Entertainment Podium

Invention of the WHEEL

The Wheel is by far mankind’s single most significant invention that has application in every walk of life today. Look around you. The car/bike you drive, the little gears in your analog watch, the churning food processor, the disk drives in your computer - all these equipments work on the one single elemental principle - the wheel. Every machine built since the industrial revolution pivots on the fundamentals of symmetric components moving in a circle about an axis.

Historians are still hazy about when and where the wheel came into existence. Some speculate that it was used in Asia around 8000 BC. But the first recorded use of this marvel was in the form of a potter’s wheel in Mesopotamia around 3500 BC. The earliest use of the canonical principle of the wheel being used for locomotion was probably, again observed in Mesopotamia around 3200 BC. Its very ironic to actually believe in retrospect, that the wheel actually served many other purposes in its early stages before being used as a means of transportation. The next innovation was the wheel with spokes. This originated primarily from Egypt around 2000 BC. Its also interesting to note that not every civilization in history stumbled upon this circular structure when it reached a certain level of sophistication. The ancient Inca and the Maya civilizations have no record of having used a wheel or of similar sorts.

Starting from a plain roller and a sledge, through wagons and chariots, through carts using rubber tyres to the most modern BMW cars, the invention of the wheel has been instrumental in man’s every tangible, mundane and materialistic growth!

Tags: greatest invention, history of wheel, invention, potter's wheel, wheel

The Art Of Pottery

Pottery refers to the many wares, pots, bowls etc. shaped from wet clay and later hardened by heating. It is the art of molding moist sand into various shapes. The history of this art, which was rather a science in ancient ages, dates back to a period beyond 10,000 BC. It is by far one of the very few skills that have survived the brunt of time with not much of a change in the basic idea.

The invention of the potter’s wheel in the Ubaid period (around 5000 BC) has lasted into modern day pottery. The revolution that it created millenniums ago, is still an active pot making method. The other multitude of methods of pot making include hand building, jiggering and jolleying, roller-had machine, RAM pressing, granulate pressing and slip casting.

The basic idea behind this art is to first mix clay with the right amount of water - not too little for the structure would be brittle, not too much for the structure would lose physical integrity. When this is done, the desired shape is skillfully achieved by the potter using one of the methods stated above. But the process does not stop here. The shaped product needs to be hardened. Therefore, the pottery is subject to high temperatures (beyond 1000 degrees Celsius) in a kiln for a prolonged period of time, to impart a certain maturity to the body. These days a process of glazing is done to impart luster and shine.

Pottery also has to its credit, the leverage it provides to archeologists and historians to gather vital insights into historic cultures and civilizations. Dating of pottery from excavations is a major tool used by them to determine the period of existence of various civilizations. In all, pot making is one skill that humanity should always be proud about.

Tags: Art, pot, pot making, potter, potter's wheel, pottery