The subject of Tangent _vs._ Direct Spokes, or Direct vs. Partial Tangent, is one on which so much has been written and said within the last few years that it is probably well understood in the main by all enthusiastic wheelmen, but a few points may not come amiss to the beginner. In the first place, there is no such thing as partial tangency. A tangent spoke is tangent, and that is all there is about it. A tangent is a definite thing, and means a line normal to a radius at the circumference; at least, we can accept this definition as well enough suited to the cycle art. And, in speaking of tangency, we ought rather to say tangent hub than tangent wheel, since the spokes are not tangent to the rim of the wheel, but to the hub. All cyclists know very well, nevertheless, what is meant by partial tangency in the cycle art, and I will therefore use the term. If a long spoke went straight from one point in the rim to another nearly opposite, and just touched the outside circumference of the hub in one place, it would make two purely tangent spokes. (See cut.) As, for instance, _a b_ and _cd_ make all together four spokes, _af_, _bf_, _de_, and _ce_. If a spoke runs from any point, _a_, _c_, _b_, or _d_, to any point on the circumference of the hub between _f_ and _e_, it will not be a full tangent spoke. The distinctive characteristic of a full tangent spoke is that, when the force tending to revolve the wheel is applied, it pulls from the point on the hub which would recede most rapidly from that point in the rim to which the other end of the spoke is affixed. Hence, the common expression that “a tangent hub gives a direct end-pull on the spokes;” but so does any other hub, if the spoke is swivelled into it. With a direct spoke screwed into the hub, the weight of the man is sustained by a direct end-pull, and a slight power is transmitted to the rim by the resistance to flexure or bending in the spoke tending to revolve the wheel, and it will be found in practice that any hub with a direct spoke will turn independently of the rim far enough to increase the distance slightly between the ends of the spokes so as to really make an end-pull as in the tangent spoke, but evidently the hub must revolve a great way in order to increase the length a very little. Here comes in the advantage of the tangent spoke, for, in order to turn the hub within the rim, the spoke has to stretch an amount equal to the distance a point on the circumference of the hub moves. To represent this in popular terms, if the hub turns one-eighth of an inch, the spoke has to stretch that amount if tangent, whereas the necessary increase in length of the direct spoke is almost imperceptible.