Approx. 400 BC
GOING WITH THE FLOW
Water wheels are considered to be the first
technologies that humans developed to
make use of natural forces in the place of
people power.
Water wheels captured the energy of
water flowing through rivers and streams
with wooden wheel structures, which had
all sor ts of functions through the centuries.
Water wheels were used in water mills
to turn turbines to grind grains, crush
metals, and even to pump bellows to
heat furnaces. They were also used to
irrigate crops.
Some of the first evidence of water
wheels are found from the third centur y
BC in the ruins of ancient Byzantium in
modern-day Turkey, although some ancient
Indian texts dating from the four th centur y
BC describe machines that are ver y likely to
be water wheels.27
03/2015