The wheelbarrow is a small hand propelled cart with a single wheel at the front and two handles at the rear, used to carry loads too heavy or awkward to carry by hand alone. It is generally credited to ancient China, where early versions placed the wheel centrally under the load for greater carrying efficiency, and it appeared independently in medieval Europe by around the twelfth or thirteenth century in a front wheeled form still common today, remaining a basic tool of construction, gardening and agriculture worldwide.
Facts
SignificanceDistributes load weight between wheel and operator, allowing heavier and bulkier loads to be carried 1 Connections
Exemplifies
Wheelbarrows are human-powered; recorded here pending a human-powered overland mode if the taxonomy adds one.
Sources
1. Wheelbarrow - Wikipedia
Design and functionQuote, Design and function
The wheelbarrow is designed to distribute the weight of its load between the wheel and the operator, so enabling the convenient carriage of heavier and bulkier loads than would be possible were the weight carried entirely by the operator.
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