The history of steel balls may be traced as far back as ancient Egypt. Early drawings suggest that the massive stones used to construct pyramids were moved using a method that involved rolling balls. 

Other depictions indicate that hand drills were crafted using a type of ball bearing mechanism. 

An actual wooden ball bearing used in a rotating table was found in the wreckage of a circa 40 AD Roman ship, recovered from Lake Nemi in Italy.

Around 1500, Leonardo da Vinci created his design for a helicopter, which included drawings of ball bearings.

A century later, Galileo conceptualized caged balls in a ball bearing application. It was not until nearly two hundred years later, in Wales, that the first ball bearing design was patented by an inventor named.