The majority of us understand how wheel work. For instance, you presumably grew up knowing that rounder or circular objects roll more easily than boxy or angular objects. It is difficult to believe that our oldest ancestors did not independently arrive at similar insights; nonetheless, the first wheels only appeared in historical records at roughly 3500 BC. People were already farming, writing, and even casting metal alloys then. What exactly about making a wheel was so difficult?

History of Wheel

The classic example of simple, prehistoric technology is wheels. However, they were created in 3500 B.C. because they were so clever. It was the Bronze Age, and people had already developed sophisticated musical instruments like harps, built canals and vessels, and cast metal alloys. The difficult part of the wheel is avoiding visualizing a cylinder rolling on edge. 

David Anthony, an anthropology professor at Hartwick College and the author of "The Horse, the Wheel, and Language," stated that the "stroke of brilliance" was the 26 inch wheels notion. But making it was also challenging. The tricky part is figuring out how to attach a solid, fixed platform to the cylinder. Further employing these cylinder wheels as off-road wheels. To construct a stable axle with rotating wheels, the axle's ends and the holes in the centers of the wheels had to be almost perfectly smooth and rounded; otherwise, there would be too much friction for the wheels to turn. The axles needed to fit firmly but not too tightly in the wheel holes to rotate freely.

Structure of the Wheel

The size of the axle was a critical factor in the overall structure's performance. A narrow one would be less frictional but not strong enough to hold a load. A thick axle, however, would significantly increase friction. The earliest wagons were designed to be relatively thin so they could have short axles, which allowed for an axle that wasn't very thick and thus solved the problem. What could not have created the wheel-and-axle system in stages due to its sensitivity to all these parameters? It was a one-sided construction.

The Invention of the Wheel

The person who created the wheel must have had access to big slabs of wood from trees with substantial trunks to cut large, oblong wheels. To chisel precisely sized holes and axles, they also need metalworking tools. Additionally, they must have needed to transport big loads over land. Because cast copper chisels and gouges didn't become widespread in the Near East until around 4000 B.C., carpentry likely held up the innovation until about 3500 B.C.

The development of the wheel was so difficult that it most likely only occurred once and only in one location. However, it appears to have spread across Eurasia and the Middle East from that location so quickly that authorities are still determining its exact origin. Since the first examples of wheeled carts have been discovered in Poland and other parts of the Eurasian steppe, this area is now considered more likely than Mesopotamia to be the birthplace of the wheel. Asko Parpola, an Indologist at the University of Helsinki in Finland, asserts that there are linguistic grounds to think the Tripolye people of contemporary Ukraine invented the wheel. In other words, the words for wheels and wagons come from the language of that society. Parpola believes that small-scale replicas of wheeled wagons, frequently discovered on Eurasia's steppes, most certainly predated human-scale carts. 

" The quantity of models produced in Tripolye culture is astounding. These models are frequently assumed to have been children's toys, but it's more likely that they were tiny replicas of actual objects. Who likes wheeled vehicles more than infants and young children? It draws attention to the incredible inventiveness of the wheel due to their practically universal fascination with how what can roll miniature vehicles along the floor and the joy they experience while riding in life-size ones. "Wheel and Axle System Sensitivity" is a seven-step progressive design method.

1. TURN One

As "rollers," use tree trunks. Roll your load across, then place them in the back and repeat.

2. Turn Two

Place a plank between the load and the rollers to reduce friction.

3. Turn Three

To further reduce friction, slide Stick Blades under the board like a sled.

4. Turn Four

The load is stabilized by the grooves the blades made in the tree trunks.

5. Turn Five

The tree trunks have been hollowed out between the grooves to accommodate various-sized sleds on top (an accidental axle and wheel pair is formed).

6. Turn Six

The axle is fed through holes drilled in the sled's blades to strengthen the cart.

7. Turn Seven

Success!

Conclusion

We are constantly creating technological leaps because we live in the Steve Jobs era and are surrounded by a flood of innovative, miniaturized technology. Still, things like phones, iPods, rockets, and medical devices are incremental advancements in existing technology. Yes, the changes are striking, but they nonetheless take place gradually. Our future is not created in giant leaps. Only afterward, when we look back and realize what we've accomplished, do we realize that what we've all created was unthinkable before it existed.