OF OHIO 61 



VEHICLES AND PARTS 



In contrast with the rapid increase in the automobile industry 

 there has probably been a decline in the consumption of wood for the 

 manufacture of horse-drawn vehicles, and a number of firms priorly 

 specializing: in building: buggies and wag-ons have added to their 

 business the making- of auto-vehicles, either pleasure cars or com- 

 mercial trucks. The chang-e has not materially affected the relative 

 standing* of the manufacture of horse-drawn vehicles as this industry 

 is still a very important line of manufacturing in the State and in the 

 number of vehicles turned out is one in which Ohio leads all other 

 States. 



It was deemed advisable in segregating the industries to include 

 vehicle "parts" under this table, since some firms devote their 

 entire plant and equipment to the manufacture of component parts, 

 such as spokes, rims, hubs and poles. Often carriag-e manufacturers 

 are practically nothing more than assemblers of parts and enter into 

 production merely as finishers. The southern States, with their 

 comparatively large supplies of hickory and oak, the two important 

 woods of this line of manufacture, are the sources of the main supply. 

 Club turned spokes, rim strips, and g-ear woods, partly finished, are 

 shipped into Ohio in large quantities trom this section. These 

 semi-finished products were not taken into account when collecting 

 information for this report since the wood used has already been or 

 will be credited to the States producing- them. Likewise it was 

 impractical in collecting- statistics for this report to include materials 

 used by the small wheelwrig-ht or country blacksmith, who in the 

 aggregate would not consume a great amount and g-enerally buys 

 what he does use in a partly finished condition. 



The large amount of hickory consumed, mainly, 29,324,100 feet, 

 indicates that it is the premier wood in vehicle making. Its use is 

 confined mainly to the production of spokes and bent rims for bug-gy 

 wheels, and to a larg-e extent for g-ear parts. In the manufacture of 

 heavy wagons white and red oak, the latter to a much less extent, 

 have been the favorite woods. They answer for felloes, hubs, 

 spokes, axlesL, hounds, bolsters, poles, etc., and are the standard 

 wagon-woods of the country. Mortised wag-on hubs are larg-ely 

 made of elm, both white and rock, and woods for gear parts other 

 than the hickories and oaks are sug-ar maple, white ash, beech, black 

 locust, etc. 



Yellow poplar, which comes third in the list, indicates the high 

 grades of this class of manufacture, since only the best carriag-es, 

 delivery wagons and automobiles could afford this wood, on -account 

 of the hig-h prices demanded. Formerly yellow poplar was used for 



