fuenmayorr568

· 20 Jul 2021

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The first invention

#science
When talking about inventions made by humans, the first thing that usually comes to mind is, the wheel. This tool has been with humans for millennia, and it seems that it is at the base of our technology, but you may not know who invented the wheel.

It's funny, how a simple circular surface attached to an axis allows so many possibilities, almost as many as machines we are able to invent humans. So much so, that there are few gadgets that do not incorporate a wheel somewhere in the mechanism.

We usually think about the wheel especially in relation to vehicles. Needless to say, this has facilitated transport in a remarkable way, but the first wheels we know were manufactured in ancient Mesopotamia, about 6,000 or 7,000 years ago.

At that time, they had nothing to do with transport, but with ceramics. They were potter's lathes. It had to be several centuries before someone thought of turning the mechanism around and putting it under a vehicle to give rise to the car.

Unfortunately, as with other great inventions of humanity, it is not possible for us to know exactly who invented the wheel.

As we mentioned in the previous point, some 6,000 years ago in Mesopotamia there were the wheels of potter's lathes, but nothing more.

It took many centuries before someone thought of using these wheels to move objects. This made transportation extremely easy.

With much less force, much larger weights could be moved. The reason is that the wheel has a very small point of contact with the ground and does not slip on top of it. This makes friction minimal and almost all force is used to displace the load.

The wheel was one of humanity's great inventions. There is no doubt about that.