The wheel doesn't look too different today, sure we have rubber, chrome and...wow, it's only resemblance is shape and perhaps that axle functionality. How did THAT happen?
History of the Wheel
I wonder why it took the wheel so long to be invented. We look at it as Primitive Technology; Caveman's work. Though, the wheel is seen earliest in Eurasia and Poland, most hold that it's origin was in Mesopotamia in 3500 BC. This is the Bronze Age, we were already mixing metal alloys, and on top of that we had flutes. The Mesopotamians used the wheel as a pottery wheel. Modes of transportation such as wagons and carts, were another step in the process of evolution through innovations. The wheel's story presents a process of inventing that is both fascinating and applicable today.If you're a Sumerian builder and need to move heavy stone palettes from one side of a building to the next, you might slip a log under the palette and ease it along, putting a log in front every few feet. That sounds pretty crazy. So you slide it along on the logs with runners, aka a sledge, which is simply two parallel boards underneath. Why would you ever pursue anything more, this works great! Wait...then you notice grooves forming in the logs after much use. It happens to be increasing the distance of your palette before the next log needs to be placed. Ok, you have an idea. You need some chisels for this job and those are hard to come by, but this looks revolutionary (lol). You and your Sumerian Frat buddies get the palette rolling by attaching the log ends to larger cylindrical disks and thus the primitive axle was created, thanks to you! You pursued by paying attention and not relying on the status quo. Best of all, you did it without coffee.
Egyptians invented the spoked wheel in 2000 BC, or did India? Greeks got on board with the Egyptians, after conquering them...and then Romans went crazy with the spoked wheel. Romans wanted not just chariots (for all hobbies), but also carts, covered carriages, freight wagons and passenger coaches. The wheel caught on more effectively in some regions than in others, but there is no question of it's lasting and immeasurable impact all over the globe. The world continues to enhance the wheel and find new uses for a circle spinning 'round: toy tops, hula-hoops, roulette, Ferris wheels, water mills, bikes, records, you name it.
Today's Speciman
The modern post-industrial wheel, to most people, looks like this:
And that black stuff is pretty important. Your six-month wagon train ride would have been much easier if you'd thought about some shock absorption, Joseph. Even just wrapping your spruce sap and beeswax around that spoked wheel might'ev helped. In effect, rubber, invented in the mid-1840's, was the beginning of a great advancement in wheel technology. Faster, quieter and more durable wheels or tires would come from this material. Harvard studies have shown that wheeled transportation and infrastructure drastically improved economies by allowing efficient growth of scale in society. Better performance and innovation is the next step in the game.
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Modern Wheel Innovations
So we don't have a perpetual motion wheel, ok? So we don't have hovercrafts, ok? But, JOY, someone invented a collapsable wheel. It's a nice idea: a wheelchair with easily collapsible wheels, allowing the handicapped more mobility. A criticism is that the wheels hold 250lbs, which excludes those who use wheelchairs because they're overweight, wouldn't it?One of the sleeker wheel adaptations of our modern era is the bike tire electric motor seen here. The design appears natural and lightweight. The form, a red circle, doesn't necessarily speak of its function, but it is built into the wheel, meaning it must act as a support to the wheel. It is a motor after all. Instead of being a bulky afterthought; it becomes simply the wheel.
What else is out there? What will we come up with next?
Some Wheely-Doos to Change:
Better looking caster wheels: subtle, natural
Omnidirectional caster wheels that are remote controlled
Caster wheels that work on carpet...maybe we aren't talking wheels anymore
In-line Skate Uprising
References
http://www.livescience.com/18808-invention-wheel.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/C004203/science/science02.htm
http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/jrobinson/files/the_wheel_in_africa_february_2012.pdf
http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/22/tech/innovation/reinventing-the-wheel-new-high-tech/
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