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Axle   /ˈæksəl/   Listen
Axle

noun
1.
A shaft on which a wheel rotates.



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"Axle" Quotes from Famous Books



... eat nor drink? I did both violently. My pay melted away in fois gras, in woodcocks, in fine wines. The result came quickly enough: in less than a year my joints began to crack like the over-oiled axle of a bicycle that has gone a long way upon a dusty track. A sharp attack of gout nailed me to my bed. Fortunately, in that blessed country, the cure is in reach of the suffering. So I departed to Dax, at vacation ...
— Atlantida • Pierre Benoit

... absorbs our cares Life's wheels get dry, the axle wears, And heavier grows the load it bears, And faster driven, Its very dust defiles the prayers We ...
— The Black-Sealed Letter - Or, The Misfortunes of a Canadian Cockney. • Andrew Learmont Spedon

... continued, "you see that we shall have no difficulty as to the dam. Then, as to the wheel, it will be a simple one of not more than four feet diameter, presented vertically to what I may term the water-spout, so that its axle, which will have a crank in it, will work the saw direct; thus, avoiding toothed wheels and cogs, we shall avoid friction, and, if need be, increase the speed ...
— The Big Otter • R.M. Ballantyne

... was planned, 1832, by Robert L. Stevens. A frame made of oak, eight by four feet, pinned together at the corners, was made. Under one end of it a pair of wheels twenty-six inches in diameter were placed in boxes, and the other end was fastened to an extension of the axle outside of the forward driving wheels, it having been found by experience that a play of about one inch on each side on the pedestals of the front wheels of the pilot or engine was necessary in order to get around the ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 832, December 12, 1891 • Various

... myself up, as I always do, in the manner of heavy men; growing hot like an ill-washered wheel revolving, though I start with a cool axle; and I felt ashamed of myself for heat, and ready to ask pardon. But Carver Doone regarded me with a noble ...
— Lorna Doone - A Romance of Exmoor • R. D. Blackmore

... the Sydney road, I was remarkin', was made good. In them times there was no made roads, and you can imagine the bogs! Why, sometimes you'd think the whole coach was going out of sight in 'em, and chargin' round the stumps up to the axle was considered nothink. We had more pluck in them days! Well, that night the roads was that slippery the brake gave me all I could do, an' a new horse in the back had no more notion of hangin' in the breechin' ...
— Some Everyday Folk and Dawn • Miles Franklin

... She found Washburn in front of the stable oiling a buggy. He had placed a notched plank under an axle and ...
— Westerfelt • Will N. Harben

... talk dat goes 'round," said Uncle Eben, "ain' no mo' real help in movin' forward dan de squeak in an axle." ...
— More Toasts • Marion Dix Mosher

... shook themselves clear with some loss, both to themselves and to their pursuers. On the 10th those of the burghers who held together had reached Luneburg, and shortly afterwards they had got completely away from the British columns. The weather was atrocious, and the lumbering wagons, axle-deep in mud, made it impossible for troops who were attached to them to keep in touch with the light riders who sped before them. For some weeks there was no word of the main Boer force, but at the end of ...
— The Great Boer War • Arthur Conan Doyle

... that he had discovered a new continent. 7. The subject of inquiry was, Who invented printing? 8. The cat's tongue is covered with thousands of little sharp cones, pointing towards the throat. 9. The fly sat upon the axle of a chariot-wheel and said, "What a dust do I raise!" 10. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, attempting to recross the Atlantic in his little vessel, the Squirrel, went down in mid-ocean. 11. Charity begins at home, but it should not stay there. 12. The morn, ...
— Graded Lessons in English • Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg

... of his favourite axiom, drove off at such a furious rate over great stones left in the middle of the road by carmen, who had been driving in the gudgeons of their axle-trees to hinder them from lacing, [Opening; perhaps from LACHER, to loosen.] that Lord Colambre thought life and limb in imminent danger; and feeling that at all events the jolting and bumping was past endurance, ...
— The Absentee • Maria Edgeworth

... without being melted to such an extent as to lose his backbone; he becomes genial without undue compromise; he carries the torch of civilisation without a flourish. It was the chosen spirits of New England, men and women, that went West in their great waggons with the pots and pans hanging from the axle, and salted that crude country with ...
— The Mayor of Warwick • Herbert M. Hopkins

... motive wheel occupying the entire second floor, while attached to its pivot on the ground floor is the actual grinding stone. The wheat to be ground flows into a central aperture in this stone from a suspended vessel, a simple system of strings and ropes acting as an efficient brake on the axle of the upper wheel to control its speed, and others allowing the grain to fall uniformly and, when ...
— Across Coveted Lands - or a Journey from Flushing (Holland) to Calcutta Overland • Arnold Henry Savage Landor

... never been allowed to follow the buggy to Breton. "It corrupts the morals of a dog to loaf around a railroad station," Earle had always said. But this morning he stole secretly after the buggy, and trotted under the rear axle unobserved by Earle and Tommy. A mile down the road he thought it safe to show himself. He ran eagerly around the buggy, as if he had suddenly conceived the idea of going with them, had just overtaken them, and had no doubt whatever ...
— Frank of Freedom Hill • Samuel A. Derieux

... this address is devoted to a searching and severe examination of the whole course of President Tyler's administration, showing that "the sectional division of parties—in other words, the conflict between freedom and slavery—is the axle round which the administration of the national government revolves." "The political divisions with him, and with all Southern statesmen of his stamp, are mere instruments of power to purchase auxiliary support to the cause of slavery even from ...
— Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams. • Josiah Quincy

