Inventing The Wheel.
Why did wheeled transport take so long to Implement?
Story’s origins.
Wheel on axle one of classic six simple machines, “Building blocks” for more complicated machines like Bicycle mechanism, Composed of wheels levers and pulleys.
Place and time of wheel’s invention remains unclear, Wheel cannot be attributed to any inventors.
Invention of solid wooden disk wheel late Neolithic, Seen with other advances early Bronze Age, Implies millennia passed before wheel and axle used in transport.
Given wheel’s importance in human civilisation, What caused delay between invention and implementation?
Modern parallels with delays in widespread implementation of electric transportation, Raises interesting questions about our future.
Wheels, axles and issues. (The Horse, the Wheel, and Language)
Sticking point in developing wheeled transport was working out and constructing means of attaching carrying platform to revolving wheels.
Key innovation using axle to link revolving wheels to cart, Executing innovative idea proved difficult.
Ends of axle must be round and smooth to minimise friction, Good wheel constructed from rounded boards to minimise effects of wood’s unevenness, Wheel’s axle hole carefully made to ensure axle fitted snugly, Hole carefully aligned to minimise wobble.
Suitable timber properly sesaoned must be readily available, Construction process must be simple to demonstrate and repeatable.
Carts required skillful carpenters using metal tools for precision finishing, Archaeologists believe developing skills and bronze tools took millennia.
Believed that successful invention wheeled transport so involved and challenging only happened once and in one place, Once demonstrated spread rapidly, All the rest is history.
Reflections
Common thread in human history, Radical innovation like the wheel takes time to develop and implement due to lack of infrastructure and skills.
As ages passed humans became more adaptable to innovate rapidly, Millenia for wheeled transport, Hundreds of years industrial revolution, Wright brothers to moon walking about sixty years, Computers and internet just tens of years, Now sustainable revolution.
Reference.
Anthony David, W., 2007, Indo-European migrations Princeton University Press (ISBN978–0–691–14818–2).
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