WJiecls with Broad Felloes. 665 



easily and with greater force, and soon the roads are 

 entirely worn out. 



The remedy for all these inconveniences is so simple 

 and so easily found that it is really astonishing that the 

 use of it has been for so long a time neglected. 



Struck by the advantages which ought to result 

 from the adoption of wheels with broad felloes for 

 pleasure carriages, I persuaded a person of my ac- 

 quaintance in Paris, six years ago, to have a pair of 

 wheels for a fly made with felloes 4 inches broad. 

 These wheels were . made, under my direction, by 

 M. Groux, a wheelwright living on the Rue de Sevres ; 

 but circumstances, which need not be mentioned here, 

 have always prevented an experiment being made with 

 them. 



In the course of a journey to Bavaria, last autumn, I 

 had on the way an opportunity of speaking to several 

 wagoners, whom I met with large wagons carrying 

 heavy loads between Paris and Strasburg; and I learned 

 from them how well they are pleased now with the 

 change which the law has obliged them to make in the 

 construction of the wheels of their wagons. Several 

 of them assured me that, with the same number of 

 horses, they could now load their teams with a load a 

 quarter heavier than they carried formerly with narrow 

 wheels, and that the new wheels are much stronger and 

 more durable than the old ones. 



This information strengthened me in the opinion 

 which I had for a long time entertained on the prefer- 

 ence which should be given to wheels with broad 

 felloes for all sorts of carriages : and I made on the 

 spot a firm resolve to brave the ridicule which is always 

 encountered by those who dare to be the first to deviate 



