# Where did the axle come from?



## Jd755 (Dec 2, 2020)

Coming out of the bicycle thread, I feel, comes the thread question.
I've been having a ponder about what makes a bicycle a bicycle and it is made up of a frame, two wheels, a seat, and a mechanism called a pulley to transfer a push motion in the vertical (the leg action) to a push motion in the horizontal (the push motion that pushes the wheels into the ground) to gain a forwards direction of momentum.

Focus on the bicycle in historical terms is nearly always on the wheel. Well I feel we are missing a trick here as the other components of what is fundamentally a beautifully simple machine are all but ignored.

So assuming there has to be some natural source in the physical practical world for each component being noticed by a human beings senses and then implemented through a human beings actions into the physical reality human beings exist in where in the natural world is the inspiration for the axle.

I focus on the axle as without it wheels are of no use. Wheels without axles are just rollers all be it very thin ones.
If anyone has any clues from their own experience for the axle in nature so too speak then please contribute. No good lurking lets leap into this search and if you have any sources in your wanderings for any of the other components of the bicycle then add them in as well.

Should we establish where in the natural world the inspiration sits for these components then we will be in with a shout of placing the bicycle within a historical context that may reveal lots about all manner of wheeled transportation machines and their origins. I'm not really interested in what other people have written about these things on other sites I would like the good people in this club of weirdo's to be the sole source of the research.

For myself I can come up with nothing that points to where the axle sits within the natural practical world...for now!


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## Feck (Dec 2, 2020)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ljubljana_Marshes_Wheel
But an axel and wheel is just a spindle whorl doubled and they could even be paleolithic.

Peace


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## JohnNada (Dec 2, 2020)

Glad to see another thread spin off from the bicycle thread! According to mainstream historians, the axle was invented roughly 5500 or so years ago. The axle is considered to be one of the six simple machines as well as the lever, pulley, incline plane, wedge and screw. Source 1 Source 2
That being said, I think it’s pretty clear that around here, mainstream historical dating does not hold up. I definitely need to do some more in depth research and see what we can uncover. I guess the bright side is we are not being told that some random guy with his hand in his jacket and no experience inventing anything up and invented the axle, early television, an automatic dragon slayer and a flying machine that doubled as a submarine on a whim...


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## Citezenship (Dec 3, 2020)

I guess another question is what came first the axle or the wheel because on there own they are pretty useless but when combined they become kettle and steam!


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## JWW427 (Dec 3, 2020)

Its probably so ancient no one can find but a few of them, like the chariot ones.
I wonder what the Smithsonian has in its basement archive.
Perhaps millions of years...


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## Blue Ice (Dec 3, 2020)

Remembering a lecture on Indo-European languages that I listened to severalyears ago, the world axel isone of the oldest Indo-European words.


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## BStankman (Dec 4, 2020)

I would hope that when the gods gave us the grains they were also kind enough to give us the millstone.
Which is possibly the first to incorporate an axle.


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The next logical step in technology would be this.

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## Jd755 (Dec 5, 2020)

Diving into reality as it exists right now because I simply do not trust any dating applied to any document, painting or drawing as being accurate in relation to today's stated date.
I was looking at what is around today that relies on the axle for its existence. It quickly became obvious it's pretty much everything relies on the axle. It is the controllable centre around which the wheel of fortune turns.

Some things stand out like BStankmans grind stone example. Though it is possible to turn grindstones by making them without an axle it is far easier if the moving one has an axle. {edit to add; Scratch that the grindstone itself is the axle}
Cranes, sails, ships, rudders, carts, carriages, bicycles, water wheels, Archimedes screw, rotary washing lines, wind mills all were in use together each one relying on the axle at the centre of a wheel for its existence. They feel like they are concurrent inventions. There never was a linear evolution or if there were it is lost to us alive today.

Using the spread of the (what is to me an abominable invention) mobile phone as the example it has only taken a couple of decades for it to go from invention to an almost universal acceptance by humanity. Originally just used for communicating by voice today it's acclaimed uses are legion. The axle seems to be very similar in its spread though there doesn't seem to be a way of establishing its origin as JWW427 points out, though to me not because of millions of years but simply because no-one remembers.
Without an axle cranes would not exist, carts to carry the stone would not exist so castles, monasteries, palaces, bridges, starforts, walled cities, wharves, ships etc etc either could not exist or they were constructed using an unknown technology that performed the same action as an axle does. I can say this simply from looking at what the axle of today does in the world of construction and human infrastructure. It is performing the exact same role as it always has since it came into being.

A simple pulley and ropes give a single human lifting power way beyond a human without a pulley and rope. Put two pulleys into use and up the capacity goes again. Separate the pulleys with timber and up the reach of the lift goes again. The axle makes this possible. I can find nothing else that would enable such a phenomenon to take place. Simple pulley cranes are highly mobile as they have few components and all parts are easy to repair or replace. Simple cranes can go up with the building. They still do today but the disguise themselves with the term tower crane.
My guess is this is exactly how they got their name as they were used at one point to construct towers and when finished dismantled leaving few signs of their existence and use.
This would mean that the upright portion of the crane was itself used as an axle around which the jib part of the crane could move. It makes no sense to have to shift or dismantle such a device after every lift. Even a short turn would make much more sense as an entire build could be done with as many devices as needed going up with the construction.

The focus on this is for these reasons.
I've walked, sat, pondered, touched and thought in and amongst castles, monastery's , abbeys, and the crane or levitation emerged as the candidates for how the structure was built. Some stones do bear marks and cuts in them which indicate a probable lifting point but many don't. A few bear the cuts on their uppermost surface which show a Lewis was used which in itself is significant as a Lewis has an axle though it to has been disguised by the use of the word 'pivot'.
This would suggest that at least the grand ancient architecture that defies imagination so too speak, is concurrent with the invention or creation, implementation of the axle. All of it relies on either the axle or levitation for its existence. Thankfully many of these structures are in decay so they are revealing their inner construction details and overwhelmingly, but not completely the inner core of the walls is of a composite nature using rubble stone, gravel, mud in fact whatever seems to have been at hand.
Not knowing the mechanics of levitation or how it acts on a specific mass say a single cut stone facing block or a river cobble my guess would be the axle is what really allowed humans to build these things


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## Nostradennis (Jan 15, 2021)

The Gyroscope




 Gryoscope​
Gyroscope and Bicycle 

Gimbals = Wheels
Spin Axis = Axle
Rotor = Sprocket
Gyroscope Frame = Bicycle Frame

Gyroscopic mechanics has the ability for objects to _*lose some of its weight*_ through force vectors, angular momentum and torque. Some think this was the top secret philosopher mechanics of the Sonora Aero Club and their flying Airships. Some also believe that the gyroscope is what the ancient Greeks referred to as the looking circle.

Maybe medieval construction cranes somehow utilized this gyroscopic loss of weight technique for lifting large stones when building their monasteries, castles and abbeys?
 Gyroscope Antigravity Device


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