How the wheel was invented
I mentioned a couple of times “the wheel phrase” in my last article, but what is the real meaning of it? I never understood, when the people say — you should not reinvent the wheel. If I’d receive money each time I heard it, maybe I would become a millionaire.
Reinventing the wheel. Why not? My wheel is different and I want to do it. Most great inventions are just new, fresher look on the same problem. Let’s dive into history first and see when the wheel was invented and did no-one really reinvented it?
History of the wheel creation
Most of the sources tell you a lie because of not knowing the truth. It is common to find the information that the wheel was invented about 4000 B.C. in Mesopotamia. Some sources tell you that the wheel was invented a thousand years before in Trypillia culture, but nobody knows for sure. Most researchers think that America before Europe’s invasion did not use a wheel for transport, but only for toys. If archeology did not find proof of something does not mean it never existed.
After a few thousands of years after the Mesopotamian wheel, it was reinvented — people made it from wood instead of stone. The oldest wooden wheel is known to be found in Ljubljana, Slovenia, circa 3200 BC. Humanity wanted to modify it, to make it less heavy and after another thousand years, Egyptians created a spoked wheel, around 2000 BC.
The wheel was reinvented over and over again to adapt it for different kinds of use — pottery, watermill, astronomy. By the way, gears were invented by the Greek mechanics of Alexandria in the third century B.C.
Even in ancient history the wheel was invented, modified, adapted a couple of times, but let’s skip it a bit to the more modern era.
A bicycle wheel
The first bicycle, designed in 1820, did not have pedals and used wooden wheels. You can imagine how awesome it was to ride on a rocky road! A bit later, in the 1860s the first bicycle with pedals was invented. It had a metal tacked to the wooden wheel to be used as a tire. I think people had a lot of fun riding this machine at this time.
In 1874 the tangent spoke wheel was designed. The spokes in this wheel ran as a tangent to the hub, crossing. The modern bicycle still uses this system of spokes.
The wheel became lighter, but still used the metal tire and was very raw off-road, so in 1887 the first wheel with the pneumatic rubber inflatable tire was invented.
Just do it!
So did the wheel was already invented by somebody else? Yes. Was it modified and reinvented again a couple of times? Yes! Next time someone will tell you “You are inventing the wheel” just tell them the history of the wheel that was invented again and again by different people, who modified it to be something new, original. I can agree that the wheel did not change much since the IX century, but will it stay the way we know it? I’m not sure. Maybe you will invent the next wheel for the new generation of transportation?
It’s the same with every project. It could be new software, a new book, a new song. Even if it a big thing and requires a collaboration of a lot of people. You should do it. Just do it. Nobody understands your “wheel” better than you do. Nobody will understand why it is better than others. Even if it’s the same as someone’s else, just make it.
First of all, you got to ask yourself — “Why do I want to do it?” Money? Not the best motivation. If money is the only motivation you have, forget it. It does not worth the effort. Another question — “How can I make the same, but better?”. If it is reasonably worse, but you want to do it anyway, do it. Later you’ll find a way to make it the best! In most cases except for money, I recommend you to do it. At least, in the end, you will not regret that you’ve done something, but you will definitely regret it if you did not do a thing when you could.
If you have a new project in mind, and you don’t know where to start, just take a paper and pencil and start from there. Draw a simple diagram of your project, interface to your software, some notes on your new story, etc.
If you have an idea, why not do it?
Read this article on my blog
