190 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



Jan. 2, 1829. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



BOSTOnTfRIDAY JAN. 2, 1829. 



BROAD WHEELS. 



To preserve a road by iiiii)roviiig tlie wheel 

 carriages which pass over it, all agree that the 

 wheels should be made broader than they usually 

 are, and cylindrical: that carts with two horses 

 abreast are less injurious than such as are drawn 

 by two horses in a line : and that it would be an 

 advantage to have the axletrees of different lengths. 



Ed"eworlh, upon a careful examination, con- 

 cludes, that the system of rolling roads by very 

 broad wheels must be abandoned ; and that such 

 a breadth only should be insisted upon, and such 

 restrictions made as to loading, as will prevent the 

 materials of the road from being ground to pow- 

 der, or from being cut into ruts. With this view 

 the wheels of carriages of burden should have fel- 

 loes six inches broad, and no more than one ton 

 should be carried on each wheel. 



Farcy is of opinion, that six inch cylindrical 

 wheels, or under, are the most practicable and 

 useful, provided the projecting nails are most rig- 

 idly prohibited, which can never be done but by 

 a penalty per nail upon the wheelers who ])ut in 

 those nails, and upon the drivers of the carriages, 

 who use such roughly nailed wheels. 



Telford thinks that no wagon or cart wheel 

 ought to be of less breadth than four inches, and 

 that in general no carriage ought to be allowed to 

 carry more than at the rate of one ton per wheel : 

 " when it exceeds that weight," he says, " the best 

 materials which can be procured for road-making 

 must be deranged and ground to pieces." 



Paterson is a warm advocate for broad wheels. 

 " If the wheels were used double the breadth as 

 at present," he says, " they would ant as rollers 

 upon the material.^, binding them together, and 

 consequently the surface would always remain 

 smooth and free from ruts ; and the waste or de- 

 cay, would, of course, be exceedingly little." All 

 broad wheels, however, should be made on a con- 

 struction different from those that are in common 

 use. Those in common use, whether broad or 



for instance, the fnislum of a cone, or a sugar loaf, 

 from which you have broken off a little bit at the 

 point ; then set this a rolling upon a table, and in- 

 stead of going straight forward it will describe a 

 circle ; and if you will [lut a pin or axletree right 

 through the ceutre of it, and upon that axle cause 

 it to move straight forwards, the smaller diameter 

 must slide instead of rolling. It is evident, there- 

 fore, that the rims of the wheels ought to be of a 

 cylindrical form. Edgeworth stales in relation to 

 this, that " from the testimony given to the com- 

 mittee of parliament, by every person of science 

 and judgment, cylindrical wheels and straight ax- 

 letrees have been unequivocally preferred." 



Farcy finds the Whitechapel road more injured 

 by broad wheels than any other, owing to those 

 wheels being barrelled and conical, and not run- 

 ning flat, and the middle tier projecting above the 

 others with rough nails. 



Gumming has proved experimentally, before the 

 committee of 1808, that when the rim of a wheel 

 is made truly cylindrical, so as to have an equal 

 bearing on its whole breadth, the resistance to its 

 progress on a smooth road is not increased by in- 

 creasing its breadth. And in regard to the im- 

 mense saving that would accrue to the nation, 

 Jessop, in his re))ort, says, " I may venture to as- 

 sert, that by the exclusive adoption of cylindrical 

 broa<l wheels, and flat roads, there would be a 

 saving of one horse in four, of seventyfive per cent 

 in repairs of roads, fifty per cent in the wear of 

 tire, and that the wheels with spokes alternately 

 inclined, would be equally strong with conical 

 ones, and wear twice as long as wheels do now 

 on the present roads." But over and above the 

 preference due to such wheels, in respect to pub- 

 lie roads, they are no less preferable when ap[ilied 

 to purposes of husbandry. Besides the great re- 

 sistance to the draught occasioned by the sinking 

 of the narrow wheels on soft land, every farmer 

 knows what injury is frequently done to subsequent 

 crops by such poaching and cutting up of the land. 

 But this is not all. Many a field of beautiful [las- 

 ture, when subjected to the destroying operation 

 of the narrow wheels, is very much injured, both 



,, ,. , ,, .... I, ,, ., I in respect to the appearance and the crop, which 

 narrow, are generally ais/ierf (as It IS called) on the : ,' , , ■' ,. . , ", , , 



., , ., 1 r .1 1 . 1 , r..i I vToud be entirely prevented by usmg broad wheels, 



outside, and the ends of the axletree bent a little . , •' ' , • j ,i • , i 



mi- .111. 1 Thus It has been stated in regard to the introduc 



This causes the wheels to run wi'i"'- ' ^ 



downwards. This causes the wlieels to run WKler 

 above than below ; and the reason, I believe, for 

 adopting this plan, was to allow people to increase 

 the breadth of their carnages, and get the wheels 

 to run in the same track. Upon this plan, the 

 edges of the wheel, to run flat on the road, must 

 lie of a conical shape, the outer edge being of less 

 diameter than the inner one. Any bad effect 

 arising from this is indeed very little felt from the 

 narrow wheels ; but as they increase in breadth, 

 the evil increases in the same proportion. " A 

 conical wheel," says Edgeworth, " if moved for- 

 ward by the axletree, must partly roll and partly 

 slide on the ground, for the smaller circumference 

 could not advance in one revolution as far as the 

 larger. Suppose," says he, " the larger revolution 

 sixteen feet, and the smaller thirteen feet, the outer 



tion of the use of broad wheels, that the saving on 

 the incidental repairs of the road would be im- 

 mense ; that the roads would uniformly retain a 

 smooth and even surface, which would greatly 

 contribute to the comfort of the traveller, and the 

 ease of the draught ; that in liusbandry also the 

 advantages would be great ; in short, that in eve- 

 ry point of view, the benefits that would be de- 

 rived in consequence, would be paramount to ev- 

 erything that would be urged in favor of the nar- 

 row wheels. 



