This nicely-colored wheel is a guide to removing stains on your car's upholstery. It can help you clean off grass stains, ice cream, and tar, but I don't see vomit listed here.

This measures 5 and 3/4 by 5 and 1/2 inches. I really like the colors on this one. That's the main draw for me. Plus it shows how to remove blood, making it a very handy wheel indeed.

As far as knowledge wheels go, the presidential facts ones aren't high on my list. In fact, I'd say they're almost at the bottom. This one from 1931 is no exception. Who cares where Chester A. Arthur was born? Not me. For my money, the interest is on the reverse: the Geographic Chart of the United States. Check out the 1931 population of Houston (not to mention that of the entire country)!

I don't really know what this wheel is for. Its numbers are very, very small. The photos include a ruler for scale as well as a rice grain. It's made of a heavy plastic material and dated 1938. It's double-sided as well. Fancy, huh?

This little device was distributed by The Pompeian Company, purveyor of cosmetics. Just find your beauty type on the wheel to learn which rouge and powder will work for you. You can see the colors appear in the product pictures. I like the simplicity of this wheel as well as the lovely colors. Of course, the best thing is the types themselves: Wateau Blonde, Creole Beauty, and -- my favorite -- Swarthy Brunette! Is it me or do all the skin tones look the same?

This wheel is dated 1928 and is about seven by five and a half inches.

Which type are you?

​(Please forgive the blurry photos.)

Until I photographed today's wheel, I hadn't realized how cool it is. It's 13 inches across (not including the tabs), making it even bigger than the tank identification wheel. It's sturdy, too, and has lots of nice, colorful illustrations (drawn from photographs!)

There's a lot to look at on this thing. Check out the spotters looking skyward. On the reverse side are all the crazy squadron insignias. Did you know that the B-26 Marauder had over 1500 parts and 54,000 rivets? There's a plane on here called the "Airacobra". ??

This wheel was made in 1942 by Plane Facts, Inc.

Here's a lovely star finder wheel made by C.S. Hammond & Co around 1950 (the date of the copyright). I like that someone actually used this thing, as evidenced by the repairs made with cellophane tape. This measures ten inches and, in real life, is a bit more on the turquoise side than in these photos.

Check out the reverse side. It's chock full of information for the budding astronomer. My favorite part is the instructions and the use of the word "thereon" therein.

I don't know if trigonometry is easy or not. I suspect not.

This little wheel is just a hair larger than 2.5 by 3.5 inches and is very sturdy. It's just the thing to slip in your pocket at test-taking time!

First of all, please forgive the bad photos. It's dark and rainy here today and I don't have the nice, natural light I usually do. So I took the pictures in my kitchen.

Here's a handy guide for the fisherman. Handy in spite of it's size. Depending on how you measure this, it's about 14 inches wide. It was produced by Russian River Products in Belmont, California (where we used to live!) It's nowhere near the Russian River.

Here's how it works. Say you fancy a bit of paddlefish. Just point the dial to him and the type of lure, bait, hook size, habitat and whatnot are revealed to you in code. Check the reverse side of the wheel to decipher the code and you're on your way. It seems to be a pretty comprehensive guide. If I were a fly fisherman, I'd want one.

Plus, it's shaped like a fish! Ha!

We have a lot of wheels promoting pre-packaged bread. I wonder how they were distributed? As you may have noticed, I'm not one to do much in the way of research myself, so I'm relying on Jessica Helfand's excellent book on the volvelle: Reinventing the Wheel. (Perfect title, isn't it?)

"Tiny enough to to be packaged between the cellophane and the loaves themselves, these 'collect-em-all' almanac-discs combined pictures with propaganda . . . in the context of national pride."

This Wonder Bread guide to U.S. warships is about 4 by 5 inches and is in pretty good shape. The little tabs are worn, though, so I don't like to mess with them.

Here is one of our many JW Rossig educational charts of world geography. Oddly, every one we have is in exceptionally good shape. This one, from 1931, is clean and bright and ready to teach your youngster North (and Central) American geography. You can learn all about "Porto Rico" and British Honduras! I like that Alaska's principal cities don't include Anchorage or Fairbanks. Greenland is where we get our furs and whale oil.

There are more Rossig wheels to come. I told you the one for Africa is pretty remarkable, so watch this space!