THE BEGINNING

The wheel was first

invented by the
Sumerians in the 5th
millennium, excavated in
Uruk, a Sumerian city. But
they were not attached to
vehicles at first – in fact, TO
the wheel was first made
in the form of a potter’s
wheel. Also, contrary to
popular belief, the wheel
was not inspired by rolling
logs – in fact, there is no
actual proof as to that
humans have ever used
 THE BLUEPRINTS
The true ‘wheel’ that was placed on
a moving vehicle was first created
from one round tree-trunk each,
with “tires” made of strips of
copper or bronze, causing them to
become much heavier and bring
down the speed. Once the
Egyptians figured that if the
inside of the wheel was hollow
they would be lighter yet stronger,
they started making them with
three pieces of wood with wooden
strips keeping them together,
carving out the inside of the wood
to create a much lighter and
stronger wheel. They soon started
to create spoked wheels in
2000BC. However, tires didn’t
ADDING THEM TO VEHICLES
Soon, people realized that wheels
could be attached to a cart and the
Who to
cart attached would
animals.have
People
thought
created chariots in around 3000BC,
which were
thispulled
ONE by powerful
LITTLE and
mighty war horses. People started
INVENTION
creating artwork based on war scenes
– this created
would the first to
lead picture
so of the
wheel, made in 3500BC. People also
many others?
started inventing things where the
wheel was crucial – waterwheels,
cogwheels, spinning wheels. Some
future inventions would have been
useless without the design of the
 ITS IMPORTANCE TODAY
Today, the wheel is a very
important legacy the
Mesopotamians have left us.
They are almost everywhere,
the design used to create
many other things. Without
wheels, we would not have
the rubber tires, and cars
wouldn’t have even been
thought of. The design of
airplanes would have also
failed and everyone would
still be walking around,
living in huts because lots of
construction machines
would not be able to work
because they would not Without wheels, we’d
move, and there would be probably still be living like
no way of moving around this.
Thank god we
aren’t.