A spoked wheel on display at The National Museum of Iran, in Tehran. The wheel is dated to the late 2nd millennium BC and was excavated at Choqa Zanbil.The remains of a pair of cartwheels with metal axle assembly.An Ox-wagon in Aliwal North, Eastern Cape. Note the three missing spokes and the metal tyre.
A spoke is one of several 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 meant the portions of a log which one had 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. Eventually, the term spoke was applied to the finished product of the wheelwright's work.
