Artillery wheel Artillery wheel The artillery wheel was developed for use on gun carriages when it was found that the lateral forces involved in horse artillery manoeuvres caused normally constructed cart wheels to collapse. Rather than having its spokes mortised into a wooden nave (hub), it has them fitted together (mitred) then bolted into a metal nave. Its tyre is shrunk onto the rim in the usual way but it is also bolted on for security. A normal wagon wheel is dished so that in its lowest part, the spokes are perpendicular to the ground thus supporting the weight (with the axle
Ship's wheel (though sometimes as few as six or as many as ten) shaped like balusters and all joined at a central wooden hub or "nave" (sometimes covered with a brass "nave plate") which housed the axle. The square hole at the centre of the hub through which the axle ran is called the "drive square" and was often lined with a brass plate (and therefore called a "brass boss", though this term was used more often to refer to a brass hub and nave plate) which was frequently etched with the name of the wheel's manufacturer. The outer rim is composed