steering-head

Updated: May 15, 2025

It is a grievous error to tell friends you are coming; it puts them to no end of inconvenience; for days they expect you and you do not come; their feeling of relief that you did not come is destroyed by your appearance. The day we were expected at a friend's summer home at the sea-side we spent with the Shakers in the valley of Lebanon, waiting for a new steering-head.

Arthur Jerome Eddy - Two Thousand Miles on an Automobile : Being a Desultory Narrative of a Trip Through New England, New York, Canada, and the West, By "Chauffeur"

This was a break that no man could repair on the road. Under pressure of circumstances the steering-head could have been taken to the nearest blacksmith shop and a weld made, but that would require time, and the results would be more than doubtful. By far the easier thing to do was to wire the factory for a new head and patiently wait its coming.

Arthur Jerome Eddy - Two Thousand Miles on an Automobile : Being a Desultory Narrative of a Trip Through New England, New York, Canada, and the West, By "Chauffeur"

We were not going very fast at the time, and the heavy metal mud guard which caught the wheel, acting as a huge brake, saved us from a bad smash. On examination, the shank of the steering-head was found to contain two large flaws, which reduced its strength more than one-half, and the surprising thing was that it had not parted long before, when subjected to much severer strains.

Arthur Jerome Eddy - Two Thousand Miles on an Automobile : Being a Desultory Narrative of a Trip Through New England, New York, Canada, and the West, By "Chauffeur"

There was nothing to do next day. The new steering-head could not possibly arrive until the morning following. As the farm was worked by a tenant, our host had little to do, and proposed that we drive to the Shaker village a few miles beyond.

Arthur Jerome Eddy - Two Thousand Miles on an Automobile : Being a Desultory Narrative of a Trip Through New England, New York, Canada, and the West, By "Chauffeur"

I threw out the clutch, applied the brake, looked, and saw the left front wheel roll gracefully and quite deliberately out from under the big metal mud guard; the carriage settled down at that corner, and the end of the axle ploughed a furrow in the road for a few feet, when we came to a stop. The steering-head had broken short off at the inside of the hub.

Arthur Jerome Eddy - Two Thousand Miles on an Automobile : Being a Desultory Narrative of a Trip Through New England, New York, Canada, and the West, By "Chauffeur"

Happily, we landed in the hands of a retired farmer, whose generous hospitality embraced our tired selves as well as the machine. Before supper a telegram was sent from Brainerd to the factory for a new steering-head.

Arthur Jerome Eddy - Two Thousand Miles on an Automobile : Being a Desultory Narrative of a Trip Through New England, New York, Canada, and the West, By "Chauffeur"

The last we saw of the young scapegrace he was smoothing his ruffled plumage before a shining milk-pail and apparently admonishing his unsteady double. It is worth recording that the turkey was better the next day, and lived, as we were afterwards told, to a ripe old Thanksgiving age. The new steering-head came early the next morning; in thirty minutes it was in place.

Arthur Jerome Eddy - Two Thousand Miles on an Automobile : Being a Desultory Narrative of a Trip Through New England, New York, Canada, and the West, By "Chauffeur"