Every wheel must have an iron
band about it, very tight, to strengthen it and to hold it firmly
together. Without a tire, a wheel would very soon come to pieces, in
rattling over a stony road.
"Besides," continued Forester, "there is a great deal of other iron
work, which the farmers must have done. Farmers can, generally, do
most of the wood work which they want themselves. They can make their
rakes, and drags, and cart-bodies, and sleds, and tool handles; but
when they want iron work, they must go to the blacksmith's. They can
make a harrow-frame, but the blacksmith must make the teeth."
"Now I should think," said Marco, "that it would be easier to make the
teeth than the frame."
"Perhaps it is as easy, if one has the forge and tools," replied
Forester; "but the tools and fixtures, necessary for blacksmith's
work, are much more expensive than those required for ordinary wood
work. There must be a forge built on purpose, and an anvil, supported
on a solid foundation, and various tools. All these are necessary for
shoeing a single horse, and when they are all procured, they will
answer for all the horses of the neighborhood. Thus it happens, that
though farmers do a great deal of their wood work themselves, at their
own farms, in cold and stormy weather, they generally have their iron
work done at a blacksmith's at some central place, where it is easy
and convenient for all of them to go."
The above conversation took place between Marco and Forester, as they
were walking along together through the village, toward the part of
the town where the mills were situated. Just at this moment, Marco
happened to cast his eyes across the street a short distance before
them, and he saw a fire on the ground in a little yard. He asked
Forester what that fire could be. As soon as Forester saw the fire, he
exclaimed,
"Ah! they are putting a tire upon a wheel; that's quite fortunate;
we'll go across and see them."
So they left the path under the trees where they had been walking, and
went obliquely across the street toward the fire. Marco saw that
there was a large blacksmith's shop there. It was a very neat-looking
building, painted red. There was a large door in the front, and a very
low window, with a shutter hanging over it, by the side of the door.
In an open yard, by the side of the shop, was the fire. The fire was
in the form of a ring. There were several men standing about it; one
of them, whom Marco supposed was the blacksmith, by his leather apron,
was putting on small sticks of wood and chips, here and there, around
the ring. Marco saw that there was a large iron hoop, as he called it,
on the fire. It was not really a hoop, it was a _tire_. It was
made of a much larger and thicker bar of iron, than those which are
used for hoops. It was a tire belonging to a wheel. The wheel was
lying upon the ground near, ready to receive the tire. It was the hind
wheel of a wagon. The wagon itself was standing in front of the shop,
with one end of the hind axletree supported by a block.
"What do they heat the tire for?" asked Marco.
"To swell it," replied Forester. "It is necessary to have the tire go
on very tight, so as to hold the wheel together with all the force of
the iron. Now when iron is heated it swells, and then shrinks again
when it cools. So they heat the tire hot, and put it upon the wheel in
that state. Then when it cools it shrinks, and binds the whole wheel
together with a very strong grip."
"But if they put it on hot, it will burn the wood," said Marco.
"Yes," replied Forester, "it will burn the wood a little. They can not
help that entirely; but they stand ready with water, to pour on, as
soon as the tire is in its place, and so cool it immediately, so that
it does not burn the fellies enough to injure them."
"What are the fellies?" asked Marco.
"They are the parts of the wooden rim of the wheel. The rim is made of
several pieces of wood, which are called fellies."
So Forester took Marco to the wheel, and showed him the parts of
which the rim was composed. While Marco was looking at the wheel, the
blacksmith began to push away the burning brands a little from the
tire, as it began to be hot enough. Presently he went into his shop
and brought out several pairs of tongs. With these the men lifted the
tire out of the fire, but the blacksmith said it was a little too hot,
and he must let it cool a minute or two.
"Why, if it's very hot," said Marco, "it will grip the wheel all the
harder."
"It will grip it _too_ hard," said Forester. "Sometimes a tire
shrinks so much as to spring the spokes out of shape. Didn't you ever
see a wheel with the spokes bent out of shape?"
"I don't know," said Marco. "I never noticed wheels much."
"They do get bent, sometimes," said Forester. "It requires great care
to put on a tire in such a manner, as to give it just the right degree
of force to bind the wheel strongly together, without straining it."
[Illustration: THE TIRE.]
As soon as the tire became of the right temperature, the men took it
up again with the pairs of tongs - taking hold with them at different
sides of it - and then they put it down carefully over the wheel. The
wheel immediately began to smoke on all sides. In one or two places
it burst into a flame.
