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Same thing with spoked wheels. The same design we use today would instantly be recognizable to someone from 150 years ago. (e.g. https://www.thehistorypress.co.

Same thing with spoked wheels. The same design we use today would instantly be recognizable to someone from 150 years ago. (e.g. https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/from-discomfort-to-joy-dunlop-s-pneumatic-bicycle-tyre/ https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/from-discomfort-t...)

thghtihadanacct 4y ago
I imagine spoked wheels would be recognizable by ancient chariot riders even.
- lkbm 4y ago
  True. One difference is that bicycle week spokes are tension-based, whereas I assume chariot wheel spokes were mostly about resisting compression.
- wolverine876 4y ago
  They wouldn't recognize them if they looked closely. Chariots, I'm guessing, had radial spoked wheels - the spokes are radiuses from the hub to the rim. Those were tried in early bicycles but didn't stand up well to usage. That led to two innovations in the late 1860s - mid-1870s that persist today: * Tension method of spoking: Invented by Eugene Meyer in Paris in 1869. * Tangential spokes: If you look closely at bicycles, the spokes are tangential to the hub, not radial. The tangent-tension combination (and maybe tangential spokes independently) were patented by James Starley in 1874. The "spokes are placed so as to be tangential to the hub in both the forward and the backward direction, thus forming a series of triangles that brace the wheel against torque during either acceleration or braking." [0] The improved spokes were introduced before chains and gears, allowing larger wheels. Larger wheels served as a subsitute for gearing, increasing the ratio between linear distance traveled and one rotation of a pedal, and thus the big-wheeled 'penny-farthing' or 'ordinary' bicycles were born. However, knowing the history, I haven't yet grasped the mechanics of how tension and tangents benefitted wheels, beyond general concepts. Does anyone know a good technical source (not Wikipedia)? [0] "Bicycle Technology" by SS Wilson (Stewart Wilson, afaik) in Scientific American (March 1973)
  - thghtihadanacct 4y ago
    Im pretty sure if they looked closely they would just learn a new and probably better way of doing something they already do. They would see the wheel there.

thghtihadanacct 4y ago

I imagine spoked wheels would be recognizable by ancient chariot riders even.

lkbm 4y ago
True. One difference is that bicycle week spokes are tension-based, whereas I assume chariot wheel spokes were mostly about resisting compression.
wolverine876 4y ago
They wouldn't recognize them if they looked closely. Chariots, I'm guessing, had radial spoked wheels - the spokes are radiuses from the hub to the rim. Those were tried in early bicycles but didn't stand up well to usage. That led to two innovations in the late 1860s - mid-1870s that persist today: * Tension method of spoking: Invented by Eugene Meyer in Paris in 1869. * Tangential spokes: If you look closely at bicycles, the spokes are tangential to the hub, not radial. The tangent-tension combination (and maybe tangential spokes independently) were patented by James Starley in 1874. The "spokes are placed so as to be tangential to the hub in both the forward and the backward direction, thus forming a series of triangles that brace the wheel against torque during either acceleration or braking." [0] The improved spokes were introduced before chains and gears, allowing larger wheels. Larger wheels served as a subsitute for gearing, increasing the ratio between linear distance traveled and one rotation of a pedal, and thus the big-wheeled 'penny-farthing' or 'ordinary' bicycles were born. However, knowing the history, I haven't yet grasped the mechanics of how tension and tangents benefitted wheels, beyond general concepts. Does anyone know a good technical source (not Wikipedia)? [0] "Bicycle Technology" by SS Wilson (Stewart Wilson, afaik) in Scientific American (March 1973)
- thghtihadanacct 4y ago
  Im pretty sure if they looked closely they would just learn a new and probably better way of doing something they already do. They would see the wheel there.