Model, of axle and pair of wheels, 1740-1760

Model of an axle and pair of wheels.

This is a model of an axle and pair of wheels. It is made of mahogany and is a fine example of the work of Mr. Pease, who was an eighteenth-century lecturer and springmaker of London. It forms part of the King George III Collection of scientific instruments, and was almost certainly originally owned and used by Stephen Demainbray, an itinerant lecturer between 1749 and 1769, and tutor to the future King George III, in his lecture on wheeled carriages. The axle is made of iron embedded in carved mahogany, with brass hubs. The large wheels have iron-shod rims, and the spokes show pronounced 'dishing' (setting out from the vertical), three features strongly recommended for lateral strength by Dr. J. T. Desaguliers, a model-maker and lecturer in natural philosophy, as well as others, for vehicles of the time.