Chapter 14
Of Wheels

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1_THE IDEA
2_THE POTTERY WHEEL
3_THE PAN GRINDER
4_THE CART
5_THE TRANSPORT

1_THE IDEA

Time appeared in this way;

BOY had rolled many logs to the fence and noticed how the round made them easier to move. Much easier than logs of odd shapes and branches. He said,

AMI, we can make many things, if we have the round. All our logs have the round. If I cut away a small round we can see what to do.

BOY then went to the biggest log he had cut down. It was over a foot thick. It had been cut down with a pointy end bulging out in the center. He left the point in the middle and notched the wheel straight down toward the center. He shaped the end with his axe. It bulged in the middle like an axle.

He then went to work to cut through the other side trying to leave the round about three fingers thick. It happened and he shaped the other end. It looked like a very simple wooden wheel with bark on it and a long axle sticking out one side, and a middle stub sticking out the other side. What use could it be?

They rolled it and turned it on the ground. They rolled it back and forth. It rolled down the steps and into the field. They looked at each other. Ahoo ran out and dragged it to the stairs. It rolled. The bark was broken by the rocks on its fall down the stairs and BOY peeled the bark off. What use could it be?

He picked it up and held the middle out in front of him with his fingers. He turned the outside rim with his chin. It turned. He held it out in front of him and asked AMI to turn it in the air. AMI’s eyes looked astounded because it turned so easy. It turned. She pushed the wheel faster. It went faster. BOY pulled the wheel away when his fingers hurt. But it could turn in the air.

If the wheel could turn in the air and roll on the ground by holding it in its middle, the middle must be the center of its power. Everything happens around the middle. The middle could be easily turned by a hand pushing the outside of the wheel.

The bulges on the outside were rough and needed to be shaped. He narrowed it considerably, and left the now longer bulges in the middle. He rounded the bulges for his hands to hold onto and he rolled the wheel. As he rolled the wheel on the ground the grips turned in his hands breaking his skin. BOY,

It was easy to push but my hands kept turning inside. We must make the round for the round to turn in.

They needed something for the grip to fit into to hold the wheel in one place. He cut a hole in the hard packed ground and laid the longest grip into the hole.

He packed the edges around the hole with sharp wood wedges and hammered them in until the grip was snug around the wedges. The wheel laid flat hovering over the ground. He turned the wheel by the outside rim. It wobbled a bit. It then jerked and slipped.

He straightened the wheel and then tightened the wedges. It ran smoother. He poured oil from the fiber seeds into the hole and on the wedges. It then turned balanced, and rolled smoother. BOY adjusted it. Soon it became easier to turn. He added more oil. It spun around and around with little pushing. It was fun to watch but soon the axle locked in the wedges. But what use could it be? Their minds reeled with ideas, AMI said,

2_THE POTTERY WHEEL

If the axle can turn freely and the top is flat as still water, I can secure my wet clays to the middle point, while you turn the wheel. I can shape the clays equal all around and make new things from the turning round.

BOY sharpened his axe with a black stone and then held the wheel on end. He started with a new cut to flatten the plate on one side and carefully chopped at the surface of the plate. Then he scraped the surface flat with the sharp rocks and used the sand-leaf to level the middle.

AMI made a clay cast of the grip and fired it to place in the hole. They found where they wanted to place the round, at the other side of the entrance. BOY found a spot where he could chop away and dig out a narrow deep hole. He made it big enough to hold the cast AMI had fired. When the cast went into the hole, he held a stick in it to keep it straight up, while AMI packed the sides with hard soil and small rocks. She pounded each down as she put them in. She pounded more and they were tight. BOY removed the stick and lined the inside of the cast with oil.

After oiling the long grip they placed the wheel inside the cast and turned it. It fit and it turned slowly. BOY pared the axle down and reset it in the cast. It turned easier. He marked the center as the wheel spun. He then pounded a large sharp tooth from the bones into the center. He pounded several smaller teeth around the large one. They all stuck out. AMI said,

I have prepared a large chunk of clay to try. If you turn the wheel I will shape the clay.

AMI shaped a basic form by hand and then plopped the wet clay on top of the wheel dead center and the base of the clay gripped over the teeth. AMI first shaped the clay into a rising circle opening in the middle, and nodded to BOY. He turned the wheel slowly. It worked. He moved it faster. AMI squealed ‘yipee’ with delight as her hands formed the moving clays. She put her hand in one spot and the wheel made the same action all around the clay. It was awkward at first; more practice made better. She formed curves and flares, lines and changes. The form made the pottery much stronger, more even and more useable. BOY oohed and snorted a laugh.

They practiced until BOY had the right speed and smooth movement. AMI’s hand shaped the clays with ins and outs, and the swings and brims. She said,

I can now make much better and stronger containers and things. I can also make designs and pictures of the things we see. I can make large ones to store our grains and foods and waters in. With family to be, we will need much such storage.

AMI loved to make the clays. Many pictures of their world were cut into the wet clays. Different shapes were created for using and storing and stacking. AMI roughed a small square area on each item. When they filled the containers with what they needed, AMI put fresh clay over the open spot and marked the contents and dates in the wet clay.

3_THE PAN GRINDER

BOY smiled and said,

We now see that with little effort the wheel can turn freely in the cast. Can we use this for more?

It is very hard work to break the seeds of the emmer to make the food powder from the grasses. If we could turn a hard round surface against a very strong flat surface we could grind the seeds to powder and make the pan.

When we shake the grains out and harvest them we must free them from the outside shell with the pan grinder and grind them to powder. The powder and the mixes we will cook in high heat and make pure ‘pan’ to eat.

