About 6000 years ago, people began to use the first mechanisms that helped to drag a heavy load. They were called - travois. The travois consisted of two long poles, which were attached to the horse with ropes, and the rear ends dragged freely on the ground.
But the travois were not always convenient. When the object was too heavy, logs were placed under it. Skating rinks - that was the name of these logs. The rollers that remained behind the heavy object were carried and placed in front of the load to move it further. Perhaps the observation of rotating logs was the impetus for the invention of the wheel.
The potter's wheel, which appeared several centuries before the cart, could also serve as another impetus for the invention of the cart wheel. To facilitate the rotation of the stand on which the clay lies, an unknown potter guessed to attach the axis. Soon he noticed that with the rapid rotation of the stand, clay pots could be given a more regular shape.No one knows when the wheel appeared. Most scientists believe that the wheel (or circle) was first used around 3500 BC by potters in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) or in central or Eastern Europe.
From about 85 BC, the wheel began to be used not only for transporting goods, but also in everyday life. Thus, the wheel placed on the watermill made it possible to use the energy of water to work heavy millstones and produce flour.
And between about 500 and 1000 BC, the spinning wheel was invented.
For several millennia, the history of the wheel has hardly progressed in its development. And only in the middle of the XVIII century, finally, a new improvement appeared — tires were invented. The first tires on wheels were made of dense fabric (canvas) and only then they began to be made of rubber. One of the pushes for further improvement was the invention of the first bicycle, more like a wooden two-wheeled scooter, it was called a "trolley".
The appearance and improvement of the wheel is the most amazing invention that pushed humanity to rapid development. Thanks to the wheel and with the opening of the first steam engine, freight and wheeled river steamers were launched.
The next step in the history of the wheel was the creation of cars, and already here the wheel device has undergone a lot of improvements that continue to this day.
