WEBVTT - Invention Playlist II: The Wheel, Part 2 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:12.479 Hey, welcome to Invention. My name is Robert Lamp and 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:14.680 I'm Joe McCormick, and this is gonna be part two 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:18.640 of our first foray into the exploration of the Wheel, 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:22.160 the ultimate technology, the one everybody goes to when they're 0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:24.680 asked to think of an invention. Uh, the thing that 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:27.600 they tell you, let's not reinvent, when in fact, people 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:30.240 reinvented all the time, and thank god, they do, the 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:33.280 very technology that Anthony Zerbe was so down on in 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:37.200 The Omega Man talking about did he hate the wheel? 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:39.680 I thought they rode on cars and stuff. Well, the 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:42.199 wheel was for them. Like, Okay, if you haven't seen 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:46.720 The Omega Man, based on Mathieson's excellent I am legend 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:50.280 it is a kind of a sad reworking of it. Yeah, 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:55.400 it's it's a corny Charleton Heston. Uh lead this redundant 0:00:55.600 --> 0:01:00.000 the sentence you just said. Nineteen seventies um post apocaly 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:04.560 oiptic film in which Charlton Heston is seemingly the last 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:08.280 human and then you have these pale vampires that are 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:13.400 ruling the night and scientists exactly, He's a scientist that's 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:16.759 like Christ like scientists battling the vampires, and the vampires 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:19.520 like see the wheel as a symbol of everything that 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:22.000 humanity got wrong. At some point, that's kind of a 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:24.720 shaky premise. They tell him he stinks of oil and 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:30.120 electric circuitry. He did look a little oily in that, 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:33.480 I have to say, but any rate, but but it 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:37.920 was corn oil. So yes, we're continuing our discussion of 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:41.160 of wheel technology. Uh, we're not quite as down on 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:45.279 wheel technology as the as the future of vampires are. 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:49.280 So let's jump back into our discussion. So how does 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:52.800 the wheel and the wheeled cart change things? How do 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:55.880 these technologies change the world. Well, one thing I would 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:59.920 say is that the legacy and impact of wheeled transportation 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:03.520 and has been much more profound and say, the last 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:06.520 four or five centuries than it was for the you know, 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:10.320 most of the time wheeled vehicles have existed, their impact 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:13.760 was less profound. Basically, you know, they made it easier 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:16.600 to move some stuff around in places where you could 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:19.720 use them, right, and the ultimately that that's one of 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:21.880 the main advancements here, is that it was for the 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:25.480 transportation of goods and and people to a certain extent 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:28.040 as well. You can also make, of course the argument 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:30.840 for the use of chariots in a military s areo 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:36.639 or the move using moving around say large scale siege equipment, etcetera. 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:40.119 Though though after the age of chariots, wheels basically sort 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:42.480 of fell out of use in a military context and 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:48.119 were replaced largely by heavy cavalry. Yeah, by by sheer horsemanship. Yeah. Now, 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.480 another important the impact of the wheel is just the 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:56.280 stimulation of carpentry and road technologies like the the because 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:58.120 that's something to keep in mind too. To have like 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:02.320 a really functional, useful car, you've got to have a 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:06.840 certain level of carpentry employ for that thing to even exist. 0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:09.840 And then you're gonna need to up your game with 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:12.160 with roads so that you can get it all the 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:13.720 places you need to get it, so that it can 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:17.919 actually transport goods and people or you know, equipment from 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:20.280 one place to the other. Yeah, Bullet wrights about this 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:22.440 a lot about the So he's got a section of 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:25.440 his book where he talks about um the fact that 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:27.919 the wheel shaped to the modern world, and that these 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:31.639 influences were highly contingent not just on the wheel existing, 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:34.639 but on the different types of wheels we're talking about. 