M'Adam thinks a wagon wheel of six inches 

 in breadth, if standing fairly on the road with any 

 weight whatever, would do very little tnaterial in- 

 jury to a road well made and. perfectly smooth. — 

 The injury done to roads is by these immense 



by crushing the materials?" he answered, "On a new 

 made road, the crush would do mischief, but on a 

 consolidated old road, the mere perpendicular pres- 

 sure <loes not do any. But there is a great deal 

 of injury done by the conical form of broad 

 wheels, wliich operate like sledging, instead of 

 turning fairly. There is a sixteen inch wheel 

 wagon, which comes out of Bristol, that does more 

 injury to our roads than all the travelling of the 

 day besides." 



With regard to regulating the weight to be car- 

 ried on wheels. Farcy judiciously observes, that 

 though it is not easy to state any one scale thai 

 woulil be generally a|)phcable for each breadth of 

 wheels below six inches, there should be a rate. 

 fixed, which should apply to ordinary or gate- 

 tolls ; and at the weighing machines additional, 

 or what may be called machine tolls, should be 

 levied upon all carriages which exceeded th© 

 weight, to be regulated in an increasing scale for 

 each breadth of wheels, so as very greatly to 

 discourage, but not ruinously to prohibit the occa- 

 sionally carrying of large weights upon any 

 wheels. 



* Axletrees of different lengths have been pro- 

 posed by some engineers, with a view of preserv- 

 ing the roads. On this subject Paterson observes, 

 "at present the axles of all kinds of carriages are 

 made to one length, so that their wheels all run 

 at the same width, and in the same track, than 

 which nothing could be more fitly devised for the 

 destruction of the roads. I would, therefore, pro- 

 pose that the length of the axletrees should be 

 varied, that the wheels of the lighter description 

 of carriages should run two inches narrower than 

 the present track ; and that the axles for the more 

 weighty carriages should be increased in length, 

 so that the wheel should run from one to four 

 inches beyond the present track. 1 would also 

 propose, that mails, and other heavy coaches, 

 should be so constructed, that the hind wheels 

 should follow either two inches within, or two 

 inches outside the track of the fore wheels, as 

 might be considered most proper. Were the axle- 

 trees of all kinds of carriages to be of various 

 lengths as here proj^osed, we should have no rut- 

 ted roads. The stones now displaced by the 

 wheels of one carriage, would be replaced again 

 by the next carriage that came up, having its axle 

 of a different length : and in the same manner 

 would the hind wheels repair the injury done by 

 the fore wheels of a carriage. If this plan wa$ 

 to be acted on all over the kingdom, it is evident 

 that it would have a very beneficial effect on the 

 roads ; and if it should be found thus to contribute 

 to the keeping the roads smooth and even, it is 

 also evident that it must contribute in the same 

 proportion to the comfort of travellers of every 

 description, and also to the ease of the beast of 

 draught. 



,. , ., 1- . 1 -1 .1 ■ 1 ' wcia:lits striking against materials, and in the iircs- 



pait must slide three feet, while the carriage ad- ! , ,. 7 . , i i .i i • i 



•^ . ■ •. ' V 1 1 AM e'ent mode of shaiimg the wheels, they drive the 



vances sixteen. I.e. It must slide nearly one tiftli of . , , , ■ ■ i ,- • ., 



, I , ,■ , , J i materials before them instead of passing over them, 



the space through which the carnage advances, — ; . .i <■ . 



.1 T 1 J 1 -.1 . • .11 ,, I If a carriage passes fairly over a smooth surf ace, he 



thus, if loaded with ten tons, the horses would! , , , , i . . ., , 



, . . . , -r 1 I . /-.i . • 1 says, that cannot hurt the road, but must rather be 



have two tons to drag, as if that part of the weight 1 •' ' . • • i r .i n 



, , 1 J ,, mi .!,• u an advantage to it, on the principle of the roller, 



was placed on a sledge. Ihe same thing has „ , . f , ^ ■ • ., . , ■ 



, ,, ,, .,.,, , . . J I 7- Onbeingasked, "are you not of opinion that the im- 



beeii ably and beautifully demonstrated by Gum- 1 = . , ' ,,_,,, i , , 



,1, j7 r> • • I /• Tj/i I J „r,„ , niense weights carried by the broad wheeled wag- 



m\i\S,, (Ji-ssay on ihe Fnncxplea of Wheels and n heel , , . ,• , j • • 



r. ■ p , ,- -1 -11 . . J . 1 ! ons, even by their perpendicular pressure, do injury, 



Carnag-cs, ^c; and IS very casiy ilustrated ; take I ,>-i • "j v ( j. . j- , j ji 



CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 



The following extract of a letter of a recent 

 date, written by a gentleman who is ivell qualified 

 to speak upon the subject, shows what may be 

 done in this interesting pursuit, which is now oc- 

 cui)yiug the jiublio attention. The writer resides 

 on the Georgia side of the Savannah river, a few 

 miles above yVugusta. 



" Send mo a quarter cask of Madeira Wine — 

 I hope soon to make some of this article for sale. 

 The vines 1 got from Adlum, of Georgetown, in 

 1825, will bear fruit this year ; but a small por- 



