On first spotting the wheels on this old log hauler, they look like there’s dried mud packed between the hubs and rims. When you look closely, though, you see that these odd wheels are made of an iron hub and iron rim with pieces of wood jammed into the space between them.Since this wagon was used to haul logs out of a forest somewhere, by getting rid of spokes there’s no chance of limbs and other debris getting jammed into the open space between spokes and breaking them.
That’s my theory, at least. But it sure adds to the weight of the wagon! I hope they had some really big mules to lug these things around.
2 comments:
So to center the hub the wheelwright had to pound pieces of wood in here and there, nudging the hub towards the center?
Was Death Valley heavily forested before this wagon hauled all the trees away?
Death Valley was treeless for historic times. The trees came from the surrounding mountains. As for the wheelwright’s hub-centering, I don’t know. It probably wasn’t too important to center it exactly, except when using the rim-rubbing brakes.
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