https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Vaughan

Philip Vaughan was a Welsh inventor and ironmaster who patented the first design for a ball bearing in 1794. Vaughan’s patent described how iron balls could be placed between the wheel and the axle of a carriage. The balls let the carriage wheels rotate freely by reducing friction.

This is, in the scheme of things, quite recent. Prior to this, did all horse-drawn vehicles use plain bearings? Did they lubricate them?

Metal sleeves and wheel sockets, lubricated with lard, tallow, grease, fat etc.

party_pants said:

Metal sleeves and wheel sockets, lubricated with lard, tallow, grease, fat etc.

Cheers. I wonder whether they were noisy.

dv said:

party_pants said:

Metal sleeves and wheel sockets, lubricated with lard, tallow, grease, fat etc.

Cheers. I wonder whether they were noisy.

Wood on wood works well with beeswax.

roughbarked said:

dv said:

party_pants said:

Metal sleeves and wheel sockets, lubricated with lard, tallow, grease, fat etc.

Cheers. I wonder whether they were noisy.

Wood on wood works well with beeswax.

I’ll mind that, cheers.

So did they have reservoirs or did someone just manually lard up the axles now and then?

dv said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Vaughan

Philip Vaughan was a Welsh inventor and ironmaster who patented the first design for a ball bearing in 1794. Vaughan’s patent described how iron balls could be placed between the wheel and the axle of a carriage. The balls let the carriage wheels rotate freely by reducing friction.

This is, in the scheme of things, quite recent. Prior to this, did all horse-drawn vehicles use plain bearings? Did they lubricate them?

probably started with bitumen, animal and vegetable fat, and water

from what i’m reading tallow, beef and ram fat, the triglycerides do the job, 2600BCE egyptian pharaoh

possibly olive oil 2000-1700BCE

olive oil

tallow along with lime powder and calcium soaps 1400BCE

vegetable oil and lead mixed, chinese 780BCE

greece 776BCE animal fat

lot of above for chariots etc

https://mil-comm.com/lubricants/the-ultimate-historical-timeline-of-mechanical-lubrication/

reading that^

Makes sense that greece would use animal fat

dv said:

roughbarked said:

dv said:

Cheers. I wonder whether they were noisy.

Wood on wood works well with beeswax.

I’ll mind that, cheers.

Make sure that if it is a soft wood, that the same soft wood is the bearing.

dv said:

So did they have reservoirs or did someone just manually lard up the axles now and then?

manual. The wheels had to come off to be relubed quite regularly.

roughbarked said:

dv said:

So did they have reservoirs or did someone just manually lard up the axles now and then?

manual. The wheels had to come off to be relubed quite regularly.

Animal fat soaks into wood and then burns hot. Beeswax is far superior.

so even later than the marine chronometer damn

So we see that re-inventing the wheel has in fact played a large part in the history of civilisation.

The Rev Dodgson said:

So we see that re-inventing the wheel has in fact played a large part in the history of civilisation.

Giants have little ants upon their shoulders statum,
And little ants have lesser ants, and so ad infinitum.
And the giants themselves, in turn, have greater ants for vision;
While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on.

It’s often quoted that the great advance of mankind was the invention of the wheel.

Only it wasn’t the wheel. Wheels are just logs.

The great invention was the journal bearing. And the axle.

Journal bearings date from antiquity. Like many technologies, they improved in quality slowly.
Animal fat was an early lubricant.