Wheel

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Wheel is a circular  device with spokes from the rim to the center and rotates on an axle.

Different types of wheels such as the Ships wheel, steering wheel and the wheel of fortune.

Who invented the Wheel.  When was the wheel invented.

The wheel is probably the most important mechanical invention of all time. The earliest known use of this essential invention was a potter’s wheel that was used at Ur in Mesopotamia(part of modern day Iraq)as early as 3500 BC.

While the exact date and time of the wheel invention is anyone's guess, it is widely believed that humans used logs to move large loads. But logs had the disadvantage of rolling of their course and they also needed a lot of rollers. They improved the design by using a sledge. Logs were placed under an object to drag heavy objects, like a sled and a wedge put together.

The earliest wheel was three struts put in a wheel carved like a circle. The Sumerian pictographs depicts this kind of a wheel which dates to around 3500BC. The potters wheel was also seen around this time which became an important step in pottery making.

The lighter version of the wheel came around 2000BC in Asia minor.At this point wheel had become a mode of transportwith wagons or carts attached.Then came the chariots which had four wheels drawn by wild asses or "Onagers" which evolved to a sleeker two wheeled cart pulled by horses. By the second millenium BC, chariots were redesigned with a lighter axle and spoked wheel assembly. These advanced chariots which were speedy and highly maneuverable were used in warfare by The Aryans of India, Myceneans of Greece and,Egyptians.

The next step in wheel advancement was done by Romans when they started building roads. Building an empire required good communicationand transport. The development of roads enabled the romans to acheive all these.Some of these roads are still used to this day.

The Wheel went on to evolve and the first wheels with iron rims were seen on Celtic chariots in 1000 BC. Iron hubs were added to the axle which gave the wheel more power. The spoked wheel remained the same until about 1802, G.F. Bauer patented his first wire tension spoke. The wire spoke consisted of a wire threaded through the rim of the wheel and secured at both ends of the hub. The wired spoke developed into the one we see in bicycles today.

R.W. Thompson patented in 1845, the wire tension spoke with the pneumatic tire.Dunlop also contributed to the development of wheel by using pneumatic tires which he developed for his son's bicycle. Though the patent was credited to Thompson, Dunlop went down in history as the one who invented the pneumatic tire.The reason being partly that Dunlop founded the Dunlop Rubber Company which still operates in U.K.

The other aspect of the wheel however is the cicular or rotary motion which was used to make many devices such as the "water wheel", millstone and ofcourse the wheels on our automobiles. The wheel with the axle is still the one invention which led to many other great ones and ultimately led to the Industrial revolution.