four-wheeled wagon Wherever the first wheels were made the technology spread rapidly between 3400 and 3000 BCE On a Roll Other than minor improvements such as spokes sectioned rims and metal tires vehicle wheels remained relatively unchanged for thousands of years until the Industrial Revolution and the invention of the pneumatic tire in the 1800s But machines that used wheels or wheel-like devices such as gears and moving discs were on a roll from the very beginning If there was a way the wheel could make a task easier and improve life there was an inventor ready to take advantage of it Wheeled vehicles and machines make tasks easier and they have improved everyday life in many ways It is not an exaggeration to say the wheel changed the world Wheeled grain mills produced more and more food Better and more abundant pottery increased storage capacity for that food Wheeled carts capitalizing on the strength of domesticated animals such as horses and oxen carried heavier and greater quantities of food and goods longer distances in shorter periods Spinning wheels spun thread to clothe the ever-increasing population eating the bread made from all that grain In time the laborsaving benefits of the wheel freed people from having to devote all their 12
LEVER WHEEL AND AXLE PULLEY INCLINED PLANE WEDGE SCREW These six machines comprise the building blocks with which all complex machines are made They serve a useful purpose by changing the strength or direction of a force energy to survival enabling them to pursue education arts and other creative endeavors Improvements brought by the wheel made it possible for civilization to expand in countless ways SIX BASIC MACHINES The wheel is one of six basic machines the lever wheel with axle pulley inclined plane wedge and screw All simple machines create more force than is put into them by transferring or amplifying the initial force Force applied to a wheel for example wind moving a windmill’s blades magnifies the rotation of the axle Force applied to an axle such as from a car’s gasoline engine magnifies the rotation of the wheel Simple machines have been used for thousands of years in various forms The term mechanical advantage indicates the ratio of the output force to the input force For example looping a rope over a barn rafter and pulling on it to lift a heavy object creates a favorable mechanical advantage compared with lifting the object unaided 13
FUN WHEELS The most useful wheeled inventions help people move and make things But wheels also provide entertainment A good example is the Ferris wheel Called pleasure wheels when they first came into use throughout Europe in the 1600s the large wooden wheels with hanging seats were turned by strong men American engineer George Washington Gale Ferris Jr built the first steam-powered big wheel for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago Illinois At 264 feet 80 m tall Ferris designed it to rival France’s Eiffel Tower Ferris’s machine could carry 2,160 people in 35 hanging gondolas 5 An even taller machine was built for the 1895 Empire of India exhibition which had more than 2 5 million visitors during its 12-year run 6 In 1896 the machine’s operator paid riders the equivalent of several months wages after a mishap forced them to dangle in midair all night One of the tallest modern Ferris wheels is the 541-foot 165 m tall Singapore Flyer which features 28 air-conditioned capsules 7 As it did for Starley the wheel has inspired many inventors to make improvements to existing wheeled machines or to create something entirely new Said Robert Fulton inventor of the first practical steamboat The mechanic should sit down among levers screws wedges wheels etc like a poet among the letters of the alphabet considering them as the exhibition of his thoughts in which a new arrangement transmits a new idea to the world 4 Although today the wheel and the countless inventions it spawned may be taken for granted its history is anything but ordinary 14
THE WHEEL ca 3500 BCE The first-known potter’s wheel is used in Mesopotamia ca 3300 BCE Four-wheeled wagons are used in Europe ca 2000 BCE Chariots are used for war in Europe North Africa and the Middle East ca 400 300 BCE The Greeks develop cogs gears and pulleys ca 80 BCE The waterwheel is used in the eastern Mediterranean region 500 1000 CE The spinning wheel is developed in China 1803 Englishman Richard Trevithick builds the first successful steam railroad locomotive 1807 American Robert Fulton builds the first practical waterwheel steamboat 1817 German Baron von Drais invents the first bicycle 1885 German Karl Benz builds a four-wheeled gasoline-engine car 1887 Scotsman John Dunlop develops the pneumatic tire originally designed for a bicycle 1908 The first mass-produced automobile the Model T Ford comes off the assembly line in the United States 1930 English engineer Frank Whittle invents the gas-turbine jet engine 1956 IBM introduces the first computer-disc storage system 1997 NASA lands its Sojourner rover on Mars to explore the planet’s surface 15 TIMELINE
