Alloy Wheels, Chrome, and Spoke

Welcome to ghostwheeltech.net, or Web site is dedicated to giving you the most accurate and up to date information available regarding your car’s rims. We cover topics from aluminum wheels to mag wheels, with stops everywhere in between. So if you have questions relating to all things wheel; you’ve stopped at the right place. As always, if you have questions regarding our site, or would like to see something else on it, please drop us a line and let us know.

The wheel is credited as one of mankind’s first inventions. It was the impetus behind much of our technological advances. From clocks to mills, from pipes to cars, most of our modern life would be impossible without the wheel. The first use of wheels for conveyance dates back to ancient Egyptian times, when the Egyptians used them for chariots. The Chinese histories show chariots in use at about the same time, and the debate over who invented the chariot is one that has not been settled.

The first chariot wheels were a far cry from today’s automobile wheels and custom rims. They were solid for starters, and they were made of wood for another thing. It was not until much later that wheelwrights discovered that making a wheel out of a circle enclosing spokes radiating from a central hub could withstand more forceful impacts by distributing the force around the circumference of the wheel with greater efficiency. They were also lighter, which was not an initial concern, but became one as materials and handling shifted.

Carriages were the first fully wheeled conveyances, meaning that they sat permanently on their wheels, and they were also the first devices to feature a suspension, or springs that helped absorb shocks to the wheels rather than transferring them to the passengers. When cars came out, wheels had already shifted towards metal as the preferred material, and rubber was added as an additional shock absorber.

It was not until the nineteenth century that the concept of an inflatable tire on the outside of the wheel came into play. The idea was brought about by the large numbers of wheels that were broken by impacts with minor obstacles, such as gravel or cobblestones. Even with rubber coating, too much of the force was making it to the wheel itself, and breaking the welds that attached the spokes to the wheel’s rim. The addition of a large volume of air between the rim and the ground provided just the thing necessary to keep wheels from breaking.

Now when a particularly bad bump is hit, we blow a tire. We may complain about the expense of replacing a blown tire, but just think about what would happen if you had to replace your entire car’s wheel every time you had a flat. The expense would have multiplied by several orders of magnitude, something nobody wants to contemplate.

There was another development that significantly altered the course of wheel history, and that was the development of forged and cast wheels. Forging and casting are similar processes, both of which result in a metal object that is entirely a single piece, without joints that could be prone to shattering. These techniques allowed wheels to be made lighter, yet stronger, than they were previously, and led to the development of many of the wheel designs we see today.

If you are looking for truck tool boxes, check out truckoptions.com

 

Alloy Wheels | Chrome | Learning Center | Site Map | Contact | Home

©