Our debt to the wheel

Creation: Spring & Easter
The noise of the wheel don't measure the load in the cart. (Belize)









Whoever invented the wheel deserves to be the world’s most famous person. He or she was a potter who lived in Mespotamia (today’s Iraq) almost six thousand years ago.

Scientists have found remains of very early pots in China, North Africa, and South America. If people could store water, they were less dependent on living next to water sources. If they could store food, their surplus grain could last them through the winter or in times of famine.

These early pots were handmade, and probably fired in bonfires or in holes dug in the ground.

The wheel brought about a revolution in pottery. Specialist potters could now “mass produce” pots to meet the needs of the worlds first cities, such as Ur in Mesopotamia.

Only later was the wheel used for transportation. The ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians had wheeled chariots.






The wheel made possible inventions such as the clock and the astrolabe sailors use for navigation.














Ultimately, the wheel helped to bring about the Industrial Revolution, with steam engines, railroads, factories, and later airplanes and automobiles.