ceptionally light wheels, as well as the
American method of making the rim in two sections of straight-grained
ash or hickory bent to the required circle. This method has much to
recommend it, more especially for wheels with indiarubber tires, in
which the wood felloes are not required to be nearly so deep as for
steel tires. One well-known feature in light wheels is the "Warner
nave," which is a solid iron casting with mortices to receive the
spokes, and being of small diameter gives the wheel a light
appearance.

For springs the finest quality of steel is made from Swedish ore, but
the ordinary English spring steel by the best makers leaves nothing to
be desired. To secure the most perfect elasticity it is important that
the tapering down of the ends of each plate should be done by hand
labour on the anvil, and that the plates should not be more than 1/4
in. in thickness. To obtain cheapness wholesale spring-makers adopt
the method of squeezing the ends of spring plates between eccentric
rollers, and so produce the tapered form, which, however, is too short
and gives a lumpy and unsightly appearance to the spring when put
together, so that by this they lose much of their pliability.

The iron mounting of coach work requires the skill of experienced
smiths, and gives scope for much taste and judgment in shaping the
work, and providing strength suited to the relative strain to which it
will be subjected. Axle-trees are not made by coach-builders, but by
firms who make it their special business. They are of two kinds, the
"mail," which are secured to the wheel by three bolts passing through
the nave, and the "collinge" (invented in 1792), the latter made
secure by gun-metal cone-shaped collets and nuts. The axle boxes which
are wedged into the nave are of three kinds, cast, chilled and wrought
iron, in all cases case-hardened, the first being the cheapest and the
last the most costly. Many attempts have been made to improve upon the
collinge axle-tree, but none of them has got far beyond the
experimental stage.

No branch of coach-building contributes more to the elegance of the
vehicle than that of painting. To obtain the needful perfection the
work has to pass through several stages before reaching the finishing
colour, which must be of the finest quality. The varnish used is
copal, of which there are two kinds, the one for finishing the body,