Why did it take so long to invent the wheel?

Angela

Elite member
Messages
21,823
Reaction score
12,327
Points
113
Ethnic group
Italian
Quite a good article.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-it-took-so-long-to-inv/

"The tricky thing about the wheel is not conceiving of a cylinder rolling on its edge. It's figuring out how to connect a stable, stationary platform to that cylinder."

"
To make a fixed axle with revolving wheels, Anthony explained, the ends of the axle had to be nearly perfectly smooth and round, as did the holes in the center of the wheels; otherwise, there would be too much friction for the wheels to turn. Furthermore, the axles had to fit snugly inside the wheels' holes, but not too snugly — they had to be free to rotate. [What Makes Wheels Appear to Spin Backward?]The success of the whole structure was extremely sensitive to the size of the axle. While a narrow one would reduce the amount of friction, it would also be too weak to support a load. Meanwhile, a thick axle would hugely increase the amount of friction. "They solved this problem by making the earliest wagons quite narrow, so they could have short axles, which made it possible to have an axle that wasn't very thick," Anthony told Life's Little Mysteries."
 
did the first axle have copper bearings or was it friction of wood on wood?
 
Maybe before during tehe ancient times they are more focus with health, that they prefer walking.
 
Maybe before during tehe ancient times they are more focus with health, that they prefer walking.

imho at any time in history, if people had a choice, they would have avoided long walks.

The horse was reintroduced to America by the Spaniards ...

eventually the Native Americans quickly took advantage of it, so much so that today the Horse is part of their culture and tradition.
 
imho at any time in history, if people had a choice, they would have avoided long walks.

The horse was reintroduced to America by the Spaniards ...

eventually the Native Americans quickly took advantage of it, so much so that today the Horse is part of their culture and tradition.

Indeed. People didn't even know about the "health" benefits of walking. Those are first world issues. All they cared about was survival. They walked because they had no other choice, until the domestication of the horse, after which owning a horse so you didn't have to walk was an incredible status symbol.
 
the first wheels were not invented to prevent walking, it was for transporting goods
 
If I am not wrong

at the conguest of New Worlds,
both America and terra Austalis
Did not ha usage of wheel,
that means a lot, if I am true,
 
Yetos,

The bottom line, as I said, is that hunter-gatherers walked a lot out of necessity. They weren't overweight first worlders trying to get in shape.
 
Yetos,

The bottom line, as I said, is that hunter-gatherers walked a lot out of necessity. They weren't overweight first worlders trying to get in shape.

Ithink wheel is NOT only for mobility.

possible invention of wheel could to smash grain to produce flour,
or USAGE OF OX to pull food wagons,

these are wheels NOT NEEDED to mobility

grain mill
images



pottery wheel

depositphotos_318293558-stock-video-traditional-pottery-creating-clay-pot.jpg


grain stone mill could it be older than mobility wheel?

Roue_primitive.png
 
a turning table or turning stone is not a wheel
a wheel is suspended on an axle with bearings that bear a cart or a wagon
 
I agree that wheel is a round thing connected with an axle at its center,
the axle may turn with the wheel, or may not turn with the wheel,
By your definition I see you interested only in mobility wheel,
and not generally the whell

for example the poterry wheel
8158327-potters-wheel.jpg



I see the axlis, the round thing etc,
the difference is that it is vertical, not horizontal

another wheel
shutterstock_246715444.jpg




and about grainstone mills
where is the difference with train wheels exept one horizontal and the other vertical

images


Steam_locomotive_driving_wheel.jpg



Wheel is everything that turns a Force F to a Torgue, M or T = F x d
either turns also the axle, like in 2 wheels carts, or wind/water mills
either does not by usage of ruleman like in 4 wheel carts, or bicycles
in the case of cart F is the rubbing/abrading among wheel and soil surface

477602420697.png



without ruleman (grease, or gears (planetic system))
images
 
when was the pottery wheel invented? any idea?
my guess is the wheel for transportation evolved from a sledge
the wheeled cart was useless without draught animals, which already existed before
 
I do not know,

but considering the conguest of the New World
we see the bellow scene, Native americans adopted the horse, but not the cart with wheels,
so Angela's view has a weigth

x1pus_Hz7fi_R49rfaR1sHBb0GisrNCIW70SJrL2WLOPOgw06QpE47Ew8hh595YmumlNt9DfFmNuv7ODE13ovBsmqY7MG11tvEeq


Horse%20Travois.jpg



I think pottery wheel came much after,
But I can not say if cart wheel or crain stonemills were firstcreated.

we also know that smushing corn to make flour is older than usage of stone to cornmeal.
central and some parts South America, had its own agricultural Neolithic style societies,
But still no wheel.

3fa15bdadcc32bb53f417bbed836fd56.jpg


corn.jpg
 
I do not know,

but considering the conguest of the New World
we see the bellow scene, Native americans adopted the horse, but not the cart with wheels,
so Angela's view has a weigth

x1pus_Hz7fi_R49rfaR1sHBb0GisrNCIW70SJrL2WLOPOgw06QpE47Ew8hh595YmumlNt9DfFmNuv7ODE13ovBsmqY7MG11tvEeq


Horse%20Travois.jpg

they didn't have horses either before Europeans arrived
 
a turning table or turning stone is not a wheel
a wheel is suspended on an axle with bearings that bear a cart or a wagon

No bearings in the old days. Maybe some grease fat to make it more slippery.
 
they didn't have horses either before Europeans arrived


Yes, but they adopt the horse, from Europeans,
But not the wheell

my friend is simple,

at 1492 Native americans did not have both, neitherhorse neither wheel,
but much later, Surely the era of earlyphotography simple machinery, (upside down, black white camera)
Lets say after 1820, maybe even later, we see the bellow
They adopted horse from Europeans, they adpted cart, But not the cart on wheels
Horse%20Travois.jpg

x1pus_Hz7fi_R49rfaR1sHBb0GisrNCIW70SJrL2WLOPOgw06QpE47Ew8hh595YmumlNt9DfFmNuv7ODE13ovBsmqY7MG11tvEeq


Why this?
Cause horse multiply their fighting skills, multiply their mobility, but was a wild animal, a natural product,
BUT wheel? needed 1-2 jobs, Carpenter, smith,
adopting the wheel, Native Americans, would be a Revolution to their Cosmotheory,
they needed to create jobs, like carpenter and or smith,


Something simmilar could be in EurAsia or Africa
,
but also add the stone cutter job, maybe,

Pionneer Settlers had carts and had wheel,
So Native Americans had conduct to both, horse and wheel,
 
Last edited:

This thread has been viewed 5678 times.

Back
Top