... heavy drilling to make a cover, some bedding, a stove, an old double-barreled shotgun, two pounds of powder and a lot of shot, harness for the team, horse-feed, and as complete an outfit as I could think of, even to the box of axle-grease swinging under the wagon-box. Rucker groaned at every addition; and finally balked when I asked him for a hundred dollars in cash. The court entered up the proper decree, I put my deeds in my pocket, and after making a feed-box ...
— Vandemark's Folly • Herbert Quick

... misfortunes of the day, I could not but admire the beauty of the scene. We were obliged to remain stationary the following day, in consequence of one of the drays being out of repair, and requiring a new axle-tree. I could hardly regret the necessity that kept us in so delightful a spot. This plain, which the natives called Pondebadgery, and in which a station has since been formed, is about two miles in breadth, by about three ...
— Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia, Complete • Charles Sturt

... each adult, and occasionally fresh beef. Soon after leaving Florence trouble began with the carts. The sand of the dry prairie got into the wooden hubs and ground the axles so that they broke, and constant delays were caused by the necessity of making repairs., No axle grease had been provided, and some of the company were compelled to use their precious allowance of bacon to grease the wheels. At Wood River, where the plains were alive with buffaloes, a stampede of the ...
— The Story of the Mormons: • William Alexander Linn

... But before he could give utterance to his thoughts eight glossy teams in almost simultaneous sweep to the left about came sharply around again. The black muzzles of the guns were pointed to the front, every axle exactly in the prolongation of his front rank, every little group of red-topped, red-trimmed cannoneers standing erect and square, the chiefs of section and of pieces sitting like statues on their handsome horses, ...
— Waring's Peril • Charles King

... The wheels sank axle deep in it. The horses floundered through it in the darkness, and every now and then the lamps were reflected in a big pool of shallow water. The wind blew keen and cold, but the coach was full inside and out, and so, though it was pitch dark, I kept my seat ...
— The Moving Finger • Mary Gaunt

... in it. The two-ton Hawkesbury, with seven-and-a-half tons of load, was down to the axle-beds; and the Cornstalk was endeavouring, by means of extracts from the sermons of Knox's soundest followers, to do something like justice to the contingency. Thompson sighed, glanced toward the ram-paddock, and hooked his team ...
— Such is Life • Joseph Furphy

... has a circular bed like the arastra, but much smaller, and the quartz is crushed by two large stone wheels which roll round on their edges. In the centre of the bed is an upright post, the top of which serves as a pivot for the axle on which both of the stones revolve. A mule is usually hitched to the end of one of the axles. The methods of managing the rock and amalgamating with the Chilean mill, are very similar to those of the arastra. The Chilean mill, however, is rarely used in California; the arastra being considered ...
— Hittel on Gold Mines and Mining • John S. Hittell

... timber,—they couldn't sell 'em, Never an axe had seen their chips, And the wedges flew from between their lips, Their blunt ends frizzled like celery-tips; Step and prop-iron, bolt and screw, Spring, tire, axle, and linchpin too, Steel of the finest, bright and blue; Thoroughbrace bison-skin, thick and wide; Boot, top, dasher, from tough old hide Found in the pit when the tanner died. That was the way he "put her through." "There!" said the ...
— Selections From American Poetry • Various

... Ike, waving his arms about from the top of the pile of baskets, and addressing me as if from a rostrum. "When you loads a cart, reck'lect as all your weight's to come on your axle-tree. Your load's to be all ballancy ballancy, you see, so as you could move it up or ...
— Brownsmith's Boy - A Romance in a Garden • George Manville Fenn

... were thrown and caught, and thrown again to the other side. Then the dripping tarpaulin was drawn over the mill until it covered the top and half the sides. The wheel burned out, and the iron axle came to the ...
— A Son of Hagar - A Romance of Our Time • Sir Hall Caine

... Testifi'd, That the Axle-Tree of his Cart, happening in passing, to break some part of Rose Cullenders House, in her Anger at it, she vehemently threatned him, His Horses should suffer for it. And within a short time, all his Four Horses dy'd; after which he sustained many ...
— The Wonders of the Invisible World • Cotton Mather

... had to be set for summer work. Frequently the tire rolled off on the sandy highway, and the farmer was reluctantly compelled to borrow a rail from the nearest fence, and place it so as to support the axle; he then put the denuded wheel and its tire on the wagon, and drove slowly to the nearest blacksmith's shop, his vehicle "trailing like a wounded duck," the rail leaving a snake's track behind it on ...
— In the Midst of Alarms • Robert Barr

... into the wheel-pit and had a look round, after which Uncle Jack spoke aloud to the man who acted as general engineer, and said he thought that the great axle wanted ...
— Patience Wins - War in the Works • George Manville Fenn

... from her fright she was so touched by the poor fellow's distress that she promised readily to stand by him until repairs were effected. It was a longer job than either of them anticipated. The axle was slightly bent, and a blacksmith had to bring clamps and a jackscrew before the new wheel could be adjusted. Even then it had an air of uncertainty that rendered speed impossible. The concluding five miles of the journey were taken at a snail's pace, and ...
— The Silent Barrier • Louis Tracy

