What would our lives be like if we didn’t have the wheel of our vehicle? Probably not too far.
The wheel is one of the most important inventions we use every day. The wheel was invented in the Chalcolithic period around 3500 BCE. It is the foundation of modern transportation and machinery.
While the wheel is promising, it’s not very practical. The hole at the centre of the wheel makes it look like a doughnut. The wheel wouldn’t attach a stable platform with an axle. It would simply be a cylinder that rolls on its edge. It was the Bronze Age when the wheel and axle were created. The wheel and axle were not invented yet. Metal alloys were used to cast metal, create canals and sailboats, and complex musical instruments like harps.
It’s not an easy idea to add an axle.
The wheel must rotate freely around its axle for the system’s operation. To ensure maximum continuity in motion, the axle must be fitted directly to the centre of the wheel. To reduce friction, the alignment must be perpendicular to the axle. To reduce the axle’s surface area and still support the load, it should not exceed 0.5mm.
The only friction that must be overcome is between the inner wheel & the axle. The system will have less friction if the axle’s inner wheel and outer surfaces are smoother.
The size of the axle was an important factor in the structure’s success. An axle that is too thick would cause too much friction. However, a narrower one would be less friction and would still be strong enough to support a load. This problem was solved by early wagons being small and narrow. They could therefore have thin, short axles.
These parameters must be met for the structure to function. This may explain why such a simple idea took so long to gain momentum.
Archaeologists believe that another factor that limited the development of the wheel and axle was the necessity to cut wood very precisely. This would have required metal tools, which may explain why the wheel or axle was not invented until cast copper chisels were available and gouges were common.
It was impossible to develop the wheel and axle in stages due to the complexity of all the factors involved. It was necessary to be developed all at once. Many archaeologists believe the wheel and axle were invented in one location and then spread to other places.
We don’t know where or when the wheel came from.
Although it is unknown where the wheel and axle came from, its widespread use in Eurasia and the Middle East was rapid. Poland has some of the earliest images showing wheeled carts, suggesting that the region saw its first use.
Asko Parpola is an Indologist at Helsinki University in Finland. He suggests that the Tripolye people of modern-day Ukraine created the wheel. This is because the word “wheel” is derived from their language.
Evidence suggests that the wheel was first used in Mesopotamia’s potter’s wheels 300 years ago, before being adapted for the chariot.
However, the wheelbarrow is thought to have appeared first in ancient Greece, between 600 and 400 BCE. China followed suit later, and eventually, the wheelbarrow and axle made their way to medieval Europe. Although expensive at the time, the wheelbarrow would be repaid in a matter of days. It greatly increased the work that one worker could do.
Vera Cruz, Mexico archaeologists, discovered ceramic toys in the shape of small animals. Children could push the animals along with their wheels. The wheel was not used for transport in the region until the arrival of European settlers. This could have been due to the terrain rather than a lack of know-how.
The camel was the preferred mode for transport in the Middle East and North Africa, where there are many deserts. This was true up to 600 A.D. It could be that camels were more resistant to getting stuck in the sand than thin wooden wheels. In his 1975 book The Camel and the Wheel, Richard Bulliet cites several other reasons. Middle Eastern societies used wheels to practice irrigation, milling, pottery.
It’s not surprising that the basic design of an object as strong as the wheel or axle hasn’t changed in over 6000 years.
What were the first uses of the wheel in the past?
We mentioned earlier that wheels were not originally used for transport. Early wheels were made of a wooden disc and a hole for the axle. This was a crucial role in early societies. They were used in pottery, irrigation, and milling. It took hundreds of years for the wheel to reach the first chariots.
Nature does not have wheels.
What is the most recent time you have seen a wheel in nature? Nature-inspired many of the most important inventions that have changed lives. Many technologies involve biomimicry, from the fork to velcro and the plane, except for the wheel. It is a hundred per cent homo sapien invention.
Some argue that the wheel is a natural phenomenon. Dung Beetles is an example. Dung beetles lay eggs in dung, which serves as food for the larvae. The larvae then transport the dung by rolling it into a ball. Michael LaBarbera, a University of Chicago professor of biology and anatomy, suggests other inspirations. These include tumbleweeds and wheeled organisms.
“Wheel of Fortune” is much more.
The wheel of fortune is more than a game show on American television. It is a medieval concept that represents fate. Fortuna, the goddess of fate, spins the wheel to determine the fates and misfortunes for mortals. Fortuna is often shown as a blindfolded woman spinning an enormous wheel.
The overbalanced wheel is the most popular design for a perpetual-motion device.
For centuries, the concept of perpetual motion machines has existed. It is the ultimate goal of science and would allow for free energy to be produced once it is in motion. Bhaskara’s famous wheel is perhaps the best-known example. The wheel-machine, invented in 1150 by Bhaskara II (an Indian mathematician), was an attempt to create a perpetual-motion device. The wheel was made up of partially filled mercury-filled spokes that were curved or tilted.
Mercury was designed to shift mass away from the wheel’s axle, allowing it to rotate in one direction. The motion eventually slows down and stops due to friction and entropy.
To create optical illusions, use wheels.
Is the film title of a concept called? This is where a rotating wheel is lit by flickering light to make it appear spinning. Film cameras capture still images and then play them in sequence at approximately 50 frames per second. This is enough to trick our brains into believing that the image is moving. If the wheel moves faster than the frame rate, the image can move backwards.
Example: A spoke of the wheel might be at the noon position in one frame. The spoke rotates almost fully to the 11 positions in the second frame. Because it cannot determine the time between frames, your brain will interpret this as anticlockwise. A strobe or fluorescent lamp can also have the same effect at the right frequency.