Pulleys allowed people to build large sailing ships to explore the world. Without the pulley, the force of the wind on large sails would have been too big to be countered by sailors. So, the early seafarers would not have been able to set their sails to explore the world!

When exactly the pulley was invented, and who the inventor was, no one knows. Popular theories reason that the pulley most likely came from Eurasia, although the basic building blocks for the pulley were known in other areas of the world. Archimedes is credited with developing the first documented block and tackle pulley system.