... see in the West. The Chinese call it a K'ung chung, while the top is called t'o lo. It is constructed of two pieces of bamboo, each of which is made like a top, and then joined by a carefully turned axle, each end being of equal weight, and looking not unlike the wheels of a cart. It is then spun by a string, which is wound once around the axle and attached to two sticks. A good performer is able to spin it in a great variety of ways, tossing it under and over his foot, spinning it with ...
— The Chinese Boy and Girl • Isaac Taylor Headland

... of this historical subject continues on the south wall. The king, returning victorious to Egypt, proceeds slowly in his car, conducting in triumph the prisoners he has made, who walk beside and before it, three others being bound to the axle. Two of his sons attend as fan-bearers, and the several regiments of Egyptian infantry, with a corps of their allies, under the command of these princes, marching in regular step and in the close array of disciplined troops, ...
— A History of Art for Beginners and Students - Painting, Sculpture, Architecture • Clara Erskine Clement

... but my own experience, subsequent by many years to hers, has corroborated her marvelous histories of flights of birds that almost darkened the sun (i.e. threw a passing shadow as of a cloud upon the ground), and roads with ruts and mud-holes into which one's carriage sank up to the axle-tree. ...
— Records of a Girlhood • Frances Anne Kemble

... rent, then moved in with his stick and bundle and sent away for the rest of his belongings, that is to say, an outfit for cobbling shoes. He cut a big wooden boot out of the side of an empty box, painted it black with axle-grease and soot, hung it up over the door, and announced himself as ready to do all the cobbling and harness-repairing he could get ... and a fine workman he showed ...
— Hillsboro People • Dorothy Canfield

... long rooms full of clerks bending over rows of desks, carrying on with automatic regularity the affairs of each separate concern. Thus on the ground floor the Lack Vale Coal Company worked out its grimy history, on the second floor the Brunt Rubber Company had command, on the fifth the great Steel Axle Company, the richest and most important of all, lodged royally. But on the very topmost floor of all were the offices devoted to the personal affairs of Peter Masters, and through them, shut in by a watchful guard of head clerks, was the innermost ...
— Christopher Hibbault, Roadmaker • Marguerite Bryant

... on a stool, the back turned to this collar, and his head is so placed that the collar goes round one half of the neck. A silk band, which goes round the other half, passes through this hole, and the two ends are connected with the axle of a wheel which is turned by someone until the prisoner gives up the ghost, for the confessor, God be thanked! never leaves him till he ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

... hill, came rolling and leaping behind them with frightfully growing momentum, and tumbled in after them—plump! Verily, the wheel of fortune had never before made so many turns in so short a time! Its axle fairly smoked as it ...
— Burl • Morrison Heady

... carter pray'd To Hercules to come and aid. "Up!" says the God, "thou lazy dog. And lift the axle from the bog; Think'st thou Gods nothing have to do But listen ...
— Aesop, in Rhyme - Old Friends in a New Dress • Marmaduke Park

... people to pile themselves. There is a seat for two, which is generally occupied by the most, worthy, perhaps; but all around them cluster others,—behind them, before them, and on each side of them,—clinging to the shafts, standing on the axle, hanging on the springs. Indeed, I have heard of babies being slung underneath, in baskets; ...
— Among the Brigands • James de Mille

... a praying-cylinder,* [It consisted of a leathern cylinder placed upright in a frame; a projecting piece of iron strikes a little bell at each revolution, the revolution being caused by an elbowed axle and string. Within the cylinder are deposited written prayers, and whoever pulls the string properly is considered to have repeated his prayers as often as the bell rings. Representations of these implements will be found in other ...
— Himalayan Journals (Complete) • J. D. Hooker

... mules, and the heavy carriage rocked upon its creaking axle, whilst the king of France, alone, cast down, annihilated, did not dare to look either behind ...
— Ten Years Later - Chapters 1-104 • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... very expensive sort of force, corresponding, in that respect, with the artillery used in modern times. The carriages were heavy and strong, and were drawn generally by two horses. They had short, scythe-like blades of steel projecting from the axle-trees on each side, by which the ranks of the enemy were mowed down when the carriages were driven among them. The chariots were made to contain, besides the driver of the horses, one or more warriors, each ...
— Cyrus the Great - Makers of History • Jacob Abbott

... in carriages drawn by teams of oxen. Hardly passable after rain, the roads, says Hasted, were "so miry that the traveller's horse frequently plunged through them up to the girths of the saddle; and the waggons sank so deep in the ruts as to slide along on the nave of the wheels and axle of them. In some few of the principal roads, as from Tenterden hither, there was a stone causeway, about three feet wide, for the accommodation of horse and foot passengers; but there was none further on till near ...
— England of My Heart—Spring • Edward Hutton

... gloom Had given day her room, The sun himself withheld his wonted speed, And hid his head for shame, As his inferior flame The new enlightened world no more should need: He saw a greater sun appear Than his bright throne or burning axle-tree ...
— England's Antiphon • George MacDonald

... machinery drew up the chain was this: The end of the chain, which was within the mill, was wound around an axle, which was made to revolve by the machinery. The axle, thus revolving, wound up the chain, and, in this manner, drew it gradually in, by which means the log, which was attached to the lower end of it, ...
— Forests of Maine - Marco Paul's Adventures in Pursuit of Knowledge • Jacob S. Abbott

