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33-433: Oliver Damon was a carpenter and wheelwright who came to Wauwatosa from Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire in 1844. In that year he built the simple ell wing in the back of the house, using wood from the nearby forest. The 1935 HABS survey describes: "Some of the young saplings were simply squared on one side and used as rafters and joists. Others were hewn and squared with an adze , and the tool marks are still to be seen on many

66-441: A flourishing (government-backed) apprenticeship scheme that began in 2013. Colonial Williamsburg (USA) has an ongoing apprenticeship program and has recently (2016) taken on new apprentices. Mortise and tenon A mortise and tenon (occasionally mortice and tenon ) joint connects two pieces of wood or other material. Woodworkers around the world have used it for thousands of years to join pieces of wood, mainly when

99-488: A human habitation. It is almost ready for the hand of the wrecker." Instead of succumbing to the wrecker, the house was given to the Milwaukee County Historical Society by the sons of Alexander Rogers, a later owner. The historical society restored it, and today operates it as a museum . In 2020 due to the costs of upkeep the Milwaukee County Historical Society sold the property to private owners. It

132-404: A metal channel. Due to age or dry climate, a wheel would shrink and the metal hoop tyre would become loose. Routinely, the hoop would be removed, 'shrunk', heated and refitted to make the wheel tight again. Tools to shrink the hoops were called "tire upsetters" or "tire shrinkers". During the industrial age, iron strakes were replaced by a solid iron tyre custom made by a blacksmith after

165-401: A mortise and tenon joint is both simple and strong. There are many variations of this type of joint, and the basic mortise and tenon has two components: The tenon, formed on the end of a member generally referred to as a rail, fits into a square or rectangular hole cut into the other, corresponding member. The tenon is cut to fit the mortise hole exactly. It usually has shoulders that seat when

198-703: A mortise in". The word tenon , a noun in English since the late 14th century, developed its sense of "a projection inserted to make a joint" from the Old French 'tenir' "to hold". The mortise and tenon joint is an ancient joint. One of the earliest mortise-tenon structure examples dates back 7,000 years to the Hemudu culture in China's Zhejiang Province. Tusked joints were found in a well near Leipzig , created by early Neolithic Linear Pottery culture , and used in construction of

231-535: A piece of timber in the old house. Much of this timbering is of oak and black walnut ." This start date makes it the oldest surviving home in Wauwatosa . With Oliver were his son-in-law, Jonathon Warren and other family. By 1846, Oliver and/or his son Lowell had added the stylish 1.5-story front section. The broad front and 1-room depth are unusual for Wisconsin - perhaps a form the Damons knew from New England . The shape of

264-568: A term usually used for someone who makes and repairs wheels for horse-drawn vehicles, although it is sometimes used to refer to someone who repairs wheels, wheel alignment, rims, drums , discs and wire spokes on modern vehicles such as automobiles , buses and trucks . Wheels for horse-drawn vehicles continue to be constructed and repaired for use by people who use such vehicles for farming , competitions and presentations of historical events such as reenactments and living history . A modern wooden wheel generally consists of three main parts,

297-432: Is a derelict of the past, a tumble-down structure in need of paint, because the brass knocker that once graced the front door is but a memory and its sill is worn by the tread of countless feet, it is neglected by the passer-by. The average citizen of Wauwatosa is not alive to the fact that here is an example of the purest type of architecture extant. Today (1935) the house is hardly habitable. It has outlived its usefulness as

330-406: Is a locked (pegged) mortise and tenon technique that consists of cutting two mortises into the edges of two planks; a separate rectangular tenon is then inserted in the two mortises. The assembly is then locked in place by driving a dowel through one or more holes drilled through mortise side wall and tenon. Generally, the size of the mortise and tenon is related to the thickness of the timbers. It

363-401: Is a protective strip that goes outside the felloes. Tyres were make of iron or steel, usually as a hoop and fitted hot around the rim. As it cooled and shrank it tightened the joints of the spokes-to-felloes and spokes-to-nave, strengthening the wheel and making it more rigid. Metal tyres are very noisy on hard road surfaces, so many carriages wheels were made with solid rubber tyres fitted into

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396-411: Is good practice to proportion the tenon as one third the thickness of the rail, or as close to this as is practical. The haunch, the cut-away part of a sash corner joint that prevents the tenon coming loose, is one third the length of the tenon and one-sixth of the width of the tenon in its depth. The remaining two-thirds of the rail, the tenon shoulders, help to counteract lateral forces that might tweak

429-546: Is no longer a museum. https://www.milwaukeemag.com/oldest-home-wauwatosa-now-new-owners/ [REDACTED] Media related to Lowell Damon House (HABS) at Wikimedia Commons Wheelwright 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 . This occupational name became

462-403: Is substituted for Oak and Ash as it is easier to bend for mass production and is quite springy for light wheels that require a bit of flexibility. The Elm is used for its interwoven grain, this prevents the nave from splitting with the force of the spokes being driven in tight. The Oak is used because it doesn't bend, compress or flex and transfers any load pressures directly from the felloes to

495-457: The hub . One end of each spoke is set into the nave in a process called tennoning . In older wheels, the nave had a 6-inch sleeve that fit over the axle to keep the wheel from wobbling; it required frequent greasing. More modern carriage wheels use bearings . Spokes are wooden sticks that fit into the nave at one end, and into the felloe at the other end. A felloe is one of several curved pieces of wood that when pieced together make

