History
The principle of the flywheel is found in the Neolithic spindle and the potter's wheel.
The Andalusian agronomist Ibn Bassal (fl 1038–1075), in his Kitab al-Filaha, describes the flywheel effect employed in a water wheel machine, the saqiya.
The flywheel as a general mechanical device for equalizing the speed of rotation is, according to the American medievalist Lynn White, recorded in the De diversibus artibus (On various arts) of the German artisan Theophilus Presbyter (ca. 1070–1125) who records applying the device in several of his machines.
In the Industrial Revolution, James Watt contributed to the development of the flywheel in the steam engine, and his contemporary James Pickard used a flywheel combined with a crank to transform reciprocating into rotary motion.
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