... thunder-bolt itself. And when the rocks had been reduced to powder, there was generated fire; and the rocky dust fell like unto masses of flames. And when the showers of crags had been repelled, there happened near me a mightier shower of water, having currents of the proportions of an axle. And falling from the welkin, those thousands of powerful torrents covered the entire firmament and the directions and the cardinal points. And on account of the pouring of the shower, and of the blowing of the wind, and of ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa Bk. 3 Pt. 2 • Translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... with the system of rollers and box, g, the construction of the axle, with its extension, e, and shoulder, d, as and ...
— Scientific American, Vol. 17, No. 26 December 28, 1867 • Various

... boiler and machinery. The cylinders were on the opposite side of the boiler from the door of the fire box, and mounted independently; the motion of the piston was communicated by means of a crank shaft and toothed wheels to the driving axle. The wheels were coupled. A regulator, injector, and a hand-brake were placed at each end, so that the engine driver could always stand in the front, whichever was the direction in which the engine moved; and there was a platform ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 530, February 27, 1886 • Various

... experiments it was found that when a speed of 42 miles an hour was attained all the wheels were running on the upper track, and revolving in the opposite direction from those on the lower track. However, after running about 1,000 feet, an axle tree doubled up, and immediately afterwards the upper track broke away, and the machine, becoming liberated, floated in the air, "giving those on board a sensation of ...
— The Dominion of the Air • J. M. Bacon

... corresponding controllers, passed and ratified by corresponding ratifiers; and through this almighty pomp of wheels, whose very whirling would be heard into other planets, did not the very velocity of their motion seem to sleep on their soft axle, is the business of this great nation, judicial, fixed, penal, deliberative, statistical, commercial, all carried on without confusion, never distracting one man by its might, nor molesting ...
— The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. II (2 vols) • Thomas De Quincey

... silent course advance With inoffensive pace, that spinning sleeps On her soft axle, while she faces even And bears thee soft with the ...
— History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom • Andrew Dickson White

... seven Sundays at least he would speak of nothing else. And, lest his hearers should not be duly impressed with the subject, his practice was never to go more than a year or two without going over the whole ground anew. This worthy minister was somewhat of a mechanic, and in connection with a coach-axle maker named Rollason, the plan was conceived of "faggoting" bars of iron radially round a centre-bar, so that the laminae of the iron should range like the concentric rings in a tree. The chief difficulty ...
— Personal Recollections of Birmingham and Birmingham Men • E. Edwards

... into place, and the completed body is sent to a place where it awaits the chassis. This important section, comprising all the machinery, starts at one end of a moving platform as a front and rear axle bolted together with the frame. As this slowly advances, it passes under a bridge containing a gasoline tank, which is quickly adjusted. Farther on the motor is swung over by a small hoist and lowered into position on the frame. Presently the dash slides down and is placed in position behind ...
— The Age of Big Business - Volume 39 in The Chronicles of America Series • Burton J. Hendrick

... market, found it well supplied, then the fish, found many all alive alivo. A cart load of cods weighed by means of a double steel yard, one below and suspended from the other. The cart suspended by a chain fastened to each axle outside the wheel, and the front of the cart and the other wound up by a capstan. The grapes in the market of a poor sort: no wonder that peaches and melons are preferred. Called at Mr. W. and received but poor accounts of Dr. Marsden ...
— A Journey to America in 1834 • Robert Heywood

... invention of the human intellect within historical times—an achievement taking rank with such great prehistoric discoveries as the use of articulate speech, the making of a fire, and the invention of stone implements, of the wheel and axle, and of picture-writing. It made possible for the first time that education of the masses upon which all later progress of civilization ...
— A History of Science, Volume 1(of 5) • Henry Smith Williams

... gorge; and on the path, near the water, I saw a driver of one of those Norwegian sulkies that were called karjolers: he, on the high front seat, was dead, lying sideways and backwards, with low head resting on the wheel; and on a trunk strapped to a frame on the axle behind was a boy, his head, too, resting sideways on the wheel, near the other's; and the little pony was dead, pitched forward on its head and fore-knees, tilting the shafts downward; and some distance from them on the water floated ...
— The Purple Cloud • M.P. Shiel

... be so constructed as not to be liable to overset. To this end, the wheels must be low, and the axle unusually extended. The body should be long enough to allow the child to lie down when necessary; and so deep that he may not be likely to fall out. Everything should be made secure and firm, to avoid, if possible, ...
— The Young Mother - Management of Children in Regard to Health • William A. Alcott

... that gets over me,' continued Rushton, 'is this: according to science, the earth turns round on its axle at the rate of twenty miles a minit. Well, what about when a lark goes up in the sky and stays there about a quarter of an hour? Why, if it was true that the earth was turnin' round at that rate all the time, ...
— The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists • Robert Tressell

... On the fierce giant, every one Destructive, gleaming like the sun. With four the dappled steeds he slew; One cleft the chariot yoke in two, One, in the heat of battle sped, Smote from the neck the driver's head. The poles were rent apart by three; Two broke the splintered axle-tree. Then from the hand of Rama, while Across his lips there came a smile, The twelfth, like thunderbolt impelled, Cut the great hand and bow it held. Then, scarce by Indra's self surpassed, He pierced the giant with the last. The bow he trusted cleft in twain, ...
— The Ramayana • VALMIKI

... she digs her proper grave to-day; And icy moons, with weary sameness, weave From their own light their fullness and decay: Home to the Poet's land the Gods are flown; Light use in them that later world discerns, Which, the diviner leading-strings outgrown, On its own axle turns. ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 54, No. 334, August 1843 • Various

