10,11,12 [36]
A Guide to Scottish Country Dancing (ex-Collins) [31]
Collins Pocket Reference: Scottish Country Dancing [31]
Thirty Popular Scottish Country Dances [19]
101 Scottish Country Dances [65]
Fifty Scottish Dances [29]
Collins Little Books: Scottish Dance [54]
Scottish Reels are Fun [21]
Scottish Country Dances in Diagrams. Ed. 9 [332] (diagram only)
Scottish Country Dances in Diagrams. Ed. 8 [436] (diagram only)
Scottish Country Dances in Diagrams. Ed. 7 [399] (diagram only)
Scottish Country Dances in Diagrams. Ed. 6 [388] (diagram only)

Recommended Music

The Machine without Horses (Traditional)

Extra Info: In his book, Scotland through her country dances, George Emmerson argues that the 1772 date of the dance and …

In his book, Scotland through her country dances, George Emmerson argues that the 1772 date of the dance and tune is well before the invention of any ‘horseless carriage’ and concludes that the dance title refers to a sedan chair. While the argument seems sound, it should also be noted that the first steam engines date from around 1700.

Walter Ligon has pointed out the following pertinent excerpt for 19 October 1769 from The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell:

There was a pretty large circle this evening. Dr. Johnson was in very good humour, lively, and ready to talk upon all subjects. Mr. Fergusson, the self-taught philosopher, told him of a new invented machine which went without horses: a man who sat in it turned a handle, which worked a spring that drove it forward. “Then, Sir, (said Johnson,) what is gained is, the man has his choice whether he will move himself alone, or himself and the machine too.”

The Machine Without Horses

About 1769 a new type of vehicle caught the imagination of, and possibly amused, a horse-drawn nation. The age of self-propulsion had arrived.

The machine without horses of 1769 was a four-wheeled carriage. In the front where the coachman usually sat were two wooden levers that led back to the rear wheels. By depressing first one lever and then the other the back wheels were made to turn. Perhaps the only person involved with this early horseless carriage who was not thrilled or amused was the unlucky servant whose duty it was to pump the levers.

In 1770 another horseless carriage arrived on the scene to thrill the public. This was a French invention, by Nicholas Joseph Cugnot (1725–1804), a three-whelled carriage driven forward from the single front wheel by a crude steam engine. This forerunner of the motor car was capable of a speed of two and one half miles an hour, a velocity hampered by the fact that stops were required every hundred feet or so to get up steam. Nevertheless, the world was on its way to the motor car.

Since “The Machine Without Horses” and its original tune were first published in 1772 by David Rutherford, and with some consideration given to the figures of the dance, the machine it celebrated was undoubtedly either the self-propelled carriage or the steam-driven French road wagon.

From “Scotland Dances”, by Eugenia (Jeannie) Callander Sharp (Used by permission.)

Show entries

Search:

Name	Artist	Album	Media	Trk	Type	Time	Pace
Machine Without Horses	Bobby MacLeod and his Band	Vintage 78's Vol 2	CD	20	J32 8	4:34	34.2
Machine Without Horses	Frank Reid	Saint Andrew's Ball - Volume 2	CD	9	J32 10	5:34	33.4
Machine Without Horses	Jim Cameron and his Scottish Dance Band	Jim Cameron's Scottish Dance Band Vol 2	CD	9	J32 5	2:45	33.0
Machine Without Horses	Neil Barron and his Scottish Dance Band	The Reel Party	CD	4	J32 8	4:30	33.8
Machine Without Horses	The Alastair Downie Band	Let's Go Scottish Country Dancing Vol 5	CD	4	J32 8	4:28	33.5
Machine Without Horses	The Alastair Downie Band	Scottish Dances	CD+	13	J32 8	4:28	33.5
The Machine Without Horses	Alasdair Fraser & Muriel Johnstone	Just As It Was 3	CD	1	J32 8	4:56	37.0
The Machine Without Horses	Auld Reekie	More Capital Reels	CD+	4	J32 8	4:22	32.8
The Machine Without Horses	Bobby Brown and The Scottish Accent	Book 12.	CD	12	J32 8	4:41	35.1
The Machine Without Horses	Bobby Murray	I Love Scottish Country Dance Music	CD	1	J32 8	4:31	33.9
The Machine Without Horses	Colin Dewar and his Scottish Dance Band	Scottish Dance Favourites Volume 1	CD	1	J32 8	4:44	35.5
The Machine Without Horses	Colin Dewar and his Scottish Dance Band	Music for Fifteen Dances	MC	9	J32 8	4:44	35.5
The Machine Without Horses	Colin Dewar and his Scottish Dance Band	Book 12.	LP+	6	J32 8	4:44	35.5
The Machine Without Horses	Jimmy Shand and his Band	King of the Melodeon Men	CD	3	J32 6	3:14	32.3
The Machine Without Horses	Jimmy Shand and his Band	Step We Gaily	CD+	10	J32 8	0:00	0.0
The Machine Without Horses	Muriel A Johnstone	Preliminary Test	MC	6	J32 4	0:00	0.0
The Machine Without Horses	Muriel Johnstone & Keith Smith	Cairngorms	CD	1	J32 8	4:55	36.9
The Machine Without Horses	Reel of Seven	Dance for Joy Encore!	CD	6	J32 8	4:46	35.8
The Machine Without Horses	Stan Hamilton and his Flying Scotsmen	Scottish Dance Time Vol 1	LP	2	J32 8	4:32	34.0
The Machine Without Horses	The Colin Dewar Quartet	Music for Collins Pocket Reference. Vol 2	CD	7	J32 8	4:33	34.1
The Machine Without Horses	The Pictish Players	sailing by	CD	6	J32 8	4:18	32.2
The Machine Without Horses	The Thistle Band	On Stage With..., Volume 1	MC	2	J32 8	0:00	0.0
The Machine Without Horses	Tim Wright and his Scottish Dance Band	Tim Wright and his Scottish Dance Band	CD	2	J32 6	3:09	31.5

Showing 1 to 23 of 23 entries

The Machine without Horses 3/4L · J32

1–: 1c set | cast off (2c up) ; 1c+3c RHA
9–: 1c set | cast up (2c down) ; 1c+2c LHA
17–: 1c followed by 2c dance between 3c, cast up round them, dance up, 1c cast off to 2pl, while 2c dance into 1pl (no loops)
25–: 2c+1c R&L

E-cribs

The Machine without Horses 3/4L · J32

1-8: 1s set, cast & dance RH across with 3s
9-16: 1s set, cast up & dance LH across with 2s
17-24: 1s followed by 2s dance down, cast up behind 3s, in & dance up to top & 1s cast back to 2nd place
25-32: 2s+1s dance R&L

MiniCribs

Keith Rose's Diagrams

Combined View

Watch on YouTube