Inventor of the wheel earliest of all, for example, rolling round immense stone (6)

I believe the answer is:

ferris

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'inventor of the wheel' is the definition.
'Ferris' can be an answer for 'wheel' (thesaurus). I'm unsure of the 'inventor of the' bit.

I cannot understand how the remainder of the clue works.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for ferris that I've seen before include "Giant revolving wheel at funfair" , "Wheel such as the Eye" , "Inventor of fairground wheel ride" , "Kind of wheel" , "Big passenger-carrying wheel at circus or funfair" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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