driving wheel

Machinery. a main wheel that communicates motion to others.

Also called driver. Railroads. one of the wheels of a locomotive that transmits the power of an engine or motor into tractive effort.

Origin of driving wheel

First recorded in 1830–40

They are cast-iron construction and are driven by an eccentric on the driving-wheel axle (fig. 27).

Smithsonian Institution - United States National Museum - Bulletin 240 |Anonymous
And let us never forget that the Uganda Railway is the driving-wheel of the whole concern.

My African Journey |Winston Churchill
It is almost the movement of a machine whose works are only set going when the driving-wheel begins to revolve.

The Mason-bees |J. Henri Fabre
They are cast-iron construction and are driven by an eccentric on the driving-wheel axle (fig. 27).

The 'Pioneer': Light Passenger Locomotive of 1851 |John H. White

Machinery connects it with the driving-wheel by means of a rotary shaft, and the wind-wheel becomes an additional help.

The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 42, August 26, 1897 |Various

driving wheel

a wheel, esp a gear wheel, that causes other wheels to rotate

any wheel of a vehicle that transforms torque into a tractive force