HARDWOOD RECORD 



19 



When ash was plentiful it was much used in 

 the gear work of carriages, but at present 

 hickory is practically the only timber util- 

 ized, except in the hubs and axle caps. For 

 the hubs the favorite wood is rock elm, whose 

 elastic toughness, coupled with a certain de- 

 gree of hardness, has given it the preference 

 for light work. These qualities allow the 



great importance, far more so than is the 

 case with the wagon, where it is nevertheless 

 an essential part of the work, at least in the 

 higher class vehicles. But where three or 

 four coats are deemed sufficient for the best 

 farm wagon the good carriage maker will 

 sometimes put on as many as seventeen coats 

 or more; in England manufacturers are very 



LIMOUSINE CLOSED BODY. 



spokes to settle in the hub so that a close 

 union is formed without the crushing of fibers. 

 Black locust has these characteristics to a 

 lesser degree, and persimmon, black birch and 

 dogwood have been found to be fairly satis- 

 factory substitutes. For the axle caps maple 

 has been largely substituted for hickory be- 

 cause it is cheaper and more plentiful. 



The rest of the vehicle, as stated, is almost 

 always exclusively hickory, including poles, 

 shafts and spokes. The merits of this wood 

 are well known, and it seems to be indispensa- 

 ble to the making of the modern American 

 carriage. The needs of this great industry 

 furnish one important reason for the careful 

 conservation of our hickory supply. Results 

 of the government 's recent tests of hickory 

 buggy spokes and hickory and red oak buggy 

 shafts showed that a large proportion of the 

 red and mixed spokes undeniably belong to the 

 highest grades and that the prejudice against 

 red hickory is without foundation. Weight 

 for weight, the red, white and mixed spokes 

 were found to be of equal strength and 

 toughness, at least in clear stock. The shaft 

 tests showed that red oak may be substituted 

 for hickory of the lower grades in shaft 

 manufacture. 



The felloes or individual sections of the 

 wheel rim may be either bent or sawed, but 

 the former are generally preferred where 

 wooden wheels are used. 



Hubs are either entirely of wood or fitted 

 ■with a metal armor. Racing carts have cycle 

 wheels, where wood is not used, except some- 

 times for the rim. Carriage axles are often 

 of steel, and this is said to give complete 

 satisfaction in certain forms. 



The painting of a carriage is a matter of 



thorough in this particular. The durability 

 of the vehicle itself is prolonged by this ex- 

 treme care, but the chief cause is the fact 

 that the highest possible polish is demanded 

 in most types of carriages, and if such a 

 polish is tg withstand time and exposure it 

 must be durable indeed. The number of 

 coats is simply a matter of experiment and 

 tests. 



Practically all funeral cars are more or less 

 heavily carved, and no portion of the box 

 itself escapes the machine or the artisan 's 

 tool. In the best vehicles of this type all 

 carvings and mouldings that form part of 

 the bodv are cut out of solid wood and hand- 



finished. They are not glued on nor 

 on, but form a solid and component part of 

 the body. A regular stock style, manufac- 

 tured by Jas. Cunningham, Son & Co., may 

 be described as an example. Each side has 

 four delicately carved pillars, and the top 

 and bottom frames of the windows, between 

 the pillars, are likewise heavily carved. The 

 "boot" or compartment under the coach- 

 man 's seat has windows on either side, each 

 one being framed between two pillars and 

 top and bottom mouldings. Even the coach- 

 man 's foot-rest is carved. The lamps also are 

 of superb design, about three feet high. 



The cuts of the carriage, automobile and 

 park drag accompanying this article were 

 loaned by C. P. Kimball & Co. of Chicago 

 and show a few of the high-class types of 

 vehicles put out by this concern. 



From the funeral car to the two-wheeled 

 road cart the Varieties of carriages now in , 

 use number forty or fifty, and it is not every 

 one who can tell the difference between a cab 

 and a coupe, or between a brougham and a 

 landau. Charles Klauber. 



New Credit Eating Book. 



W. F. Biederman, superintendent of the Na- 

 tional Lumber Manufacturers' Credit Corpora- 

 tion, St. Louis, has just issued the ninth volume 

 of its credit rating book containing a classified 

 list, with capital and pay ratings, of all manu- 

 facturers, wholesale and retail dealers in lum- 

 ber, as well as of factories which buy in carload 

 lots. As usual, the utmost care has been taken 

 to make the list as complete and accurate as 

 possible. Reliability and conservatism are feat- 

 ures of it which lumbermen will appreciate, and 

 corrections, business changes, new concerns, fail- 

 ures, etc., are taken care of in the weekly cor- 

 rection sheet. 



Accuracy and thoroughness have characterized 

 al! previous issues of the credit rating book, as 

 they do the operations of all departments of the 

 corporation. The names of officers at the head 

 of it are a sufficient guarantee of merit for any 

 publication issued from the home office. They 

 are Wm. Irvine, Chippewa Falls, Wis., president ; 

 R. A. Long, Kansas City, Mo., vice president : J. 

 A. Freeman. St. Louis, treasurer ; Geo. K. Smith, 

 St. Louis, secretary. 



BE.4UTIFL-LLT C.\RVED FUNERAL CAR. 



