
The Chinese Wheelbarrow (2011) - oftenwrong
http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2011/12/the-chinese-wheelbarrow.html
======
syrrim
The western variant does not necessarily save the driver only half the weight,
this depends on how the wheelbarrow is loaded. In the standard arrangement,
with handles extending out towards the driver, and the wheelbarrow tipping
forwards forcing most of the weight to the front, I could see 3/4 of the
weight being offloaded to the wheel. While it still loses to the chinese
variant, the trade off is that the "barrow" portion of the wheelbarrow can
carry loose items, including dirt or even water, whereas the chinese design
requires items to be in bags, which are then tied down. Also, anyone who has
ever driven a well loaded wheelbarrow knows that they have a considerable
danger of tipping, and I think this would be accentuated in the chinese
design. Placing most of the weight near the axle between the wheel and the
ground means that any slight tendency towards one side (say by an imbalance
while loading, or a bump in the road) is more easily corrected for in the
western design.

I wonder if we might liken this to the distinction between the chinese
preference for energy saving and the british preference for labour saving, as
recorded during the industrial revolution. A chinese wheelbarrow will require
much more time to load, and will require more care on behalf of the driver to
prevent it tipping, but will require less energy of them. The western variant
can be loaded quickly (perhaps with a shovel), but requires the driver to bear
some portion of the weight, and thereby use more energy.

~~~
jaclaz
It is a completely different "intended usage", however.

The "western" version is intended to move materials over extremely short paths
(for long distance carriages are traditionally used), the Chinese is to carry
materials over long distances (and as mentioned in the article over winding
and possibly non-paved roads).

You can loosely compare the "loading" with a modern quarry/mine truck vs. a
container truck, besides the different nature of the goods transported the
difference is between short and long haul that more than compensates the
increased loading time.

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rbobby
> The wheelbarrow gave the Chinese armies such an advantage in moving goods
> that it was kept secret - early Chinese writings talk about wheelbarrows in
> code.

It's strange to think that the wheelbarrow was at one time super high tech and
a game changer for military operations.

Added to my list of inventions I'll steal if I ever time travel :)

------
bsder
I find the idea that the Chinese wheelbarrow would have been better in the
West somewhat suspect.

People are clever everywhere. Such a good idea would have gotten adopted if it
were useful.

So, the real question is: Why wasn't it useful in the West?

I suspect the answer is "mud". The West tends to have a lot more continuous
rainfall than most of China.

~~~
takeit137
>People are clever everywhere. Such a good idea would have gotten adopted if
it were useful.

First I thought of Democracy which is not used in China and a clear
counterexample. Clearly it's not the dry weather there which is the reason :).

But I deleted that comment as it's political and, although a counterexample,
one could argue that the algorithm of counting votes is not the central idea
of Democracy, and it is philosophical and cultural rather than technological.

I next thought simply of forks and chopsticks. They're both wildly available,
but other than Asians, nobody eats with chopsticks in America and Europe, non-
Asian restaurants don't even have any. In China I imagine it's the opposite,
and restaurants don't even have a fork for you.

We are not talking about a wheelbarrow here (or Democracy!) - but just a $0.50
piece of wood/plastic/metal.

Clearly it is not true that a good idea is adopted instantly in the same form.
Utensils are a great idea. The west uses forks, the East uses chopsticks.

~~~
Markoff
they have fork and spoon everywhere in Chinese restaurants, what can be hard
to find it's knife

also most of Asia doesn't eat with chopsticks except few eastern Asian
countries, heck whole southeast Asia it's fork+spoon for most of the dishes,
it's just strange CN/JP/KR preference

~~~
takeit137
>they have fork and spoon everywhere in Chinese restaurants

I did a Google search and saw: "It is a good idea as cheaper restaurants will
not have forks available."

[https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g294212-i2147-k2629991...](https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g294212-i2147-k2629991-Chopsticks_vs_fork_knife_spoon-
Beijing.html)

This is from 2009, so has this changed in the past 9 years?

~~~
Markoff
well i lived there for years, honestly i don't have problem to eat with
chopsticks, after all i think i am better with them than my wife who used them
since birth, but spoon is quite usual item in any restaurant, forks maybe not
that common though when i need them for visitors that always had them

after all you think all those instant noodles sold in shops are eaten with
chopsticks instead folding fork which it's in package? it's not like fork it's
some strange concept for Chinese. every Chinese eat instant noodles more or
less, majority of them eat them often with fork (when on train or traveling
elsewhere)

but yeah all dishes from food delivery are accompanied by cheap short bamboo
chopsticks

