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| Company News |
| Wheel and Natural Environment |
| 2008-10-31 16:56:13 |
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(has been browse 392 times)
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The reason why wheel is a relatively late invention is surely related to the natural environment that the ancestors were living. About 10,000 years ago, most of the land was covered by glaciers. If there were anything that could be called as “vehicle”, then it couldn’t be others but sled. In jungles and deserts, wheels had not any practical value - even it did ever exist, it has ceased to exist on narrow roads under the jungle or in rolling quicksands. Aztecs in Central American has never used vehicles with wheels, but what the interesting thing is that they made a large amount of animal clay sculptures with four wheels.
Also taking the Eskimo as an example, they lived in a world of ice and snow where there were no suitable roads, even not so much wood. It is very obvious that wheels couldn’t exit in such environment.
In other areas, wheels did not exist as a transport vehicle. Based on a vehicle-shaped ceramic cup earthed from a Hungary grave in about 2900 B.C. and the cultural relics from other areas of the world, wheeled-vehicles were only used on ceremonies and etiquette occasions in the very ancient time.
Even though vehicles did exist, they were useless without suitable animal power. Shortage of horses for driving vehicle is one of the factors constraining the Aztecs to invent wheels. As early as the year before 15000B.C., the shooters in Stone Age have put a halter on horses, when mankind just had domesticated horses.
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