As early as ancient times, people used the hooves of livestock to trample, knead, and compact the soil for house foundations, dams, and riverbanks. Before the mid-19th century, Western road construction primarily used crushed stone paving, with compaction mainly relying on the natural rolling of vehicles. It wasn't until the invention of the stone roller in 1858 that the development of crushed stone pavements was spurred, and horse-drawn rollers gradually appeared for compaction, representing the earliest prototype of the road roller. In 1860, the steam roller appeared in France, further promoting and improving the construction technology and quality of crushed stone pavements, and accelerating the process. In the early 20th century, crushed stone pavements were recognized worldwide as the best road surface and were widely adopted. The concept of compaction gradually became known, and road rollers appeared on various road construction sites. In the mid-19th century, the invention of the internal combustion engine brought tremendous vitality to the development of compaction equipment.
The first internal combustion engine-driven road roller was born in the early 20th century. Following this came the pneumatic tire roller, which appeared almost simultaneously with the sheep's foot roller and the smooth drum roller. Research was conducted on the compaction effect of static rollers, concluding that increasing the roller's weight increased its linear pressure, thereby improving compaction. Consequently, for a considerable period, efforts were focused on developing large-tonnage rollers; the largest pneumatic tire rollers once weighed over 200 tons. However, during this period, changes in rollers primarily focused on improvements in power and design.