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:38.680 Like he explores how fixed wheel sets like the early 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:43.200 steam engine locomotive wheels, and then axles with independently rotating 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:45.560 wheels like we saw on the more versatile carriages and 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:48.800 modern cars had very different impacts on the world. And 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:52.320 he mentions road design, and so think about how we 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:54.760 were talking about roads in the last episode. When the 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:58.720 first carriage roads UH came about, they were usually based 0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:01.240 on old roads that have been used for centuries by 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:05.240 foot and you know, animal transport, whereas the first railroads 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:07.920 had to be of a completely different design. They had 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:12.240 to be built a new into the landscape for obvious reasons. Example, 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:17.000 early trains with fixed wheelsets couldn't handle sharp turns or 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:19.919 steep grades down a hill, and this meant that the 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:23.120 landscape had to be altered to accommodate them to allow 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:26.240 a train to pass through UH. And they also required 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:29.599 the intervention of government authorities to help manage things like 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:32.640 right of way and scheduling of use. And this was 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:35.520 not originally the case for carriage roads, which you know 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:39.159 eventually became automobile roads. But funny enough, a lot of 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:42.920 aspects of the design of railroads were then later recreated 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:46.200 when interstate highway systems and their worldwide equivalents like the 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:48.840 Auto bonn were born. Yeah, just the idea that, oh, 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:50.640 we're gonna we're gonna be able to road from point 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:52.960 A to point b Uh. There's a hill in the way, 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:55.279 we're not going to go around it, We're not gonna 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:57.560 go over it. We're going to go right through it. 0:04:57.640 --> 0:04:59.480 And that means that building a tunnel, we're going to 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:02.080 do it, or we're just gonna cut a massive, uh, 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:05.080 you know, slice out of that hill. And we see 0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:07.360 this all over with certainly with their trains but also 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:10.719 with our interstates. Yeah, but also avoiding stops, avoiding sharp 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:13.040 turns of what you know, doing doing all that kind 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:15.320 of stuff you would see in railroad design. But now 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:18.039 it's to get lots of cars through all at once. 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:21.640 Another story Bullet tells about road design that I thought 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:25.160 was interesting was about the Scottish guy named John McAdam, 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:27.640 who was born in seventeen fifty six, who came up 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:30.920 with a new design for carriage roads. So you had 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:33.720 a traditional way of building roads, which was essentially based 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:36.880 on the Roman road design. You'd have like flat paving 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:40.280 stones on top of a layer of cement that went 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:43.279 on top of a layer of smaller, looser stones. This 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:45.800 is great for foot traffic. You're you know you want 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:48.880 to march a bunch of legionaries through, that's fine. But 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:53.080 heavy carriages and carts with iron rimmed wheels would crush 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:56.080 these roads. They would break the flat paving stones and 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:59.320 ruin them. And at one point even the Roman emperor 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:03.120 Theodosia uh set weight limits on wheeled carts. This was 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:05.599 in four thirty eight CE to prevent damage to the 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:10.039 road systems. But by the sixteenth century, when carriages were 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:13.080 becoming really popular in Europe, it was clear that an 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:16.400 inverted design worked better. So you'd have larger stones or 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:19.000 blocks on the bottom, and then you'd cover it with 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:23.040 smaller stones like you could use streambed gravel that could 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:27.200 better survive the assault of wheeled carriages. But and even 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:31.480 better design, supposedly was this guy John McAdams, and this 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:35.039 was roads paved with small stones, not tiny pebbles, but 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:37.920 small stones that had to be of a certain small 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:42.479 size and sharp edged rather than round. And when it 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:45.520 comes down to the size bullet rights that uh quote, 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:49.000 building supervisors sometimes put them in their mouth to check. 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:53.839 But the sharp edges of the stones actually mattered because 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:56.799 that meant that when traffic went over them, it would 0:06:56.880 --> 0:07:00.000 pound the stones into each other and sort of compas 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:03.120 act them, rather than pushing them out to the sides 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:06.479 of the road as often happened with smoother stones and 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:09.720 bullet rights. That McAdam became known for insisting that the 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:11.920 best way to make sure stones were the correct size 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:14.640 and shape was to have a bunch of workers sit 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:18.360 alongside the road and use hammers to break rocks, and 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:20.480 this led to the common image of the chain gang 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:23.560 of prisoners breaking rocks on the side of the road. Huh, 