The Story and Development of the Wheel and the Plough.

The wheel and the Plough.

The wheel:

The wheel is the most important invention. Where would we be if no one ever invented the wheel .The first wheel was created in the Bronze Age in Mesopotamia by the Sumerians in 3200 BC. The Sumerians traded as far as India by sea and with the eastern Mediterranean by land and this is why the wheel was created. The Sumerians invented the wheel to make transportation of goods by land faster and easier for them. Trade and Religion were important aspects of civilisation. 

The Bronze Age is a relatively late chapter in the development of human civilisation. The Sumerians created the first wheel by using the material flint to carve out the stone from the ground and shape it out properly. Nowadays the wheel can be found in nearly every object that is around you and is not only used for the use of transport. The wheel is now also found in different mechanisms to help any object turn around for different reasons. The development and progression of the wheel is one of the most interesting and important development in design. It started off from being a helping hand in transporting and trading goods, resources, materials and many other things across land and now is being used for various needs and in different objects to help things either get from one place to another ( the car) or else to help objects work. The wheel can also be found in different materials nowadays.

The plough:

The plough was a very important mechanism and design. The plough was used for growing crops, to help the formation of villages and also for the economic growth. Civilisation helped form settlement. This meant that trade of goods and crops grew and expanded across countries.

                The development of the plough is also quite interesting. The plough started off as a simple mechanism that was pulled by a powerful animal (ox, horse, and donkey) to help grows crops. It was a metal object with a curved blade that would dig into the soil and work the ground. The farmer would stand behind and hold the plough from two handles that were found at the back of the plough. He would control the animal from the back while the animal would pull the plough.

The modern plough is very similar to the older plough. Nothing has really changed apart from the object pulling the plough to work the ground. Instead of an animal, now we can find a tractor that is attached to the plough. The farmer now controls the plough by driving the tractor. This makes ploughing easier and less stressful. However the plough is more developed now. It has more blades that would dig into the ground making the process faster. It has two different types of blades now, the rounder blades at the front and the sharper ones at the back. This helps the process of digging into the soil and working the ground more effective and easier.

 

 

 

 

References:

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Wikimedia. 2010. File:JDTractor chisel-plough.jpg. [ONLINE] Available at: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JDTractor_chisel-plough.jpg. [Accessed 14 October 14].