The word ambulance first meant a hospital that walked along behind an army
Ambulance comes from the Latin ambulare, to walk about, and originally named a mobile hospital following troops on the march. Spanish forces first used ambulancias to carry casualties in 1487, during the Catholic Monarchs' siege of Málaga. Only around the Crimean War of the 1850s did the name begin to stick to the wagons themselves.
The older meaning hung on for a while. In the American Civil War, carts that hauled soldiers off the battlefield were called ambulance wagons, yet field hospitals were still known as ambulances in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the Serbo-Turkish war of 1876. Civilian services began in the 1830s, and engines arrived over the following century. Some early motor ambulances were converted hearses, among the few vehicles built to carry a person lying flat.
Today almost anything can serve. Most are built on vans or pickup trucks in two stages: a carmaker such as Ford or Toyota supplies the chassis, and a second firm adds the body, lights and fittings, either built from scratch or as a prefabricated box. Beyond road vehicles there are motorcycles that slip through traffic, bicycles for pedestrian zones, golf carts at events, water ambulances in canal cities, hospital trains in remote regions, and aircraft such as those of Australia's Royal Flying Doctor Service.
Specialist versions keep appearing. Bergen, in Norway, tried a psychiatric ambulance in 2005 called Psykebilen, staffed by crews trained in mental health crises; it cut the use of force, and other Norwegian and Swedish cities copied it. In 2008 New York City ran a pilot vehicle designed to preserve the organs of people who had just died, funded by a three-year grant of 1.5 million dollars.
Engines follow climate and safety. Cold regions favour petrol because diesels start poorly in the cold, while diesel gained ground after a run of fires in petrol ambulances during the 1980s. Britain's National Health Service now aims for a fully electric fleet by 2045.
Source: Ambulance