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:25.720 I had no idea. But of course, as we discussed 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:27.880 in our our Road episode, it's not. The changes are 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:29.960 not just to the way you get from point A 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:33.720 to point B. There. They actually change the cities and 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:36.920 towns that you're traveling to. Oh, they completely change it, 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:39.440 and they change urban culture. I mean, have you ever 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:44.040 seen like old city centers from very old cities across 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:47.120 the Middle East and North Africa where there will be 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:51.120 the city centers there are amazing. They're they're gorgeous and 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:55.440 they are not made with wheeled vehicles in mind. And 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:58.800 it's great because so they've got like staircases in the 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:01.480 middle of the city roads, and they they can be 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:05.400 very narrow, sometimes bullet rights that even some city like 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:09.400 city roads in city centers have ladders in them, and 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:11.400 this is fine, you can deal with this on foot, 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:14.760 but they're just not made for cars. And so the 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:18.720 carriage revolution of the sixteenth century lead to city designs 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:23.040 with straighter roads, wider roads that were better paved, and 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:26.320 with sort of regimes to keep obstacles out of the 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:28.960 middle of the road. And this had a really profound 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:31.440 effect on culture. Like do you ever think about the 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:34.960 irony of what it means to be street wise or 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:38.720 life on the streets? Like I think what we use 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:42.120 that to mean is being out in public, mingling with 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:46.560 people and strangers, right, but that doesn't literally apply because 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:48.959 like if you're you're not mingling with people in the 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:51.840 street unless I guess there's a festival going on or 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:53.920 something like cars are going by. You need to get 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:55.600 out of the way. Maybe that's the one of the 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:58.839 appeals of street festivals and probably like these various fun 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:02.000 runs as well as like where you're retaking the street 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:05.120 for what they originally were used for for for us 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:08.600 to move around, uh, devoid of these uh you know, 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:12.559 murderous uh machine housings that we use all the time. 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:16.000 I mean, traditionally, streets in most cities are a place 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:18.960 for people to walk and sometimes for people on horseback 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:21.160 to travel, but also there are a place for public 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:25.319 commerce there, for the public square to take place in. 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:28.760 So you'd have people in the streets mingling, talking, having 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:32.760 public events, buying and selling things. And this changed somewhat 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:35.280 with the carriage, and then it changed a huge amount 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:38.800 with the motorized car. The motorized car with the car, 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:41.360 you know, and I think you can see an inverse 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:44.400 relationship between the amount of wheeled vehicle traffic on a 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:48.240 road and the amount of public commerce, economic and social 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:51.920 that takes place there. Bullet rights that without wheeled vehicles, 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:55.040 quote a street or lane can bring neighbors together instead 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:58.280 of keeping them apart. That's kind of sad, you know. 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:00.880 I I get kind of sad because when I see 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:04.520 like kids in a neighborhood playing in the street, my 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:07.640 instinct is they should get out of the street. That's dangerous, 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:10.000 when what I really should be thinking is like we 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:13.400 shouldn't be driving here. Yeah, I mean, it's a sad 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:17.400 defect of of of certainly American history where you see, 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:21.240 for instance, railroads and other certainly railroads but also major 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:27.280 streets used as a divide between racial populations. Yeah and 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:30.599 or yeah, like bullet rights about that, our railroads and 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:34.280 highways very often did become like dividing lines for along 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:38.439 class lines, along racial segregation, all kinds of cruel segregation 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:41.320 that took place in the creation of modern cities. So 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:43.880 while I don't really love what like cars have done 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:46.200 to our cities, on the other hand, there are some 0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:49.320 really interesting ways that uh well, I don't know if 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:51.120 you'd say this is for the better or for the worst. 