Another forgotten word is "Wright." Millwright, shipwright, wheelwright, cartwright and wainwright (wagon maker) are words that became people's proper names, but which have all joined the world of vanishing occupations. The wheelwright began as an apprentice woodsman and became America's greatest wood expert.

The spidery web of a wheel that reached perfection during the Victorian age could not be made again. Its strength improved with age because its properly seasoned wood suplemented each other's merits to weld a unit as close to perfection as man has ever produced. Only well into the nineteenth century did the wheelwright use a circular iron tire. Before that, the wheel was shod only with strakes or curved sections over each spoke end.

That enormous weights could speed over the rough roads of yesteryear on wooden wheels much slenderer than modern bicycle tires and without any metal fastenings seems almost miraculous. Black or sour gum for hubs, oak or ash for spokes, hickory for felloes, beech or fresh ash for axles, oak for framing, and popular for paneling were some of many combinations of wood that made up a lasting wagon. Such combinations were the "secret recipes" of the old wheelwright and he made every effort to keep them secret, as he hid his method of seasoning.

There is no need for anything but metal wheels today. When the world moved on dirt roads, however, a fine wooden wheel meant a great deal to the exper t, and almost every man was an expert. The "feel" and spring, even the sound of a properly made wheel added to the enjoyment of ye sterday's travel. But now all that is gone and wrights are practically extinct. Even the "smiths" who succeeded them in the iron age are on their way to oblivion.

Excerpted by Maury Tosi
From Eric Sloane's booklet American Yesterday (1956)