The writer,
indeed, only admits them to have revived what he thinks was known to the
Greeks, that is, the making the circumference of a wheel of one single
piece. The farmers in New Jersey were the first who practised it, and
they practised it commonly. Dr. Franklin, in one of his trips to London,
mentioned this practice to the man now in London, who has the patent for
making those wheels. The idea struck him. The Doctor promised to go to
his shop, and assist him in trying to make the wheel of one piece. The
Jersey farmers do it by cutting a young sapling, and bending it, while
green and juicy, into a circle; and leaving it so until it becomes
perfectly seasoned. But in London there are no saplings. The difficulty
was, then, to give to old wood the pliancy of young. The Doctor and the
workman labored together some weeks, and succeeded; and the man obtained
a patent for it, which has made his fortune. I was in his shop in
London; he told me the whole story himself, and acknowledged not only
the origin of the idea, but how much the assistance of Dr. Franklin had
contributed to perform the operation on dry wood.
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