A spoke is one of some number of rods radiating from the center of a wheel (the hub where the axle connects), connecting the hub with the round traction surface.
The term originally referred to portions of a log which had been split lengthwise into four or six sections. The radial members of a wagon wheel were made by carving a spoke (from a log) into their finished shape. A spokeshave is a tool originally developed for this purpose. Eventually, the term spoke was more commonly applied to the finished product of the wheelwright's work, than to the materials he used.
Read more about Spoke: History, Construction, Spoke Length
Famous quotes containing the word spoke:
“They sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Job 2:13.
“We can remember as easily as the day we were born
The maggots we passed on the way and how the day bled
And the night too on hearing us, though we spoke only our childish
Ideas and never tried to impress anybody even when somewhat older.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“Then spoke the thunder
Da
Datta: what have we given?”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)