Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/358

The resemblance to some of the 'sandals' of the first and second classes is very striking, particularly those figured by Professor Defays; that by M. Namur, found at Dalheim (fig. 114); that in the Cluny Museum; the one found at Serupt in 1846, and the specimen in the Besançon Museum. Some allowance must be made for the very large diameter of the modern wheels, which necessitates a longer shoe (though the London carriages offer a great many varieties as to form and length in these articles), but the sole of the one here represented measures about three inches across between the clips—the width of several of the sandals. The Roman wheels of small diameter and coarse workmanship would vary much in the thickness of the felloes and width of the hoops, which will readily account for the irregular width of many of these so-called sandals, and also, perhaps, for their difference in shape. The increased thickness of sole in the modern 'sufflamen' is rendered necessary by the much greater weight of the waggons and the loads they are intended to carry; but the abundance of material, and the facility with which our Vulcans can forge large masses of iron, makes this of little consequence, compared with the difficulties the blacksmiths of eighteen centuries ago had to contend with. It will be observed that this wheel-sandal has an eyelet at each end, like the horse-sandal of the second and third classes, for the attachment of a chain which fastens it to the body of the vehicle. One of them is higher than the other, and is the one to which the chain is usually attached; its elevation is intended to throw the stress of wear on the middle of the sole, exactly as it is in the soleæ ferreæ. The two clips on each side