Wheeling

“ The commissioners further state, that, to aid them in the extension of their route, they ran and marked a straight line from the crossing-place on the Monongahela, to Wheeling, and had progressed twenty miles, with their usual and necessary lines of experiment, in ascertaining the shortest and best connection of practical grounds, when the approach of winter and the shortness of the days afforded no expectation that they could complete the location without a needless expense in the most inclement season of the year. ”

“ Still, as the century grew old [Pg 72] and the interior population became considerable, the Ohio division of the road became a crowded thoroughfare. An old stage-driver in eastern Ohio remembers when business was such that he and his companion Knights of Rein and Whip never went to bed for twenty nights, and more than a hundred teams might have been met in a score of miles.
When the road was built to Wheeling, its greatest mission was accomplished—the portage path across the mountains was completed to a point where river navigation was almost always available. ”

“ How difficult it is for the trainer to judge [58] exactly how much force to exercise in helping to steer the wheel and start the wheeler along the macadamized highway! In this the point of view makes all the difference. The trainer is tall, the rider short; the first can poise on the off-treadle while one foot is on the ground, but the last must learn to balance while one foot is in the air. ”

“ The air is full of the buoyant freshness of the hills, and one's thoughts turn to pine forests and rushing waters. Over the superb highway where in ancient days stately processions passed to and fro from Spain, our machine glides on with a sweeping, flying motion, until I find myself leaning over and looking for the wings which should project from the centre of each wheel,—winged wheels, surely. ”

“ Ever was spinning her thread from a distaff fixed to her saddle.
She was so thrifty and good, that her name passed into a proverb.
So shall it be with your own, when the spinning-wheel shall no longer
Hum in the house of the farmer, and fill its chambers with music. ”

“ The slow riding is much the more difficult. It is much easier for the rider to keep his equilibrium while riding swiftly.
[Pg 24]
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes once published an article in the “Atlantic Monthly,” entitled “The Human Wheel; its Spokes and Felloes;” in which he treated the act of walking as analagous to the movement of a wheel: the legs being the spokes and the feet the felloes. ”

“ I heard the sharp click of this against the spokes of the wheel, then the hum of the wheel, the buzz of the spindles as the twisting yarn was teased by the whirl of its point, then a step backwards, a pause, a step forward and the running of the yarn upon the spindle, and again a backward step, the drawing out of the roll and the droning and hum of the wheel, most mournfully hopeless sound that ever fell on mortal ear. ”

“ It was the very first time that these primitive savages had seen the principle of the wheel applied to locomotion, and it passed their comprehension altogether. With childish delight and an uproar that baffles all description, both men and women almost fought with one another for the honour of pushing the crude little conveyance about. The perambulator was made out of logs, and was a four-wheeled vehicle; the rims of the wheels being cut from a hollow tree. My blacks were also much amazed at the great size of my mountain home ”

“ But what I have mentioned was another turn more, so that the wheels were again in statu quo, and the horse not in the least disordered: if it should be unruly, with the help of one pin, you disengage him from the Calesh without any inconvenience. I myself was once overturned, and knew it not, till I looked up, and saw the wheel flat over my head; and, if a man went with his eyes shut, he would imagine himself in the most smooth way, though, at the same time, there were three feet difference in the heights of the ground of each wheel. ”

“ Secondly, as a wheel runs along a road it is forced from side to side by the uneven surface, the uneven draught of the horses, and the rapid motion, which latter frequently causes the wheel to jump over the road instead of pressing equally over all its circumference. Then we dish our wheels, not only to keep the tyre tight as long as possible, but also to resist the lateral thrust, which in a perfectly upright wheel would soon force the spokes out of the naves. ”

“ It is evident that one of the greatest, if not the very greatest, of the requirements of a practical road wheel, or a man-motor carriage, is that the power of the rider shall be transmitted to the said wheel in the most direct manner possible; that is, by causing the strain to come upon the muscles in such a way that these muscles shall be placed in the best possible position to overcome such strain, and to take advantage of such conditions as nature has already provided for, in training our muscles to the work we have had to do under the old régime, without the wheel. ”

“ Will you state more definitely the nature of the injury you have seen in regard to the effect of the horses' feet, in comparison to that of the wheels of Carriages?—First of all they displace at every blow, they tear up, and throw the surface behind them; whereas the wheel only rolls as it goes, and throws some portion on both sides of it, if the road is soft. ”

“ If there is to be a change of horses, or you are in your own stable yard at the end of the journey, have your reins unbuckled, let the leaders' reins be pulled through your hands by the grooms, then throw down the wheel-reins, one on either side, or, as circumstances of space demand, retain the wheel-reins, and drive your coach where it is to stand by the wheelers alone, after the leaders are out. ”

“ The choice of locomotion lay between a pillion-ride on horseback, in fair weather or foul, as it might be, and a clumsy springless wooden coach occupying a good week upon the road, provided all went well, and that the huge wheels did not wedge themselves into the ruts or the mire of the King’s highway, or the Flanders mares did not stumble or cast a shoe five miles from a smithy. ”

“ The question is often asked if riding a wheel is not the same as running a sewing-machine. Let the same doctor answer: “Not at all. Women, at least, sit erect on a wheel, and consequently the thighs never make even a right angle with the trunk, and there is no stasis of blood in the lower limbs and [57] genitalia. Moreover, the work itself makes the rider breathe in oceans of fresh air ”

“ What is that enormous wheel, for example, careering downhill in Berkshire in the eighteenth century? It runs faster and faster; suddenly a youth jumps out from within; next moment it leaps over the edge of a chalk pit and is dashed to smithereens. ”

