I went looking to see when ball bearings were invented, and came across this wildly detailed history, prepared for NASA in the 1980s: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/arc

I went looking to see when ball bearings were invented, and came across this wildly detailed history, prepared for NASA in the 1980s: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19810009866.pdf https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/198100... It's page 5 before it even gets to the invention of the wheel!