... of earth twice ten degrees and more From the sun's axle, and with labor push'd Oblique ...
— The Destiny of the Soul - A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life • William Rounseville Alger

... which are connected by a flexible axle to the seat of the carriage, but these have no other purpose than that of preventing the affair from turning to one ...
— Scientific American Supplement, Vol. XV., No. 388, June 9, 1883 • Various

... emerged into the road, he was nearly jammed against the railings in front of the thatched cottage, by the rapid approach of a post-chaise. While he looked in at the window, the wheel dipped into a rut, the axle instantaneously broke, and the body of the carriage bumped upon the ground. In an instant he had secured the horses, and the Chobb family, rushing out, advanced to the door of the vehicle. With some difficulty the passengers were ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Vol. 56, No. 346, August, 1844 • Various

... a little one-horse jaunting car, consisting of a wooden seat on an axle-tree, and four poles which supported a tarpaulin to shelter us against the rain. These cars changed horses every four or five miles, and served to convey to Paris the masons from the Bourbonnais and from Auvergne, the weary pedestrians they met on the road, and soldiers lamed ...
— Raphael - Pages Of The Book Of Life At Twenty • Alphonse de Lamartine

... Yuchovitch. He became a country peddler, trading between Polotzk and Yuchovitch, and taking in all the desolate little hamlets scattered along that route. Fifteen rubles' worth of goods was a big bill to carry out of Polotzk. The stock consisted of cheap pottery, tobacco, matches, boot grease, and axle grease. These he bartered for country produce, including grains in small quantity, bristles, rags, and bones. Money was seldom handled in ...
— The Promised Land • Mary Antin

... two-wheeled carriage, packed up in matting, which was thrown on shore in the gale? You laughed when you saw it, and said it would be of little use now; but the wheels and axle will he very useful, as we can make a wide path to the place when I cut down the trees, and wheel out the logs much more easily than we ...
— Masterman Ready • Captain Marryat

... on rear-axle and pinion shafts, steering knuckles and arms and parts of this general type is resistance to fatigue and torsion. The material recommended for parts of this character is either S. A. E. No. 6135 or No. 3135 ...
— The Working of Steel - Annealing, Heat Treating and Hardening of Carbon and Alloy Steel • Fred H. Colvin

... thought and thought, and hit on an idea. Going into the large yard, he cut two oaken wedges, took a new wheel, and drove a wedge firmly into one end of its axle-box. Then he went to where ...
— Russian Fairy Tales - A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore • W. R. S. Ralston

... spoil taken from the capital, were placed the wounded, frequently unattended and without protection. Many of the drivers, anxious to possess some of the spoil with which their wagons were loaded, weakened the axle, so that it should collapse. The bedraggled soldiers would march on, and when the drivers were well in rear of the force they murdered their wounded passengers ...
— Noble Deeds of the World's Heroines • Henry Charles Moore

... horizontal, and is placed under the floor of the mill, with which the stones are on a level. This wheel consists of six blades, about three feet long, and six inches broad, which are placed obliquely in the axle-tree. On these blades, the water falls down an inclined plane of about eight or ten feet in perpendicular height. The hopper is a basket perforated at the bottom, but has no contrivance to shake it. The people at one of the mills which we examined ...
— An Account of The Kingdom of Nepal • Fancis Buchanan Hamilton

... axe he could not only cut the logs for his cabin and notch them down, but he could make a close-fitting door and supply it with wooden hinges and a neat latch. From the roots of an oak or ash he could fashion his hames and sled runners; he could make an axle-tree for his wagon, a rake, a flax brake, a barrow, a scythe-snath, a grain cradle a pitchfork, a loom, a reel, a washboard, a stool, a chair, a table, a bedstead, a dresser, and a cradle in which to rock the baby. If he was more than ...
— Community Civics and Rural Life • Arthur W. Dunn

... dissuade. Too vast and hazardous the task appears, Nor suited to thy strength, nor to thy years. Thy lot is mortal, but thy wishes fly Beyond the province of mortality: 70 There is not one of all the gods that dares (However skilled in other great affairs) To mount the burning axle-tree, but I; Not Jove himself, the ruler of the sky, That hurls the three-forked thunder from above, Dares try his strength; yet who so strong as Jove? The steeds climb up the first ascent with pain: And ...
— The Poetical Works of Addison; Gay's Fables; and Somerville's Chase • Joseph Addison, John Gay, William Sommerville

... overrode the sprockets; this time by ill fortune Day slipped at the critical moment and without intention jammed the throttle full on. The engine brought up, but there was an ominous trickle of oil under the back axle, and investigation showed that the axle casing (aluminium) had split. The casing has been stripped and brought into the hut; we may be able to do something to it, but time presses. It all goes to show that we want more experience ...
— Scott's Last Expedition Volume I • Captain R. F. Scott

... for "axle"), a word having the same meaning as axle, and also used with many extensions of this primary meaning. It denotes the imaginary line about which a body or system of bodies rotates, or a line about which ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 - "Austria, Lower" to "Bacon" • Various

... and interesting Treatise on Locomotion, by Mr Alexander Gordon, a civil engineer of eminence, we find an account given of the trial of power alluded to by Mr Gurney. A pair of three feet wheels were used on the hind axle, and the engine drew with ease a large waggon loaded with cast-iron. After going about a mile and a quarter, a cart also loaded with cast-iron was attached to the waggon. The engine started with these loaded carriages, and returned to Gloucester. ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 54, No. 335, September 1843 • Various