“ At first start, run beside the iron horse, leading it by the hand, so as to familiarize yourself with its movements, and to master well in your mind the idea of the fore wheel, upon which all depends. This will be an affair of but a few moments only. You will very readily perceive that it will be impossible to balance upon the machine, while it is standing still. You will also see that, without practice, it will be an impossibility to mount the iron horse, and balance yourself upon the seat, while it is in motion. ”

“ How frequently one sees a rider, wrench in hand, dubiously surveying his wheel at arm's-length, now tightening a nut here or loosening one there, in a vain endeavor to fix in this manner something that is out of order and prevents his wheel from running properly! ”

“ A moment's reflection will make it clear that the wheel is a lever of the first class, of which the axle constitutes the fulcrum. The spokes of the wheel being of equal length, weights and forces applied to opposite ends of any diameter are, of course, in equilibrium. It follows that when a wheel is adjusted so that a rope may be run about it, constituting a simple pulley, a mechanism is developed which gives no gain in power, but only enables the operator to change the direction of application of power. ”

“ He expatiates on the exquisite order in which wheel rotates within wheel, but not having heard, he cannot be shocked by the grating of each as it turns upon its axis for discord sets the primary wheel in motion, and its jarring is felt through the whole machine. ”

“ A number of valuable books have been written on the fundamental principles of locomotion by means of walking, riding upon animate beings, flying and creeping, and also upon all kinds of inanimate or mechanical motors, but little has been said about physical properties underlying the intervention of a wheel between the body of man and the surface to be travelled over, the motor being man himself. ”

“ Every idea of comfort must, however, be set aside by those who are willing to conform themselves to the common method of riding post. A kind of a vehicle is given, which is not unlike a very small crate for earthenware, fastened to four small wheels, by the means of wooden pegs, and altogether not higher than a common wheel-barrow. ”

“ Yet it is to be noticed that the earliest methods of locomotion, other than those purely muscular, such as walking and riding, knew nothing of wheels. Such methods depended primarily upon the enormously significant discovery that a man could drag a heavier weight than he could carry, and what applied to a man also applied to a beast. Possibly such discovery followed on the mere observation of objects being carried down the stream of some river, and perhaps a rudely constructed raft should be considered to be the earliest form of vehicle. ”

“ Procure a pair of Wheels, being of Light Wood, like that of a Spinning Wheel, fasten them on an Axel-tree, and place Rockets round them, as bands are fastened round a Wheel, and so primed at Tail and Head, that when one Expires the other may take fire, half of them placed with their Heads and Tails the contrary way to the first: So that when the first are spent, and the Wheels have run on plain Ground a great way, the other firing will turn them again, and bring them to the place where they first set out. ”

“ The men of these nations were used, when travelling, to affix two small wheels upon their shoulder blades, and on coming to any slight incline in their path they would curl up their legs, lie on their backs and free-wheel as distantly as the slant of the ground permitted, greatly, no doubt, to the astonishment of less sophisticated people. ”

“ Here then is a solid wheel, which answers all the intentions of the garden roller; now can anything be conceived that would have so happy a tendency upon the roads? to render them smooth and even to harden and encrust the surface, and make it resemble a terrass walk? ”

“ These wheels, a large number of which are placed side by side in the same room, are made to revolve by means of machinery, with an inconceivable velocity, while the workmen who have the polishing to do, taking their stations, each at his own wheel, on seats placed there for the purpose, and holding the piece of work on which the operation is to be performed, in their hands, apply it to the revolving circumference before them. ”

“ All these are met by the wheel plough, and in addition it fulfils the indefinite and indefinable condition of handiness. A machine may be apparently perfect, a boat may seem on paper, and examined on principles, the precise build, and yet when the one is set to work and the other floated they may fail. But the wheel plough, having grown up, as it were, out of the soil, fulfils the condition of handiness. ”

“ That is, while A revolves once, B and the hub and the driving-wheel will revolve only 64⁄80 = 4⁄5 of a turn. To use scientific language, B revolves 20 per cent. slower than A.
[Pg 446]
This is the gearing we use for hill-climbing. On the level we want the driving-wheel to turn as fast as, or faster than, the chain-ring. To make it turn at the same rate, both A and C must revolve together. ”

“ And put an equal-turning wheel on each
end of your axle,
Since your wheelbarrow 's broke!
THE FOOTPATH WAY. "Jog on, jog on, the footpath way,
And merrily jump the stile, O!
A merry heart goes all the day,
Your sad one tires in a mile, O!" ”

“ Stage Coaches, therefore, carrying heavy weights, moving with great velocity, and presenting to the road a narrow tire of wheel, must of necessity drag in a greater degree than any other carriage, as combining in themselves every cause by which dragging is produced. ”

“ When the top is reached and the wheel starts down, the weight of man and machine causes the wheel to spring forward a little at first, and then, when the weight would drop too slowly and the momentum would otherwise pull the wheel bodily off, the vertical spring, being compressed, will, by its quick action, together with the pressure backward of the horizontal spring against the obstruction, hold the wheel in contact and make it roll off. ”

“ Oh, how fast I am going!"
"It's the wheels on her that make her coast so nice," explained Arnold, when the Lamb was half way down the ironing-board hill. "If she didn't have them she wouldn't roll down at all. A Sawdust Doll can't do it, nor a Rocking Horse. It's got to be something with wheels." ”

“ The nave of a large wheel corresponds to the ilio-femoral articulation (hip-joint) of the tall man, the spokes to his legs, and portions of the rim to his feet.”
We thank nature very much for this suggestion of the wheel; without it perhaps we should never have conceived of the veritable wheel itself.
I also find from another work: [3]
“Living beings have frequently and in every age been compared to machines, but it is only in the present day that the bearing and the justice of this comparison is fully comprehensible.” ”