The fact that it took over 2200 years for this to be developed tells me that either someone's design was lost to time, or humanity really got stuck on a design that works. Either way, incredible amounts of Kudos for Mr. Olds to figure this out.,(reply>), @blechtic Yea but its a pipe rotating. Rotating parts are not a danger, The danger comes from being caught and pulled somewhere.,(reply>), @blechtic I'm wondering if it might even be a (no pun intended) circular problem/self-fulfilling prophecy; someone else may have thought of the idea, then thought "if it were that simple someone would have done it by now", either that or they didn't have the skills or tools to try it. In that case Mr. Old's invention would have been a combination of background, resources and the conviction to try something his peers said would fail, which makes it no less remarkable an invention.<br><br>If anybody else <b>did</b> think of this, they're going to be kicking themselves if they see this video!,(reply>), @2 Scoops I'm really curious how old you think civilization is. We have concrete evidence of agricultural civilization dating back at least 5000-6000 years. and there are many other older sites that are more debatable.,(reply>), @blechtic  frame-of-reference realy goes back to Newton, so 300 years aleast.,(reply>), Maybe it sort of needed the kind of paradigm shift of thought that was popularized by the theory of relativity and the whole frame-of-reference thing?<br>Also, how many people work with these kinds of things, in-depth, anyway? This is putting the dangerous moving part on the outside. You may need deep practical understanding to realize the advantages of doing it this way might outweigh the disadvantages vs. turning the screw.