... heard the noise of a primitive conveyance behind him. It was a telega. Curiously primitive, the telega is four-wheeled, with two planks thrown crudely across the axle-trees. Rouletabille gave the man who was seated in it thee roubles, and jumped into the planks beside him, and the two little Finnish horses, whose manes hung clear to the mud, went like the wind. Such crude conveyances are necessary on such crude roads, but it requires a strong constitution ...
— The Secret of the Night • Gaston Leroux

... the desired distance between the hills, and three wooden pins are inserted equi-distant in the circumference, so that the wheels will make three dots, or signs, for planting, at each revolution. These wheels are connected by an axle, and set the same distance apart the rows are to be asunder. Two shafts are pinned to the axle, and braced in front of the wheels to keep them steady. A piece of heavy scantling, or a log of wood, six inches in diameter, is secured to the under ...
— The Peanut Plant - Its Cultivation And Uses • B. W. Jones

... wondering whether he was really as kind to her as he might have been. If the road is just wide enough for one vehicle, he moves along pensively. If it is wide enough for two vehicles, he throws his horses straight across the road and enters upon a prolonged examination of his rear axle. If the road is wide enough for three vehicles, he drives zigzag. The necessity of conserving our natural resources would seem to be a meaningless phrase when we consider the natural resources of an American farmer in front ...
— The Patient Observer - And His Friends • Simeon Strunsky

... The star that bids the shepherd fold Now the top of heaven doth hold; And the gilded car of day His glowing axle doth allay In the steep Atlantic stream; And the slope sun his upward beam Shoots against the dusky pole, Pacing toward the other goal 100 Of his chamber in the east. Meanwhile, welcome joy and feast, Midnight shout and revelry, Tipsy dance and jollity. Braid your locks with ...
— Milton's Comus • John Milton

... got into the ditch. A wheel began to slip and I thought the weight would overpower them; but Lance Mordaunt made a tremendous effort and held up the axle until we ...
— Partners of the Out-Trail • Harold Bindloss

... a circular table, having in its centre a wheel, placed horizontally, from the outer edge of which lines of type radiate, like spokes from an axle, to the distance of about one foot. Three-quarters of the circle is filled up by these lines. In front is a key-board, containing one hundred and fifty-four keys, by which the operator governs the action of the machine. ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 13, No. 79, May, 1864 • Various

... last time at the battle of Bravalla, a contest in which the Frisians, Wends, Finns, Lapps, Danes, Saxons, Jutes, Goths, and Swedes all were engaged. The dead were so thick on the field, after this battle, that their bodies reached to the axle-wheels of the chariots of the victors. At the time of this battle Christianity was being proclaimed in England. It was approaching the North. With the battle of Bravalla the mythic age of Denmark and the ...
— ZigZag Journeys in Northern Lands; - The Rhine to the Arctic • Hezekiah Butterworth

... the brave gain after death; For I have dreamt all night of horrid slaughters, Of trampling horses, and of chariot wheels Wading in blood up to their axle-trees; Of fiery demons gliding down the skies, And Ilium brightened with a midnight blaze: O therefore, if thou lovest me, ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Vol. 6 (of 18) - Limberham; Oedipus; Troilus and Cressida; The Spanish Friar • John Dryden

... employed in the making of weapons and armour (with cups, ornaments, &c.); iron is employed (and bronze is also used) in the making of tools and implements, such as knives, axes, adzes, axles of a chariot (that of Hera; mortals use an axle tree of oak), and the various implements of agricultural and pastoral life. Meanwhile, iron is a substance perfectly familiar to the poets; it is far indeed from being a priceless rarity (it is impossible to trace Homeric stages of advance in knowledge of iron), and it ...
— Homer and His Age • Andrew Lang

... joke, for, no matter how often it is repeated, they hasten panic-stricken to shelter. Wilson speaks of him as the trumpeter of the feathered chorus, but his range of notes is very great, passing from harsh, grating sounds, like the screeching of an unlubricated axle, to a warbling as soft and modulated as that of a bluebird, and again, prompted by his mercurial nature, screaming like a derisive fish-wife. Fledglings will develop contentedly in a cage, and become tame and amusing pets. They will learn to imitate the human voice ...
— Nature's Serial Story • E. P. Roe

... carts sink up to the axle in black liquid mud, which flies in all directions from the wheels, and at each footfall of horse or mule, splattering pedestrians and shop-fronts on the sidewalks and smothering other ...
— Life and sport in China - Second Edition • Oliver G. Ready

... rougher and you no longer slip. If you try to pull a stake out of the ground, you have to squeeze it harder than the ground does or it will slip out of your hands instead of slipping out of the ground. When you apply a brake to an automobile, the brake must press tightly against the axle or wheel to cause enough friction ...
— Common Science • Carleton W. Washburne

... wheel increases the liability to bent axles in curving on account of greater leverage unless the size and weight of the axle are increased to correspond, and the wheel itself must be made stronger. A four or six wheel truck will not retain its squareness and dependent good riding qualities so well with 42 in. wheels as with 33 in. ones. Besides the brakes, the pipes for air and steam under ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 794, March 21, 1891 • Various

... Old Monte hitches the Navajo to the hind axle with a lariat which French brings out, an' then the stage, with the savage coastin' along behind, goes rackin' off to the No'th. Later, Monte an' the passengers hangs this yere remainder up in a pine tree, at an Injun crossin' ...
— Wolfville Days • Alfred Henry Lewis

