The Wheel – invented in Africa 14 Mar 2015 add bookmark native sharing Ever since I can remember, I have been hearing that nothing worthwhile has ever been invented in Africa. I didn’t believe this. So I decided to investigate this grave matter of National pride and importance. NOTE: I base my research on sources from the Internet because the information on the Internet is always the honest-to-god’s truth. Based on diagrams found on ancient clay tablets, the earliest known use of the wheel was the tiny gears that were used in the precision watches that were manufactured in around 3500 BC, at the town of Hur, in Mesopotamia (now part of modern day Limpopo Province). Actually, there is also earlier evidence of the wheel in Africa; Egypt in fact as the wheel was used to help build the pyramid. CLICK HERE. .
The Wheel – invented in Africa
Ever since I can remember, I have been hearing that nothing worthwhile has ever been invented in Africa. I didn’t believe this. So I decided to investigate this grave matter of National pride and importance.
NOTE: I base my research on sources from the Internet because the information on the Internet is always the honest-to-god’s truth.
Based on diagrams found on ancient clay tablets, the earliest known use of the wheel was the tiny gears that were used in the precision watches that were manufactured in around 3500 BC, at the town of Hur, in Mesopotamia (now part of modern day Limpopo Province). Actually, there is also earlier evidence of the wheel in Africa; Egypt in fact as the wheel was used to help build the pyramid.
Judah Ben-Hur, a traditional leader, who later became a famous Formula One charioteer, got the idea of the wheel while watching his father, Charlton Heston Ben-Hur, repairing watches. In those days, watches were called chronometers, after Chronos, who had three heads – that of a man, a bull, a lion, a witch, and a closet.
But I anticipate.
The first use of the wheel for transportation was probably on Mesopotamian chariots in 3200 BC.
It is interesting to note that wheels may have had industrial or manufacturing applications before they were used on roadworthy vehicles. Potter’s wheels, Meals on Wheels, popping wheelies, hamster wheels, computer disk drives, Big Wheels, small wheels, Ferris Wheels, Carousels, Catherine Wheels – the ancient world was teeming with evolving wheels.
(The Catherine Wheel was typically a large wooden wagon wheel with many radial spokes. The condemned were lashed to the wheel and their limbs were beaten with a club or iron cudgel, with the gaps in the wheel allowing the limbs to give way and break. Great fun to watch, one would think.)
It is hard to imagine any digital system that would be possible without the wheel, or the idea of a symmetrical component, moving in a circular motion on an axis. From tiny watch gears, to taxis, to jet engines, to food mixers, the principle is the same.
The Wheel Turns:
Judah Ben-Hur once remarked: “He who puts out his hand to stop the wheel will have his fingers crushed.”
(In those days, Formula One fans used to play the fore-runner of the game of “Chicken.” They would put their hands down in front of the racing chariots’ wheels, and pull them away at the last possible moment. Last one to pull his hand away was considered the winner. This game was also referred to as “giving someone the finger.”)
Moses once said to the Israelites, after their GPS went haywire and left them wandering in the desert for forty years and forty nights: “Take heart, Wandering Jews! I say unto thee, it is lazy people like the Egyptians who invented the wheel and the bicycle because they didn’t like walking and carrying things. Hey, man!”
To which his seventh wife, twice removed, replied: “Why do I always choose the shopping cart with the squeaky wheel? Is it my bad luck, or are all carts dysfunctional?”
“Silenzio! One more stupid question like that, woman,” he admonished, “and I’m sending you back to Egypt to join Lot’s wife!”
The great Inca, Aztec, and Mayan civilizations reached an extremely high level of development, yet they never used the wheel. Maybe that is why they vanished off the face of the Earth.
In fact, there is no evidence that the wheel existed anywhere in the world before Judah Ben-Hur started racing his chariot on a private racetrack outside the ancient city of Polokwane, in Mesopotamia, South Africa.
So there! Now you know: the wheel is an indigenous invention.
Be proud of our taxis – give them the thumbs up – they’re running on OUR wheels.
*(Time to light another one, Sakkie? Weed is supposed to be GOOD for you.)*
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