A small, circular piece of wood found preserved at a crannog in Scotland has provided remarkable evidence for man s early industrial development. The crannog as a whole dates from c 800-400BC, although it is unclear at present whether the disk dates from the earlier or later part of the period. The disk, some 4.5cm across with a conical hole through the centre, was identified as the base of a turned wooden bowl or plate by wood specialists Rob Sands of Edinburgh University and Jon Hather of University College, London. Clues that the disk was turned on a lathe are that it is perfectly round and has continuous gouge-marks running around the edge.
Earlier examples are very rare.
The earliest in Europe is a complete bowl from Corneto in Italy dated to c 700BC, and the new material from Scotland appears to be of a similar date. The design of early lathes, however, is unclear. A pole lathe appears in a 13th century stained glass window at Chartres Cathedral, and some rough pictures of lathes are known from the Roman period. It is thought, however, that the earliest lathes were reciprocating - that is, they turned the object first forwards, then back. In the case of a pole lathe, a rope would have been attached to a treadle below the machine, wound round a mandrell fixed to the object, and connected to a springy pole above.