A wheelwright's shopWorldwide Wheelwright Phill Gregson fitting iron "strakes" to a traditional wooden wheel
A wheelwright is a craftsman who builds or repairs wooden wheels. The word is the combination of "wheel" and the word "wright" (which comes from the Old English word "wryhta", meaning a worker or shaper of wood) as in shipwright and arkwright.[1] This occupational name became the English surname Wright. It also appears in surnames like Cartwright and Wainwright. It corresponds with skilful metal workers being called Smith.
These tradesmen made wheels for carts (cartwheels), wagons (wains), traps and coaches and the belt drives of steam powered machinery. They also made the wheels, and often the frames, for spinning wheels. First constructing the hub (called the nave), the spokes and the rim segments called felloes, (pronounced fell low),[2] and assembling them all into a unit working from the center of the wheel outwards. Most wheels were made from wood, but other materials have been used, such as bone and horn, for decorative or other purposes. Some earlier construction for wheels such as those used in early chariots were bound by rawhide that would be applied wet and would shrink whilst drying, compressing and binding the woodwork together. After many centuries wheels evolved to be straked with iron, a method of nailing iron plates onto the felloes to protect against wear on the ground and to help bind the wheel together. Straking was considered to be a less skilled practice and could be done with less knowledge and equipment, this made the wheels easier to service without the need for a blacksmith.
Over millennia the overall appearance of the wheel barely changed but subtle changes to the design such as dishing and staggered spokes helped keep up with the demands of a changing world. These small changes in design made a massive improvement to the strength of the wheel whilst reducing its weight; vehicles then became more efficient to build and use.
^Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary. 1976. ISBN 0-87779-338-7.
^"Oxford English Dictionary". www.oed.com. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved 8 May 2022.
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