Vocabulary – Designation codes
Rolling bearings - Various types and layouts

The invention of the wheel dates back to around 4000 BC. The axles of chariots and wagons were already lubricated with animal fats or olive oil, but despite this, chariots could not carry heavy loads. The Assyrians, like the Egyptians, used rollers to transport the heavy materials needed for their numerous buildings. This can be considered the ancestor of the roller bearing. By replacing sliding friction with rolling friction, the roller slide was invented.

In 330 B.C., the Greek military engineer Diades designed a ram for Alexander the Great's army, whose horizontal translational movement was ensured by a series of rollers placed in grooves and kept at a fixed distance from each other by a cage (figure