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The Carriage King
James Birch of Burlington, New Jersey, supplied affordable wheeled vehicles to the world
In his travels through South Africa in the early 1950s, the American writer John Gunther stopped to speak with members of the Zulu nation employed to pull rickshaws for the burgeoning tourist trade. All of the rickshaws in Africa, the Zulus told him, came from one place – a town in New Jersey. In 1863, James H. Birch, Sr. opened a carriage repair business in Burlington City. Soon, he began manufacturing carriages rapidly and cheaply using one of the country's first assembly line productions. It is said that Henry Ford visited the Burlington plant to observe production techniques, which churned out over one hundred thousand carriages in 1902 alone.
Birch also manufactured wheeled vehicles to suit the needs of foreign countries. Invented in Japan in the 1870s, the jinrikisha – or rickshaw – gained popularity as an inexpensive vehicle that could operate on the streets of Asia and Africa. Seizing on this demand, Birch added rickshaws to his production line. Success in the international market resulted in a new company motto. They called Birch carriages "the ‘round the world line." |