The invention of the wood lathe dates back to the Egyptian and then Roman Antiquity when the machines were moved by human force. The piece of wood was driven first by a wheel operated by a third person while the operator was machining, then by a connecting rod-crank system where the operator himself initiated the rotational movement. The industrial age brought the transmission of motion by paddlewheel and pulley-belt systems using hydraulic power before replacing them with the continuous-motion electric motors now used.