The Bronze Age, 3000 BC

"Please proceed - the King is listening," said the King's Minister of Listening.

"Your majesty, what I propose is going to help our merchants, and at the harvest, but mostly it will help your army - Sire," said the Inventor. The King had a military penchant, so the Inventor thought that emphasizing martial applications was wise.

"So, first, we have to build what I am calling a 'wheel.'"

"What's a wheel?"

"Well, it's round -"

"What's round?"

"Ah, well, we...um, picture a box with no corners."

"Then it wouldn't be a box."

The King looked at his Minister of Ideas, who, in turn, shrugged his shoulders because he had no idea what the Inventor was talking about.

"Sire, take a circle, like the shape of this bowl," and the Inventor held up a clay bowl.

"Now, if we turn the bowl onto its side like this, and give it a push..." and the Inventor set the bowl on its side, on the floor, and gave it a gentle push. The bowl rolled but its shape pushed it around in a circle.

"That is what the wheel will do, it will roll, and that rolling will help us get places," said the Inventor with a flourish.

"I see, so a wheel is like a bowl that will take us around and back to where we started," said the King in such a concise summary of the wheel's performance that his Ministers all nodded their approval.

"Yes! But no, not really-"

"No one says 'no' to the King," interjected The Sergeant at Arms and Agreement.

"Yes, Sire, alright, so let's move on, so we have to build two wheels because they don't work by themselves."

"I see, I haven't even approved of this 'wheel,' and you are already doubling my investment," replied the King.

This statement rattled the Inventor, who started to buckle under the pressure.

"So, we attach something, something, ah... FLAT, yes flat, and stable, yes, must be stable, and place it between the two wheels."

"Flat and stable... like a block of granite?" offered the Minister of Ideas.

"Yeah - aaah no, too heavy."

"A really large bronze platter?"

"Ooooo yessss, closer," replied the Inventor.

Just then, perhaps the most timely interruption in the history of interruptions.

"Sire, your traveling chair is washed and ready for your meeting at the Temple," stated a tired and sweaty servant, who looked around and realized that he was well, interrupting.

"Traveling chair! Yes, Sire, we would use your traveling chair, the one that's carried right, and we mount THAT between two wheels!" said the Inventor triumphantly.

The King gave his Minister of Ideas a sideways look, who, in turn, signaled to the Sergeant, who grabbed the Inventor by the neck and tossed him out.

The King clapped his hand twice, and six big muscular men came into the room carrying his traveling chair.

"Wheels - bah," said the King.