528-483: The nave or hub at the centre of the wheel, the spokes radiating out from the centre and the felloes or rims around the outside. Generally the wheel would be bound by a steel or iron tyre depending on its historical period and purpose. The main timbers used in a traditional wooden wheel are Elm for the nave, Oak for the spokes and Ash for the felloes although this can vary in some areas depending on availability of timber, climate and style of production. Sometimes Hickory

561-407: 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

594-584: The Middle East, Europe and Asia. Many instances are found, for example, in ruins of houses in the Silk Road kingdom of Cadota , dating from the first to the 4th century BC. In traditional Chinese architecture , wood components such as beams, brackets, roof frames, and struts were made to interlock with perfect fit, without using fasteners or glues, enabling the wood to expand and contract according to humidity. Archaeological evidence from Chinese sites shows that, by

627-400: The adjoining pieces connect at right angles. Mortise and tenon joints are strong and stable joints that can be used in many projects. They connect by either gluing or friction-fitting into place. The mortise and tenon joint also gives an attractive look. One drawback to this joint is the difficulty in making it because of the precise measuring and tight cutting required. In its most basic form,

660-403: The building could be considered Colonial style , along with the front door with its symmetry and sidelights . Greek Revival style could provide the pilasters on the front corners, the cornice returns , and the frieze boards. The diamond-paned frieze windows on the side walls are an uncommon touch. By 1935, the fine house had fallen into disrepair. The HABS surveyor mourned, "...because it

693-630: The end of the Neolithic, mortise and tenon joinery was employed in Chinese construction. The thirty sarsen stones of Stonehenge were dressed and fashioned with mortise and tenon joints before they were erected between 2600 and 2400 BC. A variation of the mortise and tenon technique, called Phoenician joints (from the Latin coagmenta punicana ) was extensively used in ancient shipbuilding to assemble hull planks and other watercraft components together. It

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726-487: The joint fully enters the mortise hole. The joint may be glued, pinned, or wedged to lock it in place. This joint is also used with other materials. For example, it is traditionally used by both stonemasons and blacksmiths . The noun mortise , "a hole or groove in which something is fitted to form a joint", comes from c.  1400 from Old French 'mortaise' (13th century), possibly from Arabic 'murtazz' , "fastened", past participle of 'razza' , "cut

759-479: The nave), the spokes and the rim segments called felloes, (pronounced fell low), 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

792-540: The nave. The Ash is used for its flexibility and springy nature, this acts as a form of suspension and protects against shock damage. In the second half of the 20th century, wheelwright training faded away due to a lack of demand for new wooden wheels. The skills were kept alive by small businesses, museums, societies and trusts such as The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (USA) and The Countryside Agency (UK). The Worshipful Company of Wheelwrights in London (UK) maintains

825-421: 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. Early wooden wheels were solid, made from slabs of trees. They were heavy but

858-413: The rim of a wheel. They are fitted onto the outer ends of the spokes. Sometimes spelled "felly". The number of felloes required to make a circle varied by region, era and size of wheel—with a minimum of two half-circles of bent wood, to multiple felloes per wheel with at least two spokes per felloe. The rim is the outer edge of a wheel, although some refer to the tyre as rim. The tyre or tire

891-412: The simple construction did not requiring much skill. Wheels with spokes were lighter. They could be constructed with smaller trees and built larger in diameter because they were not limited by the size of trees in the region. However, spoked wheels required precise spacing and careful calculations to construct a perfect circle. It is thought that the special craft of wheelwright started with the invention of

924-455: The spoke. Rural areas without access to a wheelwright continued to make solid wheels. Due to the skill and experience required for making wheels, in Europe the wheelwright was formed into an identifiable trade. The basic parts of a wooden wheel are nave (or hub), spokes, felloes (felly) and tyre (tire). The nave is the central block of the wheel. In a wooden-spoked wheel, the nave acts as

957-593: The village wheelwright obsolete. With the onset of two world wars , the trade soon went into decline and was very rare by the 1960s and almost extinct by the year 2000. However, owing to the efforts of organisations like the Worshipful Company of Wheelwrights, wheelwrights still continue to operate in the UK. In modern times, wheelwrights continue to make and repair a wide variety of wheels, including those made from wood and banded by iron tyres. The word wheelwright remains

990-519: The wheels with nails, or tyre bolts. The metal tyres were drilled before being placed on the wheel. Tyre-bolts were less likely than tyre-nails to fall off because they were bolted through the felloes. Both countersunk and flush finished to the wheel's outer surface. During the second half of the 19th century, the use of pre-manufactured iron hubs and other factory-made wood, iron and rubber wheel parts became increasingly common. Companies such as Henry Ford 's developed manufacturing processes that soon made

1023-409: The wheelwright had measured each wheel to ensure proper fit. Iron tyres were always made slightly smaller than the wheel in circumference. They were expanded by heating in a fire, and while hot they were hammered, and pulled by a levered hook, onto the rim of the wheel. The hot tyre was then cooled by placing it into water. This shrank it onto the wood, and closed the wooden joints. Tyres were fastened to

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1056-579: The wooden lining of the wells. Mortise and tenon joints have also been found joining the wooden planks of the " Khufu ship ", a 43.6 m (143 ft) long vessel sealed into a pit in the Giza pyramid complex of the Fourth Dynasty around 2500 BC. They were also found in the Uluburun shipwreck (14th century BC). Mortise and tenon joints have also been found in ancient furniture from archaeological sites in

1089-405: 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

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