The Frozen Donkey Wheel: A History

Yesterday's episode, "This Place Is Death" brought back some very important props I'd like to discuss today: the smoke monster (yeah!) and the frozen donkey wheel under the Orchid station.

I'll just say, it was more than a bit lame to explain the Losties' moving through time as "the wheel is off its axis." A few weeks ago, I said the time shifts were like pendulum movements back and forth, which was such an elegant thought. Now we find out they are just like eating at a rickety wagon-wheel table in a third-class Western-themed bbq place -- only with slightly less naseau.

But let's talk about the wheel for a moment. A horizontal wheel, to which is attached one or more beasts of burden, has been used around the globe for more than 2,000 years specifically to pull water up from underground wells. This device is called a "noria". Animals push the spokes and generate horizontal rotations that are transferred into vertical rotations through the gears, which brings up a chain of buckets from the well. Animals used in a noria are blindfolded because they can't stand the boring revolution walk.

In Dharma's case, they used polar bears to turn the noria. This worked until the wheel lit up and the polar bear disappeared, to be found later in Tunisia by Charlotte.

So I find it very interesting that this noria is at the bottom of a well. The wheel should be at the top of the well, carrying water out of it... Why would it be at the bottom? It must be because it is turning something that is in a well beneath it.

To explain this, I would like to mention again George Minkowski, who is named for German mathematician Herman Minkowski. In 1908, Herman Minkowski presented a paper which presented time as a "fourth dimension." If it is so, then it behaves like any other dimension: abiding by the rules of physics (in particular: bodies in motion stay in motion until acted on by force).

Just like the Earth rotating on its axis, time is a body in motion that moves along at a constant rate, according to Minkowski. But there's the kicker: the Earth does not rotate constantly. In fact, it wobbles, and it's slowing down every year. It's like an ice skater in a sit-spin, only with no wind resistance, it doesn't slow down except from the repositioning of objects on or in its surface. Two recent (in human history) events are said to have slowed the Earth's rotation: the damning of major water sources, and the movement of glaciers.

So if it's possible the Earth's rotation can be affected, then it is also possible time can be affected. What slows the Earth is force, but then what slows or speeds up time? What constitutes force in respect to time? You may have guessed it: magnetism.

Back to the frozen donkey wheel. It's attached to a long pole that goes deep in the earth and at the end has magnets, or something that generates electromagnetism (plutonium?). When it turns, it exerts force on time, making it slow or speed up. But then the question is how could it only affect some people on the island and not all of them? And how could the rest of the world not feel any time shifts? Because time is personal. H.G. Wells preempted Minkowski and Einstein in saying, "There is no difference between Time and any of the three dimensions of Space except that our consciousness moves along it."