Shifts and expedients of camp life, travel & exploration

by William Barry Lord; Thomas Baines

If the longitudinal cut (Fig. 6) for the scarf is also made not square across, but a little inclined upwards in front, it will also help to resist the backward pressure of the wheel. No fastening beyond the bolt which passes through the quarter of the axle and the band at the shoulder is absolutely necessary for the fixing of a new arm. We have, upon one occasion, not only made a new axle, but when, from unsoundness of timber, a new arm was necessary, have put in one on which the heavily-loaded waggon ran nearly 1000 miles; and besides this, the fore “tong” (J), or socket in which the dissel-boom or pole (K) works being much broken, we cut off the jaws on either side, and fitted new ones in a manner that will be much better understood by the above sketch than by description; and these, after running from the Zambesi to Otjimbengue, were still so firm that the professional waggon-wright, deemed it necessary only to secure them by the addition of a couple of bands put on hot, and shrunk down on them with water.

Repairing poles.

Frequently the “dissel-boom” or pole will break, but the cutting and fitting of a new one is too simple a matter to need much more instruction than a careful inspection of the old one will afford; it was our practice, however, to bore a hole perpendicularly downward behind the dissel-bolt (Fig. 7), and by means of a ½in. bolt and nut, tightly screwed, preserve the pole from splitting when subjected to a heavy strain.

Mr. Reeder, whom we met near the Zambesi, showed us a very ingenious plan of staying the dissel-boom when the fore tong was weakened. Chapman went out and shot a rhinoceros, and Reeder first nailed a chock upon the dissel-boom, and fixed on it a grummet of rhinoceros hide as tight as possible, then, taking a long, stout strip of the same, he hitched the middle of it on in front of the grummet, leading the parts to each side of the splinter bar, and thence under the axle to the bolts behind it, where the ends were thinned off sufficiently to admit of their being easily made fast. These stays did not come forward enough to gall the after oxen. The great virtue of raw hide is that, instead of slackening like rope when it dries, it shrinks, and becomes as hard as iron. Suppose a dissel-boom sprung where another could not be procured, the skin from the leg of an ox, or a wild animal of corresponding size—say a buffalo or quagga—drawn on while wet and allowed to dry, would make the joint firmer even than the unfractured part (Fig. 8). The skin from the tail of an ox will, in the same manner, mend a broken waggon whip; and that of a calf’s tail is in like manner used by the Kafirs to bind the part where the iron of their assegais or light javelins is inserted into the shaft. Quagga skin, indeed, is especially used for this purpose, and hardly for any other, as it is so rigid that the ordinary means for softening leather are of no avail. Sometimes the Dutch farmers use the skin, just as it is stripped off, as a jar or barrel to hold corn or other produce.

The repair of wheels.

A long journey over rough roads and in an intensely hot country, like Africa in the dry season, will tell upon the best-made wheels, and the spokes and tires will become loose most frequently where it is impossible properly to rectify the defect. In such cases a number of wedges of dry, straight-grained wood must be prepared, and for this purpose some box or packing-case, made of deal, must be sacrificed, as it will be almost impossible to procure anything so suitable in the bush; the plank must be cut into pieces between 3in. and 4in. long, and, if these are again sawn diagonally along their length, material will be saved by the production of two wedges, where only one could have been made by the whittling process. These must be driven tightly in from back and front, between the felloe and the tire, and as equally as possible all round the wheel; if they are then wetted with, and allowed to absorb, a strong solution of salt in water, they will swell, and will not again shrink as they would if wetted with water only. We knew one very practical Englishman who used to soak his wedges in salt and water before driving them in, but what he gained by thus previously swelling them we never were able to learn. If the spokes become loose in the nave the temporary remedy is to cut two stout bars, in length just equal to the diameter of the wheel; half check them so as to give them a better hold on the felloe; lay them parallel to each other on the front of the wheel, one on each side the nave, and bind every spoke as firmly as possible to them with thongs of raw hide, taking care to keep the lashings quite close to the centre of the wheel; the drying up of the thongs will shrink them so much that the fabric of the wheel will be as firmly bound together as if clamped with iron.

If a spoke be broken, cut a new one much thicker than the rest, half check it on to the back of the felloe, and let the other end abut upon the nave, filling up nearly the space between the sound spokes on either side; it should need to be driven in tightly, and, when in position, should be secured by thongs of raw hide, both at the nave and at the felloe, to sticks laid across the front of the spokes on either side, and securely lashed to them.

Lead, and its uses.