... the second day the front axle of the coach snapped in two, and a tedious delay of two hours ensued. Baldos was strangely silent and subdued. It was not until the misfortune came that Beverly observed the flushed condition of his face. Involuntarily and with the compassion of a true ...
— Beverly of Graustark • George Barr McCutcheon

... entire valley, on the pond, in the big trees and the foliage, was the mysterious rustling of the birds as they returned to the nests for the night. Now the silence was disturbed by all kinds of noises—the blow of the forge, the grind of the axle, the swish of a whip, and the ...
— Nobody's Girl - (En Famille) • Hector Malot

... own'd the monarch of the main: The sea subsiding spreads a level plain: The curling waves before his coursers fly: The parting surface leaves his brazen axle dry. ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith • Oliver Goldsmith

... as we could go. I expected to be dashed to pieces, but we safely descended in one hour, heights we had taken three to climb. Fox held a steady rein, and seemed as calm as if we were trotting on a level, though any accident, such as a hot axle, a stumbling horse, or a break in the harness would have sent us down the mountain side, two thousand feet, to inevitable destruction. He had many amusing anecdotes to tell of Horace Greeley's trip to the Geysers. The distinguished journalist was wholly unprepared for the race down ...
— Eighty Years And More; Reminiscences 1815-1897 • Elizabeth Cady Stanton

... the wagons and remudas arrived at the new ranch hours in advance of the herds. The horse wranglers were detailed by Priest, and fitting an axle to the spool of wire, by the aid of ropes attached to the pommels of two saddles, it was rolled up to the scene of its use at an easy canter. The stretching of the wire was less than an hour's work, the slack being taken up by the wranglers, ever upholding ...
— Wells Brothers • Andy Adams

... of those who are bound to win is a never-ending tale. Nor will the procession of enthusiastic workers cease so long as the globe is turning on its axle. ...
— An Iron Will • Orison Swett Marden

... jacked up the axle of the automobile and put on a new tire—inner tube and shoe combined—Sam set to work and cleaned up the roadway, throwing all the glass into the bushes. Then the new tire was ...
— The Rover Boys at College • Edward Stratemeyer

... will not deny that my feelings rose to 104 in the shade. "The idea! That this long-eared animal this literary kangaroo this illiterate hostler with his skull full of axle-grease—this....." But I stopped there, for this was ...
— Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete - The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Albert Bigelow Paine

... For single axle engines this simple form of truck was entirely satisfactory, but it proved less satisfactory for 4- and 6-coupled machines. Also, as train speeds increased, so did the number of derailments. Many of these could be traced to the inability of the engine ...
— Introduction of the Locomotive Safety Truck - Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology: Paper 24 • John H. White

... by the billion on fish refuse. Within a few days there is a crop of larvae which, to quote the "Chemische Zentralblatt," yields forty-five grams per kilogram of a yellow oil. This product, we should hope, is used for axle-grease and nitroglycerin, although properly purified it would be as nutritious as any other—to one who has no imagination. Driven to such straits Germany would have given a good deal for one of those tropical islands that we ...
— Creative Chemistry - Descriptive of Recent Achievements in the Chemical Industries • Edwin E. Slosson

... ascertained that the most suitable arrangement was a pedestal mounting, either within a turret or upon an open deck. To meet the weight of the gun, as well as the strains and stresses incidental to firing, the chassis was strengthened, especially over the rear axle near which the ...
— Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War • Frederick A. Talbot

... Stay, Sigismund: forgett'st thou I am he That with the cannon shook Vienna-walls, And made it dance upon the continent, As when the massy substance of the earth Quiver[s] about the axle-tree of heaven? Forgett'st thou that I sent a shower of darts, Mingled with powder'd shot and feather'd steel, So thick upon the blink-ey'd burghers' heads, That thou thyself, then County Palatine, The King of Boheme, [18] and the Austric ...
— Tamburlaine the Great, Part II. • Christopher Marlowe

... been made to cause a locomotive, running at full speed, to exert such a mechanical action as would set a signal to danger, so as to protect the train from another following in the rear. By fitting the engine with a steel brush, attached to the axle boxes, so as to preserve a uniform height with respect to the rails, a stationary lever may be gradually moved, so that the signal is set at "danger" without shock. Moreover, by means of another brush, in the event of the engine being turned upon the wrong ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 664, September 22,1888 • Various

... And, therefore, as Aristotle endeavoureth to prove, that in all motion there is some point quiescent; and as he elegantly expoundeth the ancient fable of Atlas (that stood fixed, and bare up the heaven from falling) to be meant of the poles or axle-tree of heaven, whereupon the conversion is accomplished, so assuredly men have a desire to have an Atlas or axle-tree within to keep them from fluctuation, which is like to a perpetual peril of falling. Therefore men did hasten to set down some principles about which the variety of their ...
— The Advancement of Learning • Francis Bacon

... good-luck you gambol, and when you aren't, you don't. What makes me sickest about you all is that you're so nauseatingly conceited and self-important. You all think that your beastly old Stock Exchange is the axle about which the wheel of the world revolves, and each of you thinks, privately, that he's the particular grease that ...
— The Spread Eagle and Other Stories • Gouverneur Morris