~~~
kalleboo
> _after all you think all those instant noodles sold in shops are eaten with
> chopsticks instead folding fork which it 's in package_

That's interesting, in Japan you get chopsticks with your instant noodles
(although they're put in your bag by the check-out staff, not included in the
package)

~~~
takeit137
At any rate we can agree that the point has been made. It's not like you need
some external factor (prove that the reason for this is the fact that Japan is
an island, or any other thing.)

China doesn't need to be "drier" to make the Chinese wheelbarrow we're reading
about more useful, with the idea that the wheelbarrow difference can be
explained in full by the presence of mud in the west.

You don't need any difference like that. It can just be a cultural map of
adoption, with no real reason for it.

------
sbierwagen
>The Chinese and Roman road systems were built (independently) over the course
of five centuries during the same period in history. Curiously, due to
(unrelated) political reasons, both systems also started to disintegrate side
by side from the third century AD onwards

All ancient societies were Malthusian, living at the limit of their food
supplies. A period of global cooling started in the third century, knocking
down the Roman and Chinese empires at the same time, for the same reason:
[https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/12/famine-fever-and-the-
fal...](https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/12/famine-fever-and-the-fall-of-
rome/)

------
masklinn
> Before the arrival of the steam engine, people have always preferred to move
> cargo over water instead of over land

People have always preferred moving cargo over water than land period, that's
still the case today. Steam and combustion engines made overland transport
faster and more flexible and thus took over some of the more time-sensitive
transport, but the bulk of manufactured chinese goods don't travel to europe
or the middle-east overland, neither do central and south-american goods to
the US or canada.

------
Markoff
how it's this better than two wheeled cart, which is much more stable? this
has benefit only on very narrow paths somewhere in mountains/forest, but
otherwise carts are superior, you don't need to balance them, so I can see why
this never took off outside China since there is obviously better solution to
this problem

~~~
sonnyblarney
There is no comparison between the 'Western' and 'Eastern' variants.

The article is in a way very misleading.

'Wheelbarrow' in 'The West' is generally a local tool, used to move things
like dirt and what not 50 feet to somewhere else.

What the Chinese have there is a '1 wheeled cart' for transportation, which in
the west would have '2 wheels' or even '4 wheels'.

And yes, one would be right to question why on earthy they wouldn't add
another wheel or two. Maybe resources?

~~~
chimpunk
According to Richard Bulliet's History of the World lectures (available
online), four-wheeled wagons are globally less common than wheelbarrows or
two-wheeled carts because: (a) extra wheels add considerable weight and
friction (b) wagons have a larger turn radius (See also
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagon_wheel_(transportation)#T...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagon_wheel_\(transportation\)#Terminology_and_design))

TFA answers the question "why a wheelbarrow and not a two-wheeled cart":
"Compared to a two-wheeled cart or a four-wheeled wagon, a wheelbarrow was
much cheaper to build because wheel construction was a labour-intensive job.
Although the wheelbarrow required a road, a very narrow path (about as wide as
the wheel) sufficed, and it could be bumpy."

------
sonnyblarney
"Our road infrastructure - mostly based on asphalt - is more similar to that
of the Ancient Chinese and will disintegrate at a much faster rate if we lose
our ability to maintain it. The Chinese wheelbarrow - and with it many other
forgotten low-tech transportation options - might one day come in very handy
again."

It's funny how such intelligent and thoughtful people can write a serious
article topped off by this. At first I think it's tongue-in-cheek humour, but
then I realize, no, they're half-serious.

I should add - this is a great magazine, nice find!

~~~
oftenwrong
I don't think it's crazy to suggest that roads and the standard of living in
some places could decline to the point that it becomes more common to use
currently-outmoded methods to transport goods over land. What if the future
sees:

\- Oil production decline to the point of significant scarcity

\- 20000km supply chains falling out of the profitability zone

\- Under-funded municipalities on the edges of civilization not able to
maintain their roads. Some parts of the United States are already starting to
un-pave their roads: [https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/7/26/the-un-
paving-...](https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/7/26/the-un-paving-of-
american-roads)

\- Large-scale decline in standard of living

...Et cetera.

Given enough neglect and time, everything we have built will crumble. When
"developed" places fail, they will start to look more like "developing"
places. Dirt roads, bicycles, working animals, reduced conspicuous
consumption, and maybe even wheelbarrows as a seriously-considered form of
transportation - all of it could return in the long-term.

~~~
stretchwithme
Venezuelas happen. Civilization rests on the ideas in our heads. If we lose
the ideas that got us here, the roads will eventually follow.

