Lever
Lever history
Autumn Stanley argues that the digging stick can be considered the first lever, which would position prehistoric women as the inventors of lever technology. The next earliest known cultural evidence of the application of the lever mechanism dates back to the ancient Egypt c. 5000 BC, when it was used in a simple balance scale. In ancient Egypt c. 4400 BC, a foot pedal was used for the earliest horizontal frame loom. In Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) c. 3000 BC, the shadouf, a crane-like device that uses a lever mechanism, was invented. In ancient Egypt, workmen used the lever to move and uplift obelisks weighing more than 100 tons. This is evident from the recesses in the large blocks and the handling bosses that could not be used for any purpose other than for levers.
Lever history
The earliest remaining writings regarding levers date from the third century BC and were provided, by common belief, by the Greek mathematician Archimedes, who famously stated "Give me a lever (long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it), and I shall move the world". (The Greek usually attributed to Archimedes does not include details about length of lever or fulcrum, i.e., δῶς μοι πᾶ στῶ καὶ τὰν γᾶν κινάσω .) That statement has given rise to the phrase "an Archimedean lever" being adopted for use in many instances, not just regarding mechanics, including abstract concepts about the successful effect of a human behavior or action intended to achieve results that could not have occurred without it.
Force and levers
!A lever in balance
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