THE HISTORY OF THE WHEEL
The wheel, an appearance a simple circular object, it still remains one of the greatest discoveries in history. The wheel is the first tool that has allowed us to move from slither an object to make it roll on every surface. It has prevented the men using their own strength to move heavy objects or use pets for the toughest tasks.
The wheel it was originally employed to move large stone’s blocks or large artifacts through rollers made with tree trunks, a solution to reduce friction with the ground. The merit of its discovery is attributed to the Mesopotamian civilization or to shepherds of the central Asia, and then it spread in China.
The wheel as a tool for internal handling, however, only became widespread after the Second World War. The creation of the castor (in 1930) it is the first cause of the success: an important feature for the modern use of the wheel, which allowed the home environment’s utilization, through the production of wheels for pianos, chairs, appliances, tea carts, televisions and other useful applications.
The castor allows to steering with the wheel in the desired direction, a fundamental feature to increase the handling of the objects. The first directional system obtained by putting a single castor in the rear axle, a solution that did not offers enough stability. Later it was applied a second axle to increase the balance, but this solution increase the problem of an easy change of direction, a fundamental characteristic when you follow a non-linear path. After, it was developed a system that allows the steering of the front axle by means of two discs sliding on one another around a vertical pin. The evolution was driven by the constriction of the internal environment and the increase of the need of means of transport for people and goods. To reduce the space for maneuver were made castors with offset, a solution obtained by moving the horizontal axis of the wheel relative to the vertical axis of the support, which allowed a quick change of direction.
Nowadays the different needs for moving objects in indoor environments has stimulated the development of various fixing systems and special features, such as brakes to stop the movement, directional blocks to transform swivel in fixed castor, spring suspension castor to absorb vibrations and irregularities of the surfaces. We must mention the fundamental contribution of the ball bearing, an invention attributed to a French mechanic, which allowed an increase of the smoothness.
The wheel has gone through so many changes throughout history, from Goodyear's vulcanization process that enabled him to produce rubber wheels, the use of wheel in hospital beds and the innovations of the chemistry that enabled the construction of the wheel in plastic or synthetic materials.
This long history continues and nowadays we can choose between castor in steel, plastic, stainless steel, aluminum, zamat. The castor can be match with metal wheels, metal and rubber coating, polyurethane, plastic or pneumatic tires with metal core.
You can find all these variants in OMO Rocarr’s range
Reading the history of the wheel will begin to change the perception of this simple object. Maybe next time analyze a wheel we will realize we directly observing the human progress.
