TAA i.3.8.43

                                      A (2)

nave, and reached the felloe to which they were 
housed and fixed by means of a tenon and mortise 
shouldered joint. The felloe (B/<D>) was made in two 
sections of straight-grained ... wood bent to the 
required circle, <and> its to/<two> sections were joined by 
means of a "splayed scarf<"> joint<s>". In some 
cases a thin outer rim of wood (E), of several 
sections, was fixed on the outer circumference of 
the felloe, like a tyre, but in all instances 
a thick leather tyre (F) was employed.
          The nave, flanges, radial bar sections, and 
joints of the felloe, when assembled, were glued 
and bound with raw hide which, when it dried, 
shrunk and held them tight. These bindings 
were afterwards covered with either a gold or a 
bark decoration. So excellent was the joinery <of these wheels> 
that, even after a lapse of thirty-three centuries, 
in most cases the joints are <still> hardly visible to the 
naked eye. And, it should also be noticed that, 
this ingenious form of char wheel possesses not 
only the elements of lightness, but it tends 
to neutralize risk of splitting, and to combine 
even greater solidity when under any reasonable 
strain.