WOOD-USING INDUSTRIES 



VEHICLE AND VEHICLE PARTS 



Table n relates to the manufacturing of vehicles and vehicle 

 parts. It .does not include all material going into wagons in Virginia, 

 as wheelwrights in nearly every city, town, and postoffice throughout 

 the State build a few handmade vehicles each year and to locate and 

 gather information from all was found impracticable. Factories rarely 

 make all of the component parts from rough lumber and turn out the 

 vehicle complete. Some buy spokes, rims, and hubs separately, but 

 manufacture all the rest of the vehicle. Others purchase wheels com- 

 plete, axles skeined and gear parts ironed and assembled, poles and 

 shafts ready for use, and make only bodies. Another class procure 

 all parts complete even the bodies and the tops and merely assemble 

 them. 



In no other industry is specialization in manufacturing better 

 illustrated than in the making of vehicles. This can be accounted for 

 in part by the fact that vehicle parts are made from the choicest 

 .grades of wood and the timber most suitable for each part is often 

 found in widely separated localities. For instance the pole and shaft 

 makers find the supplies of hickory best suited for their needs in 

 Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas. The hub makers use the largest 

 quantity of soft elm and cork elm in the northern States and Canada, 

 while the spoke manufacturer and the rim manufacturer are widely 

 distributed and operate extensively in Virginia, West Virginia, Ken- 

 tucky, Tennessee, and Missouri. Further, in the making of vehicle 

 parts, there is a great amount of waste, and to have the factories 

 making distinct parts located near to the source of the timber supply 

 makes for economy and lower prices as well as for greater efficiency 

 in manufacturing. 



Care was exercised not to get information concerning the same 

 material twice. If a manufacturer bought parts of the vehicle ready 

 made he was asked to give data only of those parts which he actually 

 manufactured from rough lumber. If he operated merely to assemble 

 the vehicle and had only to paint and put on finishing touches, a 

 report was not requested, but if he was a manufacturer of vehicle 

 parts, special effort was made to secure the information of the material 

 used. 



The kinds of vehicles manufactured in Virginia are buggies, 

 carriages, and other light personal conveyances, besides wagons for 

 city and country use, trucks, drays, carts, log wagons, tobacco ware- 

 house trucks and wheelbarrows. 



This industry is of much importance in Virginia. It consumes 

 over seventeen million feet of wood annually and paid close to a half 



