388 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



and practice is required in putting the tire or iron 

 hoop round the rim of the wheels ; the holes for the 

 nails to fasten it to the felloes are first made, the 

 bar of iron is then turned round and formed into 

 a circle of the required diameter, and the two ends 

 welded together ; it is then heated all round red-hot, 

 and the wheel being laid with its face (that is, the out- 

 side of the nave undermost) upon a flat piece of stone- 

 work or metal plate, the iron hoop, from the great 

 expansion occasioned by its heat, goes easily round the 

 wheel, the iron is then immediately cooled, and, by 

 contracting, binds all the wood-work together ; the 

 nails are then put through the tire into the felloes, and 

 the wheel being cleaned off, is finished. Formerly, 

 the iron was, very generally, put round the wood-work 

 of the wheel in separate pieces, having nothing to 

 fasten it to the felloes except the nails ; but this 

 practice has become obsolete. 



The sons of Vulcan are almost as active in the 

 blacksmith's department of a coach-builder's establish- 

 ment, as they are in those businesses where things 

 constructed of iron are the sole articles of manufacture. 

 Most of a carriage-smith's time is spent beside his 

 forge and over his anvil. The principal tools that he 

 requires are all descriptions of hammers, chisels, and 

 punches, but it would occupy too much time to go into 

 all the details of a blacksmith's work, who is employed 

 in the construction of carriages ; sufficient to say that 

 he makes a great part of the under-carriage, the iron 

 fastenings of wood- work, the steps, springs, lamp 

 brackets, and wheel tires. The greatest care is needed 

 in the iron framework of the under-carriage of a four- 

 wheel carriage, which enables the fore part of a carriage 

 to lock round. 



There are numberless things which a smith has to 



