Friday, March 30, 2007

Historic Wheels

Consider how we value our comfort; if you don't agree, just take one look at the conveyance above and visualize your ride down that dusty, bumpy western "road." I'm inclined to think, also, of the skill it took to make those wheels in a world where the latest factory did not have machines that we had in my husband's home workshop.

Both the buckboard (top picture) on display in Mountain Club and the wagon above, down in Yarnell, feature wooden wheels with an iron rim.

Here's a set of iron wheels I found over on Park Avenue. Probably from some sort of farm equipment.

A more formidable wheeled instrument, this cannon in the little park on West Gurley, must post-date the Civil War. Unlike most smallish mid-America towns, Prescott was settled too late to earn a Civil War cannon for its Courthouse Square.

The modern uses of these old wheels? Yard decor...

...supporting a mailbox...

...or perhaps an informal street sign. How we do take for granted what was one of the great inventions that gave the Old World its major advantage over the civilizations of the New World!

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:26 AM

    Historic Wheels, is a fine post. Did you use the new camera?

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  2. Anonymous10:18 AM

    As the king of soul would relate..
    "Grannys got a brand new Cam"

    Happy shooting J

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  3. Hey, guys, not yet. I'm a slow learner; I'm still trying to figure out how to use it. A lot more complicated than an everyday operating system or new software!

    Steve -- as for these pics, I've taken them at various times. I keep a big portfolio of potential posts.

    Paul -- you're right about that. Good to have you with us; I'd visit your site back, but the door was closed at Blogger.

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  4. Granny J, you don't NEED that new camera. (I used my Jack Nicholson voice to say that.) But I can't wait to see what you turn out with it.

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  5. Mr.Cat -- Let's face it, there are a lot of things I really don't need. However, I've had to throw out a lot of pictures because the zoom on my little box merely magnifies the small pixels into big pixels. Also Sson figured that the image stabilization might be a good idea to steady my old hands. Anyhow, we'll see. After getting swamped with data in the big-little how-to manual, I finally discovered the little-little basic instructions, so I might take it out with me tomorrow.

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  6. Great pictures - I love those old wooden wheels. Many years ago I worked for my late father-in-law who was a blacksmith. He wasn't a wheelwright, but I remember on a couple of occasions we had to heat up and shrink a new iron "tyre" onto a wooden buggy wheel (as it cools and shrinks you can hear all the spokes creaking as the wheel tightens up.

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  7. That explains the lovely Roman work you did with the dagger and sheath, Avus. Our Western re-enactors should make their own weapons. And armour yet!

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