Why It Took So Long to Invent the Wheel [ s/b, why wheels haven't survived in strata ]

Scientific American ^ | March 6, 2012 | Natalie Wolchover

[SunkenCiv]

Wheels are the archetype of a primitive, caveman-level technology. But in fact, they're so ingenious that it took until 3500 B.C. for someone to invent them. By that time -- it was the Bronze Age -- humans were already casting metal alloys, constructing canals and sailboats, and even designing complex musical instruments such as harps.

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.

"The stroke of brilliance was the wheel-and-axle concept," said David Anthony, a professor of anthropology at Hartwick College and author of "The Horse, the Wheel, and Language"... "But then making it was also difficult."

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.

The sensitivity of the wheel-and-axle system to all these factors meant that it could not have been developed in phases, he said. It was an all-or-nothing structure.

[SunkenCiv]

WHEELS OF WONDER: A wheeled figurine from the New World, probably made in Veracruz between 100 B.C. and 800 A.D. Image: madman2001 | Creative Commons

[SunkenCiv]

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The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World by David W. Anthony Kindle Edition Paperback Unknown Binding

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[Grizzled Bear]

The invention of Beer was critical in the invention of the wheel. After inventing Beer, primitive man needed the wheel to transport the Beer to the pig roast.

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
No one doubts the plow is extremely old, with the earliest known (unadjusted, so older yet) RC date for cultivated grain being 14,000 years old -- and yet the plow must not have yet been invented because no one's ever found one that old. Wheels were repaired when needed, until they plain wore out and went into the fire on a cold night. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[SunkenCiv]

;’) Kegs are pretty heavy, so I have no doubt you’re onto something.

[unixfox]

;-)

[Elsiejay]

But why did the people found living in what is now called North America when Europeans arrived in significant numbers, beginning in the 1300s or thereabouts (pick your own century), seemingly not know about the wheel?

[Carthego delenda est]

“The invention of Beer was critical in the invention of the wheel. After inventing Beer, primitive man needed the wheel to transport the Beer to the pig roast.”

Absolutely correct! Primitive man was a dumbass electing libtards into office: thus our problems.

[Elsiejay]

But why did the people found living in what is now called North America when Europeans arrived in significant numbers, beginning in the 1300s or thereabouts (pick your own century), seemingly not know about the wheel?

[SatinDoll]

Uh...no.

Wheels existed in the subcontinent of India long before 3500 bc.

Archaeology just ignores India. Indian archaeologists insist that humans go back at least a million years. This is not popular with western academics who have their “professional reputations” to protect.

[I see my hands]

Any excuse to post this pic will do.

[Ditto]

I always thought the 'wheel' would be an intuitive kind of thing... just watching rocks rolling down hill. It was putting two of them together via an axle that was the stroke of genius.

We all owe a debt of gratitude to that caveman who conceived the axle. Nice job dude!

[bunkerhill7]

Any farm boy knows an oak tree trunk or limb have naturally hollowed centers that the squirrels run up n down. All you gotta do is break off the limb or saw the trunk in 2 places and stick another branch between `em both and voila!

from Scientific American below:
``Whoever invented it must have had access to wide slabs of wood from thick-trunked trees in order to carve large, round wheels.``

Well duhh, Professor Anthony — trees are naturally ROUND, you idiot!

[Ezekiel]

We all owe a debt of gratitude to that caveman who conceived the axle. Nice job dude!

Early life

Rose was born William Bruce Rose, Jr. in Lafayette, Indiana, the oldest child of Sharon E. (née Lintner), then 16 years old, and William Bruce Rose, then 20 years old.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axl_Rose

[occamrzr06]

I thought the real genius was putting the wheel on its side, jamming a pole in it and watching the cave hootchies pole dance.

Perhaps that was a later era.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

I think they may be way off in their estimation of the origin of the wheel. The reason being that even in the very ancient world, there was a lot of engineering aptitude far beyond what people today imagine.

For example, years ago, scientists at the Smithsonian figured out a simple, low tech way the ancient Egyptians could have built the 138 known pyramids of Egypt, in a fraction of the time, with far less manpower than assumed.

Based on a naturally occurring pyramid-shaped geological formation, that likely gave them the idea. The earliest of these were built around 2630 BC, and there can be seen an engineering evolution from that primitive pyramid, to the great pyramids of Giza, about 2560 BC, just 70 years later, which were much more complex and finished.

The scientists at the Smithsonian figured out that with just 8 pieces of wood, held together with pegs, the giant stones could essentially be turned into cylinders. When combined with the dirt ramp technology they had mastered, as well as boats to take the great stones from the quarry to the construction site, labor was just fractional to what it would have had to have been to muscle around giant, rectangular cubes.

Just keep increasing the ramp, and when the capstone is put on top, take away the dirt leaving the fully formed pyramid.

But according to the article, the wheel and axle was invented just a thousand years earlier than that.

[TigersEye]

No one was happier than the guys who had to keep moving the logs back up to the front.

[Rocky]

How disappointing. Not one mention of Fred Flintstone in that article.

[going hot]

See that dude riding the rock?

He was armenian!

[Ditto]

I guess that log rolling thing was the first axle --- high reliability but pretty heavy overhead with all the employees needed to keep the logs rolling. ~;))

And I'd bet OSHA would have some problems with that today. Just guessing they would work a deal with the International Federation of Log Rollers in return for the appropriate campaign contributions while they work on Pharaoh Obama's Pyramid.