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:54.240 It's certainly just in at least a neutral way. Our 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:56.720 way of thinking about the world has been largely changed 0:10:56.760 --> 0:10:59.560 by wheeled vehicles, and one of those is the arrival 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:03.480 of standard Dice time. Yeah, Like, without wheeled vehicles, we 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:08.160 probably would not have standardized time because before before trains, 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:12.600 different villages and towns would you know, the clock at 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:14.760 the main clock in the village might read a different time. 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:17.640 People would keep a different general local time. It would 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:20.360 probably be close to the same as other villages nearby, 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:24.160 but wouldn't necessarily be exactly the same. And on railroads, 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:27.760 arrivals and departures have to be timed very carefully, and 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:30.480 in some cases mistakes and scheduling could even lead to 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:33.440 like collisions of trains, so everybody had to be on 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:36.120 the same time, even at distant points along the tracks. 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:39.160 The railroads have been crucial in the development of the 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:43.280 idea of standardized time across distance, and sometimes wonder without 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:46.760 without standardized time, where things better or worse? Like I'm 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:49.640 sure people spent just a lot more time waiting around 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:52.840 for things to happen, or waiting around for to meet 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:55.640 somebody or something. Well, this is this is actually something 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:57.559 I think we could come back to in a future 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:01.040 episode where we deal with the standardized time and time 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:04.360 keeping and discussing, you know, as we always do. What 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:07.600 was it like before this innovation? What was it like 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:12.520 in a in a world without rigorous timekeeping? And I think, 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:14.160 you know, there's an argument that you may that you 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:17.120 still you still can go to places where you experience 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:22.760 something more like our our traditional uh you know, unaltered 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:26.520 experience of time. Yeah, I mean sometimes as simple as 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:29.920 going on a vacation or going they're also you know, 0:12:29.920 --> 0:12:33.320 there's an argument to made maybe certain cultures put less 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:37.320 of an emphasis on rigorous timekeeping, and other cultures put 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:40.959 too much emphasis on rigorous timekeeping. Yeah, like maybe rigorous 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:44.360 timekeeping might be uh, it might help the efficiency of 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:46.360 your economy or something, but it might not be as 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:51.520 psychologically healthy. Yeah, I mean, how ultimately it is an exercise? 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:54.600 And how had the rate at which time is leaking 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:57.640 out of your hands? Right? And how useful is that 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:01.480 across the board? Now that we're talking so much about time. 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.080 I also can't help but notice that I think of 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:06.400 time as a wheel because the clock face is circular 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:09.600 and the hands go around. It recurs again and again 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:11.960 every day, the same way a wheel spends. A wheel 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:15.200 is sort of like an indispensable physical metaphor of of 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:18.320 tons of things that happen every single day. Yeah, it's 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:22.000 just an irresistible model upon which to interpret the human condition. 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:26.040 And again, like the unseen movements of cosmos and divinity 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:29.000 and nature. Um, you know, the wheel is a symbol 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:32.800 of cycle of eternal return, arguably a means of understanding 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:35.680 the very way that you know that that early people 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:38.160 understood the very shape of their lives, that the pan 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:41.920 Indian cyclical nature of time in which everything comes back 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:43.960 around to the same place have you carried on? In 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:47.720 Buddhism and Jainism, UH, particular note is the wheel of 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:51.280 sam Sara, which charts the movement of the soul through 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:55.320 various incarnations and phases of life, and it's part of 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:57.319 the you know, the ongoing effort to break free from 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:01.720 the wheel and uh to achieve liberation. We also see 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:05.600 this in the largely medieval idea of the wheel of fortune, 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:08.840 the road of fortuna uh, you know, carrying, and this 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:11.200 carries over to the into the occult as well, that 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:14.199 the forces of fate are bringing us high and bringing 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:17.080 us low again. And then there is a circular nature 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:19.720 to how this works that seems to lead even to 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:22.320 like the idea of a cycle of myth that functions 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:23.960 as a wheel. And then there of course a whole 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:26.920 host of other symbols used in various cultures around the world. 