“In running the wheels with a ‘traveller,’ a wedge must be driven in one of the joints of the felloe for the purpose of tightening the other joints in the rim. Then get the length of the felloe, and in running the tire cut it ⅛ inch shorter than the rim measures. In this explanation we are supposed to have steel tire, and we have a kind of steel tire now that is very high and difficult to weld, and there are many smiths that will profit by this lesson if they attend to the precaution we give. This tire steel will not stand as heavy heat as even cast steel, and if it is over-heated in the least it will crack or break in two while hot. “There is one peculiar fact connected with it that we find in no other kind of steel, and that is this: it is apt to slip, however good the heat, and to obviate this, after scaffing the ends down to a sharp edge, make a rather sharp lap, and while hot take a sharp-pointed punch and punch a hole nearly through both laps, and drive in a sharp pin made of ³⁄₁₆-inch steel wire and ½ inch long. This will not show on the outside of the tire when on the wheel, neither does it weaken the tire like a rivet. We have often seen tires broken where the rivet went through. “In welding, first have your fire perfectly clean, the coal pretty well charred, and the fire hot, but rather small, for the smaller the fire, if hot, the less it will waste your tire each side of the weld; have the borax charred; put a little on the weld while hot, pull the fire open with the poker and place the lap in the hottest part; roll a few pieces of coked coal on the weld, blow steadily, carrying your tire back and forward through the fire, or stop the blast a moment until the lap is heated alike all through; take it out and weld with hammer and sledge. With this precaution you will never fail getting a good welding heat, and need not upset your tire before welding. If your tire is upset before welding it makes the lap so much thicker that before it can be heated through alike there is a liability to over-heat, and waste away the tire on each side of the weld.