Time zipped here and there and BOY eventually found the hard flat rock that he would use for the base and he placed it at a very slight angle facing in, on the ledge wall. He used a straight piece of wood to determine where any rises were, and he chipped closely at them. This rock would not move and it was flat. Then he found a much thinner flat rock that he chiseled as flat as he could and rounded all edges. It was sort of circular. They sat tightly on top of each other. If they could be moved with the grain in between, they could make powder to make pan.

BOY made edges on the top rock all around the wheel to push on. He then chopped with the metal he made, at the center of the bottom rock, and made a hole about a nose big. He did the same with the top rock. Then he found a very hard white round rock in the cave and it was just the right size to fit into the hole. He spit into the hole until it overflowed and he rolled the rock around inside. He had to grind to some adjustments. Then, with AMI’s help, he laid the top rock hole over the small rock in the hole and laid the rock down on top of the other. The wheel showed a small gap on the top side and the stones touched on the bottom side. They placed fiber seed oil all around the rock. He lifted it and turned it and the wheel turned scraping away at the bottom side. It fit. They threw a few grains in the gap and turned the wheel. A fine powder came out. It worked. They could make pan.

Wow, flour from the grinder. They could make bread.

4_THE CART

BOY turned the wheels and expressed,

I believe two wheels together can turn the same way. They need only one axle. If both wheels can turn around the axle, the wheels can move when pushed, but the axle will stay still. I can make a frame on the axle and we can move it by pulling on the frame. The wheels will move easily over the flat ground.

He was describing a cart, how unbelievable. BOY made two large wheels from the stump of a large fallen tree and over a few passes, chopped holes in their centers. They were more than two feet across. He then found a thick straight long pole and cut it about five feet long. He made the pole fit neatly inside the holes of the wheels.

The axle had one wheel, slid onto each end. It moved and bumped along as BOY pushed on the axle. When he added the olive oil to the axle, it rolled nicely and jumped over bumps.

The wheels slid around on the axle, and sometimes flew off. Then he notched around the axle about a foot in from each end and placed the wheels back on against the notches. The raised surface by the notches faced the wheels and blocked the wheel from sliding in or out. Then he split the ends of the axle and hammered a wedge into them to raise the outside surface of the axle above the wheel’s opening.

The axle was locked in place, but the wheel turned freely. It looked pretty feeble but it was just a test. BOY looked at the axle and said;

The axle is steady. I can build a frame on the axle and make it for work.

He strapped long narrow poles onto the inside of the axle near each wheel. The poles came closer together near the front and He joined them together by strapping a short log between them as a crossbar. He jumped in between the poles and told AMI to watch. He pushed on the crossbar and the wheels rolled. He pushed hard and ran and the wheels ran behind him. He had made rolling wheels. The axle had heavy wheels rolling over rough ground but it moved. He ran through the field and the cart bumped in the air and flew around corners. BOY told AMI,

I can build on the frame for you to sit, and I can carry you here and there.

He built a light frame of saplings onto the poles and secured them tightly to the axle. He made and hung a thatched seat of branches and roar skin in the frame. As soon as it was ready AMI jumped in and held on. AMI howled as BOY pulled her around the fields.

Ahoo and Oink ran after them. The honks honked and the quacks quacked. AMI screamed. BOY laughed. What joy they felt.

5_THE TRANSPORT

BOY said, When we have the animal of work we can hook the cart to the animal and the cart can carry things we need. If the animal can make the cart move, can it not move the cart with us on it? With a fixed wheel axle not only could the wheel turn the axle, but the axle could turn the wheel. If we could push something ourselves to turn the wheels, it might work. We must try the angles to turn the wheel.

BOY thought of the Codes and realized of a single axle becoming part of a wheel not turning in a hole. Then if the angles could be used to turn the axle, the wheel would move.

I knew decks passed as this was happening and I found him forming a large thin wheel and carving a square opening in the middle. He then formed a square ended axle about a few feet long and hammered it through the square hole and equal on both sides. It fit square and it was tight. The wheel and the axle were one.

Then sometime later, he made two round metal rods with a right angle bend near each end. The long ends were sharp and he drove them into the square wood ends. He drove each rod in opposite each other with the bent end pointing out on each side. It looked like a wheel with pedals.

Then BOY pumped on the angle rods ends and pedaled away. The wheel moved then a dip then a bump, and he flipped and fell away. BOY and AMI both loved barefoot when in the field, but the bottom of BOY’s feet became red from the hot rubbing on the rod ends.

Next AMI cleared a level area of debris and smoothed soil and rocky areas. It was a little crooked but it was level. It would level out any bumps or dips for a short distance. A road?

BOY was cutting slices of bamboo to place over the rod ends. The rods turned inside the bamboo and he could balance his feet on the bamboo pedals. They were anxious. AMI ran and jumped on first. He held her up as she followed the path by the fence. She pedaled and stopped and held on and then she went a short way and then put her feet down and stopped. She jumped and pedaled again much further. She said,

Oh BOY, it is wonderful to feel. I can move over the ground in the air. Try it back. It is fun.

He rode it back. He fell at the end and noted;

It is fun for fun and maybe for useful. I will need to make a much lighter wheel and smoother contact with the ground from the metals. The pedals need to be bigger and have turning movement to the metal. Our feet could use covers for protection. I can put a seat on a metal frame. The frame will need to roll freely over the axle and I can make it more fun. Maybe someday, something useful will come of it to carry us.

BOY jumped back on to the pedals and held onto the wall. He pedaled away and flew ahead. The bamboo sleeves slid off. More adjustments and practice, and soon they were wheeling around. AMI loved it and it made fun.

They had made the beginnings of something amazing. They had made the wheel. Many things would happen from the wheel. I had no idea where this could lead. Time moved around. Many other things were happening.

And time appeared in this way. Continued in Of Clothes