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:29.760 There may not be a wheel per se or a 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:32.480 circle per se, but there is some sort of uh 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:34.720 you know, like a spiral design to it. There's some 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:37.800 sort of implied motion. And then, of course we already 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:40.360 talked about the breaking wheel a little bit. The just 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:43.400 to drive home the idea that no matter what the 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:46.600 the invention is. No matter what new spin we take 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:49.280 on the technology, somebody is going to figure out a 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:53.320 way to use it as an instrument of torture and death. Uh, 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:55.960 that's just that just comes with the territory. Now, let's 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:58.560 not end on that sour. Now we should think about 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:01.200 So we've talked about four wheeled carts and some of 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:03.920 the challenges they face. We've talked about trains cars, We've 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:06.720 talked about two wheeled carts. We've talked about the one 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:09.360 wheeled wheelbarrow. But if you really want to get down 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:11.640 to like the true form of the one wheeled vehicle, 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:14.200 I think we should take one final look at something 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:17.880 called the mono wheel. I would love to ride in 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:19.880 a mono wheel. I don't know if I would actually 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:22.840 because it seems like it could easily end in in 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:26.880 a tangled metal death. But a mono wheel, if you've 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:30.360 never seen one, is a sort of experimental or novelty 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:35.000 type of vehicle. It's not actually all that useful compared 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:37.160 to other types of vehicle, but it is a single 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:40.320 wheeled vehicle, sort of like a unicycle. But when you're 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:43.200 on a unicycle, you sit up above the wheel in 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:47.200 a monowheel. The driver generally sits inside the wheel. So 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:50.320 think about like you're sitting inside a hula hoop frame, 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:52.720 and then on the outside of the hula hoop frame 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:55.640 there is a wheel and you can power it somehow 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:58.240 with I don't know, pedals or with a motor, and 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:00.960 obviously because there's only one, well, this is going to 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:03.560 be very difficult to steer, doesn't It sounds like fun? 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:07.240 Though it sounds like fun. I've I've seen, I've run 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:10.680 across a number of cool images of these, uh these vehicles. 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:13.760 I've never actually seen footage of one in motion or 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:18.280 I assume one falling over which, if you it looks 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:21.840 like something that would be be easy to wreck. Yeah, 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:23.720 I mean, I guess one way around that is like 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:25.440 you can make the center of it more of like 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:29.000 a a spherical cage and then just have a single 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:31.320 wheel that rolls on the outside. I think I've seen 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:33.760 some designs like that. I'm surprised. I can't think of 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:37.640 any science fiction treatments of this offhand. I'm sure they're 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:40.640 out there, like some sort of a futuristic vehicle that 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:43.720 is essentially a mono wheel because it lends itself well 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:47.080 to that kind of vision I feel. I know I've 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:49.040 seen it in some sci fi movie and I can't 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:50.800 remember what it is. I think maybe one of the 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:54.200 men in Black movies has one, because it feels very Tron. 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:57.200 But I'm pretty sure they're not in Tron. I could 0:16:57.200 --> 0:16:59.960 be wrong. Somebody's working on the next Tron sequel. We're 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:02.960 placed the light cycles with light mono wheels. Yes, and 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:05.920 if you're not working on the Nextron sequel, please work 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:10.040 on the Nextron sequel. I would love to see another one. Okay, 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:12.000 we're going to take a quick break. We'll be right 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:21.280 back with more on wheels, and we're back now. It's 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:23.920 also worth noting and all of this that early notions 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:27.080 of celestial mechanics, you know, the movement of of of 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:31.080 planets and the spheres uh. You know, some of the 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:35.680 models that were employed saying in Greek antiquity, uh certainly 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:38.359 benefited from an understanding of the wheel, the wheel as 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:41.239 uh you know, as a metaphor as well, along with 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:44.400 the geometric metric circles and spheres like. Knowledge of these 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:49.280 things helped the minds of the day try and figure 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:52.480 out what was going on in the observable universe. Yeah. 