On 8/4/2010 4:44 PM, ATP wrote:
"Michael A. wrote in message
m...

ATP wrote:

"Steve wrote in message
...

You should talk to one of the local Amish smiths. In this area they are
using a neat wheel. They look like the standard wood/steel
construction.
BUT they actually have a wood center/spokes/rim, Then they have a layer
of rubber glued to that and a steel ring around all of it. The rubber
gives a better ride and seems to lower the wear on the steel as well.

Sounds a bit fancy and prideful to me...


Why? It sounds like less labor, for a longer useful life.

I'm kidding, but the Amish have an unusual take on things. I guess rubber
under the steel is OK, but rubber tires would be unholy. But whatever
they're doing seems to be working for them. I wonder if they're still busy
making those stoves...

It's not that rubber tires are "unholy"--their rule is no powered
vehicles that can be driven on the highway and no rubber tires is a way
to enforce it.

Much of the Amish attitude toward technology is pragmatic--it's not that
it's "unholy", it's that they want to maintain a particular social
structure of their community and they're perfectly happy to go with
technologies that don't upset that social structure but they after due
consideration forbid those that do upset it.