BIG WHEELS KEEP ON TURNIN' - THE WHEEL (c.3500 BC)

Yeah you probably saw this one coming. When it comes to the phrase, ‘great inventions’ it’s a safe bet that most of us will be thinking about The Wheel (either that or Monster Munch). Yet it’s important to look into what makes this revolutionary mechanism so, revolutionary. After all, the wheel is basically just a big piece of circular wood right? What makes that so special? The truth is we take the design of the wheel for granted now, but that’s because we’ve never known life without it. As simple as it may be, The Wheel, like many inventions, is a lot like an optical illusion – you may not be able to see it at first, but when someone tells you what it is, it suddenly seems obvious! So when it finally did come to use c. 3500 BC (at minimum) you can imagine just what it meant for all those Bronze Age folk, busy laying foundation stones for the next several thousand years of human civilisation. The use of wheels were instrumental in the making of pottery, which sounds dull till you realise that humans were finally able to venture further afield, knowing that their packed lunches (and more importantly water) were safe and sound within their impressive new pottery vessels. And if you want to move lots of those vessels, The Wheel has the answer to that too! Carts and chariots enabled goods to be transported with ease over long distances, allowing humans to extend themselves like never before. Last and by no means least, The Wheel served as a precursor to almost every mechanical system that the human race has EVER assembled, this is especially important when we consider that no wheel = no industrial revolution.