List, Digging through an old file today, I came across some musings scribbled back in 1982, after reading the first edition of Jobst Brandt's book. Perhaps you'll get a chuckle out of it:
"The village wheelwright is barrel-chested and leather-aproned, with powerful arms. He loves old dogs and little children, and is very courteous towards ladies, although he took a vow of chastity that he might devote himself to his craft. He shows no mercy to the wicked.
He has a PhD from MIT, and spent four years in a monastery in Grenoble tending sheep and learning how to impart virtue and strength to his wheels. He lost an eye as a novice while improperly tightening a spoke. The master had forbidden him to ever enter his workshop without supervision, but he thought he could handle it alone. A spoke parted at the elbow and shot right into his eye like an arrow.
His every wheel is sound and true as if a living thing. Completed wheels are heated to relieve residual stresses and then quenched in a vat of holy water to drive out the bad. The rims are engraven with many curious runes to guard the cyclist from the powers of darkness, and to improve braking characteristics. The wheel flickers with blue flame when in the vicinity of any vicious dog."
I am amazed that Brandt's book, specifically his theory of the wheel, has survived and is still regarded by many as authoritative. I can only conclude that theoretical knowledge matters very little to bicycle design, which has largely been optimized through trial and error.
John Hurley
Austin, Texas USA