Why Did It Take So Long To Invent the Wheel? 389
Hugh Pickens writes "Wheels are the archetype of a primitive, caveman-level technology, and we tend to think that inventing the wheel was the number one item on man's to-do list after learning to walk upright. But LiveScience reports that it took until the bronze age (3500 BC), when humans were already casting metal alloys and constructing canals and sailboats, for someone to invent the wheel-and-axle, a task so challenging archaeologists say it probably happened only once, in one place. The tricky thing about the wheel isn't a cylinder rolling on its edge, but figuring out how to connect a stable, stationary platform to that cylinder. 'The stroke of brilliance was the wheel-and-axle concept,' says David Anthony, author of The Horse, the Wheel, and Language. To make a fixed axle with revolving wheels, the ends of the axle have to be nearly perfectly smooth and round, as did the holes in the center of the wheels. The axles have to fit snugly inside the wheels' holes, but not too snug, or there will be too much friction for the wheels to turn. But the real reason it took so long is that whoever invented the wheel would have needed metal tools to chisel fine-fitted holes and axles. 'It was the carpentry that probably delayed the invention until 3500 BC or so, because it was only after about 4000 BC that cast copper chisels and gouges became common in the Near East.'"
Not so fast there partner! (Score:5, Informative)
Bah - except you don't...
There are many ways to construct a wheel/axle combination that don't require precision tooling...
Use of slots rather than holes... Forked branch style notch rests.. etc
Extend the axle past an over size slot then mount a disk tied/lashed.pegged over the end for alignment
Older systems used a wedge arrangement in the axle to give an adjustable attachment/brace for the end bearing plate
Durability of these however might continue to be an issue
Steam engines? (Score:4, Informative)
Dodn't you read the wikipedia article?
Hero of Alexandria's Aeolipile had nothing to do with "Ancient Greece", it was invented/constructed in what we call the first century AD, during the ROMAN era, about a thousand years ago. The Aeolipile was little more than an executives desk toy, made to show a principle. There was no way to take a drive off it and the system has little torque and so can't power anything.
The Romans, let alone the Greeks before them didn't have the technology to cast and forge large iron objects essential to constructing the parts of even an ineffective steam engine. Look at the history of guns, a "similar" pressure vessel system. Gunpowder entered Europe in the Middle Ages and at the beginning it was only possible to cast small iron guns, often full of fatal (to the gunners) flaws. Some cannon were even made of wood, bound with iron hoops like a barrel, perhaps why a gun barrel is called a gun barrel...
The technology to cast large bronze and iron artefacts, with any degree of precision only developed in the 15th-16th centuries (again mainly driven by war), and the tools needed to manipulate large masses of metal took even longer to appear, so its not surprising that what we call the industrial revolution showed its first glimmerings of life towards the end of the 16th century and matured slowly during the 17th and 18th centuries, towards the end of which, the steam engine appeared.
Industrial revolutions depend on a lot more than a Graeco-Romano philosophical desktop toy!
Re:Priorities. (Score:5, Informative)
Which wiseguy modded this offtopic?
"And the wheel," said the Captain, "What about this wheel thingy? It sounds a terribly interesting project."
"Ah," said the marketing girl, "Well, we're having a little difficulty there."
"Difficulty?" exclaimed Ford. "Difficulty? What do you mean, difficulty? It's the single simplest machine in the entire Universe!"
The marketing girl soured him with a look.
"Alright, Mr. Wiseguy," she said, "if you're so clever, you tell us what colour it should be."
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy)
Hand in your nerd cards, etc...
Re:Why create the wheel? (Score:5, Informative)
> the agricultural revolution is a mystery, because the techniques of hunting/gathering had advanced sufficiently by 10000 years ago that they were far superior, in the short-term back then, then farming.
No, it is not a mystery, and for the reasons that you gave. Farming produced a surplus (can't be that inferior then), and most of all farming meant that babies could be weaned earlier and were more likely to survive. And if that is not incentive enough to take up farming, it still leads to the fact that farmers out-bred the hunter & gatherer groups. It is all well understood and not really a mystery.
Farming then enabled the formation of a stratified society, leading to the early high cultures. Sure, not everybody was well of, but it beats being chased by a lion, and for humankind it was a huge step forward. It was the beginning of civilisation as we know it.
Re:obvious (Score:2, Informative)
Actually I think you'll find that Apple had rounded off corners patented a few years before the dinosaurs turned up.
Re:Environment (Score:5, Informative)
Infrastructure is more important than the technological challenge.
Richard Bulliett In "The Camel and the Wheel" explains how the camel came to replace the wheel in the middle east for almost 1000 years, an evolution in reverse. Carts with wheels may be more economic for moving things, once you have good roads. But if you have to calculate in the cost of the road and road maintenance then carts easily become more expensive, especially if the cart owner has to pay directly in the form of toll. You can't demand the same toll from the camel owner because they can easily find an alternative path.
Re:Not so fast there partner! (Score:4, Informative)
Bah - except you don't...
There are many ways to construct a wheel/axle combination that don't require precision tooling...
Use of slots rather than holes... Forked branch style notch rests.. etc...
Just like on Fred Flinstone's car, no less.
For that matter, who needs metal to drill holes? Archaeological literature is full of references to "stone drills".
Re:In the IT department... (Score:4, Informative)
The wheel has been reinvented quite successfully several times. The most successful reinvention was the addition of spokes using the tensile, rather than compressive, strength of the material for support. A modern bike wheel is more similar to an arch than a pillar in terms of support, while earlier wheels are the opposite - you can make a bike wheel using elastic bands as spokes. Pneumatic tyres probably also count as reinventing the wheel.
The problem is not that people try to reinvent the wheel, the problem is that they try to make it square.