The wheel

The wheel

                     The wheel has been an essential part of human life from the very early years of human civilization. The wheel can be best described as a circular object that rotates on an axial bearing.  The earliest wheels were known to be wooden disks with a hole in the middle for the axle.  The word wheel first came from an Old English word.  In Sanskrit, the wheel is called chakra to mean round or circle.  It is believed that the wheel first originated around 3500 BC in Mesopotamia (part of modern-day Iraq) where it was used for chariots.  Some argue that it was invented by the Mesopotamians, the Northern Caucasus and Central Europeans.  Therefore, the issue of where the wheel originated in still remains a mystery.

The next step in the evolution of the wheel was made by the Egyptians 1500 years later in 2000 BC when they used spokes in their wheels and proudly used them in their chariots while the Greeks have the honour ofintroducing the cross bar or the H-type wheel.

 The other significant development in the evolution of the wheel includes the introduction of wire tension spoke in 1802 when G.  F.  Bauer obtained a patent for it and the introduction of a new type of tyre in 1845 by R.W. Thompson which was improved later by John Dunlop in 1888.

 The wheel was one of the central technologies which boosted the industrial revolution.  The invention of the wheel has contributed immensely to the development of technology and the most significant being the water wheel, the cog wheel and the spinning wheel.  Some of the latest developments of the wheel include the propeller, the jet engine and flywheel and the turbine.  The wheel which originated so long ago has passed through many stages of development and change and is now presented in very attractive forms.  Today one cannot even imagine any mechanism without a wheel, can you?