While the price of a new car means a considerable cash layout, financing, or a combination of the two, plus a projected cost-to-drive/anticipated maintenance, it’s smart to shop carefully before you select the make and model you really like and feel comfortable with–and that you can expect to provide reliable transportation for the long-term.  In short, you want a car that’s “cool,” fun to drive, serves your driving needs, and will evidence the fewest problems versus the competitors. Continue reading “Buying a Car? The Key Word Is Dependability” →

“You can’t reinvent the wheel but you can put your own spin on it.” – Lauren Beukes
From the round slice of a log ancient people relied on some 5500 years ago — to the ultra-light high-tech magnesium alloy wheel deployed for modern Formula One cars, the wheels of yesteryear have certainly come a long way. Although no one has yet managed to invent anything better than a wheel for purposes of moving vehicles along ground surface, other than actually lifting vehicles up in the air, some of the world’s greatest engineers and technologists have over time achieved serious improvements in the wheels’ performance. The story of a wheel is the story of evolution backed by science and some great discoveries it brought about. So let’s analyze how the first wheels were made, how they are made today and how they might possibly be made in the future.

Invention of a wheel

If we knew the name of the person who invented the wheel, he would be one of the most famous innovators in history. But in reality archeologists are not even sure whether it was invented in Mesopotamia, Northern Caucasus or Central Europe. All we know so far is that the first transportation-oriented wheels were simply slices of log with a hole for the axle to fit through it. There is plenty of evidence to confirm that people in Europe and Asia were using four-wheeled vehicles back in the 4th millennium before Christ (around 3500 BC). However, this simple and powerful transportation mode was barely used, if at all, by African tribes and American cultures. Continue reading “The evolution of a wheel: how did we get this far?” →