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:55.480 The one thing that's interesting is that the orbits of 0:17:55.520 --> 0:18:00.439 the planets began to resemble true wheels. More we had 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:03.399 an accurate understanding of like the heliocentric model of the 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:06.280 Solar System. Because when you had the geocentric model of 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:09.000 the Solar System, the planets didn't just go in a 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:12.080 straight circle around the Earth. They had to regress and stuff. 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:13.560 So you'd see him to go across the sky and 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:16.000 then go backwards. Yeah. And as you move towards the 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:19.560 heliocentric model, Uh, then you begin to to to see 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:22.520 these things that are, due to your point, more like wheels. 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:26.000 It's almost as if we while we were becoming better 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:30.560 at using physical wheels within civilization, uh, more of our 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:35.080 metaphorical models or physical models of the universe came to 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:37.800 incorporate wheels. You know, the orbit of the planets, while 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:40.520 slightly elliptical, you know, they're not perfect circles, they're pretty 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:44.480 close to circular. Uh say that then the models that 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:48.159 weren't perfectly accurate, but like the orbit of electrons around 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:52.239 the atomic nucleus and all that, Yeah, exactly, And uh, 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:56.080 you know another area we see wheels utilized to really 0:18:56.200 --> 0:19:00.800 I think spectacular effect are in various wheel based creatures, beings, 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:03.480 and artifacts from religion. We may have touched on one 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:07.640 or two other examples already, but but I don't think 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:11.919 we even mentioned the Old Testament examples of say, uh, 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:14.680 you know the the vision from Ezekiel. Oh, yeah, where 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:16.960 he saw the wheels and the fiery wheel, the thing 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:20.240 that got like Eric von Danikin all excited all the 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:23.280 ancient aliens. People say, look this story and Ezekiel he 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:25.280 talks about wheels in the sky. It's got to be 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:29.080 flying saucers, right, Yeah, And the Sherebims lifted up their 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:32.240 wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight, 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:35.960 and when they went out, the wheels also were beside them. Now, 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:38.040 I want to be clear, we're not advocating the ancient 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:40.680 aliens theory here, no, But I know because I have 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:42.680 one thing I don't think you have to. Because as 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:45.920 we've pointed out, like the wheel was already established as 0:19:46.000 --> 0:19:49.440 this this thing in the human mind, and and and 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:52.280 it's one of the one of these forms you might 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:57.119 turn to when conceptualizing, you know, visions from heaven or 0:19:57.160 --> 0:19:59.760 the will of the gods, et cetera. Yeah, it's one 0:19:59.760 --> 0:20:02.600 of the is platonic forms. Almost you would expect to 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:05.000 see it turn up in visions. In fact, you could 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:07.959 expect to see maybe wheels show up as alien transport 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:11.680 in hallucinations for the same reason in the twentieth century exactly. 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:15.639 And well they end, well they did. Now. Another creature 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:18.280 that I just mentioned mostly in passing here is the 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:24.160 demon bure described in Johan Vyers fifteen sixty three Grimore 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:29.520 pseudo Monarchya Demonum sounds like a good read. Well, yeah, 0:20:29.560 --> 0:20:32.480 if you're into if you're into summoning various demons, it's 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:35.760 certainly a good text to pick up um. But there 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:38.200 there have been various illustrated versions of these over the years, 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:40.880 and you know, there are some phenomenal woodcuts that went 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:45.320 along with these. But the demon bure Is is described 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:47.680 as the great President of Hell. Now, like all these 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:52.600 different demons have different roles and positions in Hell, and 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:54.840 this one's most notable because it looks kind of like 0:20:54.880 --> 0:21:00.919 a uh an evil lion's head with what five different 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:04.800 goat legs kind of rotating or it's like rotation is 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:08.040 implied anyway, with the different goat legs poking out of him. 0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:09.840 He looks you know, what he looks like is an 0:21:09.840 --> 0:21:12.919 overbalanced wheel, which I'll talk about in the second. Yeah, 0:21:12.960 --> 0:21:15.119 some people might remember this guy because I believe he 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:17.880 was also on a Black Sabbath album cover. I don't 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:20.760 remember that, or maybe it was an Aussie uh solo 0:21:20.800 --> 0:21:23.879 album cover, but any rate, uh. It certainly has shown 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:28.000 up in um in metal likeonography a few times. Right. 0:21:28.280 --> 0:21:30.240 And then of course there's the there's the idea of 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:34.080 the juggernaut. Uh so this is you know, in modern English, 0:21:34.119 --> 0:21:36.840 this word often refers to like a large, impossible to 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:40.679 stop force that's on motion, or a complex machine, you know, 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:43.760 like this company is a juggernaut, or this uh or 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:45.720 I don't know, this football team is a juggernaut. You know, 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:49.520