... as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, or for the transmission of motion by means of a band wheel, p, cast in one with the flywheel, P, the disk which receives the crank pin of variable position is fixed directly upon the axle, d, of the same flywheel carried by the support, D; but when the motor can be applied directly, as is the case for example in the Singer sewing machine, upon the axle of the machine, no support is used, and the arrangement shown in Figs. 3 and 4 is adopted. In ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 611, September 17, 1887 • Various

... calculations, we can get the answer roughly—say, within a mile of what is correct! We will assume that when the wire is all wound up the ball is perfectly solid throughout, and that no allowance has to be made for the axle that passes through it. With that simplification, I wonder how many readers can state within even a mile of the correct answer the length of ...
— Amusements in Mathematics • Henry Ernest Dudeney

... and Coach-Harness makers have a hall in Noble Street, noteworthy as being the place where the Gordon riots were organized. The company was formed in 1677, and performed useful functions in examining defective wheels and axle-trees and in the construction of coaches. The Cooks, formerly known as pastelers or piebakers, are a very ancient fraternity, but most of their documents were destroyed in the Great Fire. An inspeximus charter of George III., however, informs us that it was incorporated ...
— Memorials of Old London - Volume I • Various

... damage and disorder, and not without a presentiment that this trouble would draw after it others, even more distressing, I took one end of the cart body, and, by an extra outlay of strength, I lifted it toward the axle-tree, from which it had been violently flung; and after much pulling and straining, I succeeded in getting the body of the cart in its place. This was an important step out of the difficulty, and its performance ...
— My Bondage and My Freedom • Frederick Douglass

... I was a few years older. One autumn day I was with my older brothers in the corn lot, where they had gone with the lumber wagon to gather pumpkins. When they had got their load and were ready to start I planted myself on the load above the hind axle and let my legs hang down between the spokes of the big wheel. Luckily one of my brothers saw my perilous position just as the team was about to move and rescued me in time. Doubtless my legs would have been broken and maybe ...
— My Boyhood • John Burroughs

... with high withers, and galls on her shoulders and fetlocks unshorn, after the fashion of Belgian horses; and the dogcart was a venerable ruin, which creaked a great protest at every turn of the warped wheels on the axle. We had been able to buy the two— the mare and the cart—only because the German soldiers had not thought them ...
— Paths of Glory - Impressions of War Written At and Near the Front • Irvin S. Cobb

... object so soft," he says somewhere in his big, plain way, "there is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheel'd universe." Rightly understood, it is on the softest of all objects, the sympathetic heart, that the wheel of society turns easily and securely as on a perfect axle. There is no room, of course, for doubt or discussion, about conduct, where every one is to follow the law of his being with exact compliance. Whitman hates doubt, deprecates discussion, and discourages to his utmost the craving, carping sensibilities of the conscience. We are to imitate, ...
— Familiar Studies of Men & Books • Robert Louis Stevenson

... the side of the machine. On the outer edge of the discs are clips for carrying rods, on which one end of the hanks of yarn is hung, while the other end is placed on a similar rod carried near the axle. The revolution of the discs carries the yarn through the dye-liquor contained in the lower semi-cylindrical part of the machine previously alluded to. At a certain point, every revolution of the discs, the rods carrying the yarns are turned ...
— The Dyeing of Cotton Fabrics - A Practical Handbook for the Dyer and Student • Franklin Beech

... which thus in godlike accents spoke:— 'The suppliant must himself bestir, Ere Hercules will aid confer. Look wisely in the proper quarter, To see what hindrance can be found; Remove the execrable mud and mortar, Which, axle-deep, beset thy wheels around. Thy sledge and crowbar take, And pry me up that stone, or break; Now fill that rut upon the other side. Hast done it?' 'Yes,' the man replied. 'Well,' said the voice, 'I'll aid thee now; Take up thy ...
— The Fables of La Fontaine - A New Edition, With Notes • Jean de La Fontaine

... Moon, But opposite in level'd West was set, His Mirror, with full face borrowing her Light From him, for other Lights she needed none In that aspect, and still that distance keeps Till Night; then in the East her turn she shines, Revolv'd on Heavns great Axle, and her Reign With thousand lesser Lights dividual holds, With thousand thousand Stars! that ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele

... and Lite came loping leisurely down the hill, the two women were fraying perfectly good gloves trying to pull "rabbit" brush up by the roots to make firmer foothold for the wheels. Robert Grant Burns was head-and-shoulders under the car, digging badger-like with his paws to clear the front axle, and coming up now and then to wipe the perspiration from his eyes and puff the purple out of his complexion. Pete Lowry always ducked his head lower over the jack when he saw the heaving of flesh which heralded these resting times, so that the ...
— Jean of the Lazy A • B. M. Bower

... them, heads hanging, quivering and panting beside the reeking trail; one by one their gaunt cattle, mired in bog and swamp, entangled in windfalls, greeted us, bellowing piteously as we passed. The forest itself fought for us, reaching out to jerk wheels from axle, bringing wagon and team down crashing. Their dead lay everywhere uncared for, even unscalped and unrobbed in the bruised and trampled path of flight; clothing, arms, provisions were scattered pell-mell on every side; and now at length, hour after hour, ...
— The Reckoning • Robert W. Chambers

... had crowded around the old cart and attempted to unscrew the axle tap. But some one reached over the head of the crowd and gripped him where his shoulder and arm met, and pulled him forward and twirled him ...
— The Bishop of Cottontown - A Story of the Southern Cotton Mills • John Trotwood Moore



Words linked to "Axle" :   axle grease, journal, wheeled vehicle, shaft, wheel and axle



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