

Low Tech Magazine: The Chinese Wheelbarrow - anthonyb
http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2011/12/the-chinese-wheelbarrow.html

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Jun8
A good design (like a good scientific theory), like the Chinese wheelbarrow,
not only makes the job it's designed for easier but also opens the way for new
uses not possible before: I was struck by the wheelbarrow train concept that
this design enables.

I also find it interesting to think about the interplay of effects on
innovation, e.g:

"It is thought that the primary obstacle to large-scale development of the
wheel in the Western hemisphere was the absence of domesticated large animals
which could be used to pull wheeled carriages."
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel#History>)

Note that the wheelbarrow is primarily for human use, but it's not possible
without the wheel which, (it is conjectured) is invented to carry loads with
the help of domesticated beasts of burden. So, the American peoples could not
go through level I (invent the wheel) due to the shortage of domesticated
large animals, to arrive at level II (invent the wheelbarrow) which would have
freed them from relying on such animals.

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rudin
While this is an interesting piece of technology, I can't read this article
without cringing. The bias towards "Chinese technology" over "European
technology" and the constant comparison between the two makes this read like
some sort of propaganda piece.

~~~
anthonyb
The design really is better - can you imagine pushing a western style
wheelbarrow for 20km?

Try some of the other articles on the site (eg.
[http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/12/hand-powered-
drilling...](http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/12/hand-powered-drilling-
tools-and-machines.html)) and you'll see he just has a pro-cool technology
bias.

~~~
excuse-me
Can you imagine dumping 100lb of earth into a chinese one and tipping it out
at the top of a hole - to build a canal or railway?

They are fundementally different concepts. A european wheelbarrow is an earth
moving tool - essentially a bucket on wheels. A chinese wheelbarrow is a man
powered cart. It's like claiming a sack trolley is better than a pallet truck
because it can go down stairs

~~~
cpleppert
That is exactly correct. It makes no sense to conflate the two and disregard
the purposes of each. In the case of the chinese wheelbarrow it is not clear
that it was so superior to the european cart. A person simply can't move the
same amount of material as easily as a pack animal. The chinese cart is thus
tremendously labor intensive. One person must move a load that could be done
by 1/4 of a pack animal on a wheeled cart.

Additionally, the one other advantage of being able to use the wheelbarrow on
narrow paths instead of roads is not something that would normally matter.
Roads can move people and goods much more effectively and faster than narrow
paths. The article alludes to this by referring to the collapse of the road
network and the subsequent development of the wheelbarrow. Of course, if they
had roads, they may never had adopted to the wheelbarrow in the first place.

What the author describes as inventiveness is really necessity borne of
weakness. Only if human labor is relatively cheap would such an invention ever
be considered. China fit these conditions perfectly, however. The dramatic
rise in population over the course of the first millenium in China made such
efficiency concerns moot. Labor intensive rice agriculture also needed large
groups of people anyway.

~~~
anthonyb
I think your analysis is somewhat off - at the same time in western Europe,
people weren't using carts, they were carrying everything by hand. So it's not
wheelbarrow vs. cart, it's wheelbarrow vs. nothing.

Also, narrow tracks would be much easier to build than roads which need carts.
Again, it's narrow paths vs. nothing, rather than narrow paths vs. wide paved
roads.

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adolph
_The one-wheeled vehicle appeared around the time the extensive Ancient
Chinese road infrastructure began to disintegrate. Instead of holding on to
carts, wagons and wide paved roads, the Chinese turned their focus to a much
more easily maintainable network of narrow paths designed for wheelbarrows._

Necessity and constraints are parents of invention I suppose.

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geon
I have only used european wheelbarrows, but I find them deceptively unstable
at high loads. You might bee able to push 100 kg of dirt since you only have
to lifthalf of the weight, but as soon as you get just slightly off ballance,
the full weight will push the wheelbarrow over. There is just no way you can
keep it from falling once that happens.

The problem would seem to be Much worse with the chineese design, since the
load is much higher (and the center of gravity higher ?).

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gbog
China has a great record on low tech inventions. The calligraphy pen is
another one.

