the Hancock type are preferable because of their combined strength and resilience, as well as for advantages as to cleaning and appearance.
There are, however, no points in particular that the beginner has to consider except to beware of wheels made with very light spokes and felloes. Look well to the joints in the felloes and every joint of every adjoining spoke in the bosses. Well-made wheels show no movement at these points after hundreds of miles of running. For the most part the buyer must rest upon the honesty and reputation of the maker, but he may help the longevity of the wheels by judicious and gradual use of clutch and brakes, and by guarding against loose or lost nuts on the wheel boss flanges or slackness on the axles. Any slackness of the rim on the felloes should be attended to by a wheelwright. The cycle wheels of the light voiturette seldom require attention except in case of accident, and they may generally be entrusted to any of the accredited repairing shops.
As a rule it may be taken that the larger the wheel the smoother the running of the car. Very small wheels are to be deprecated on this ground, and also because the severity of the shocks to the whole car increases very rapidly on bad roads with decrease in diameter of wheel, for reasons which have been given in the book already mentioned.
All the wheels should be of the same size, because the same tyre will then fit any wheel, and half the number of spare-covers and inner tubes are required as compared with the requirements when the wheels are of different sizes.
The appearance of a car with wheels of equal size is moreover better than when the steering wheels are smaller, and except that custom, dictated by the old locking plate and centre pivoted axle, required the small wheels in front, there is not only no reason for small steering wheels in motor carriages, but if any difference is made they should be larger than is necessary for the driving wheels.
