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A SHORT HISTORY OF THE WHEELBARROW The common wheelbarrow is a utility device used and known to mankind from the poorest village in Africa or India, to the most affluent homeowner in America. A basic hardware staple of "everyman." Chuko Liang (181-234 A.D.) of China is considered to be the inventor of the wheelbarrow. Liang was a general who used the wheelbarrows to transport supplies to injured soldiers. The Chinese wheelbarrows had two wheels and required two men to propel and steer them. A wheelbarrow is generally a small one or two-wheeled cart designed to be pushed by a single person using two handles to the rear. Webster defines wheelbarrow as a "one-wheeled vehicle for carrying small loads." They are designed to ease the transport of heavy, often loose, loads and are common in the construction industry and in gardening. Where did the word "wheelbarrow" come from? It is not a corrupted form of "wheeled barrel" as some may believe. A barrow is an ancient device that comes from the word "bear" as in to "bear" a load. A barrow is a two-handled device—like a stretcher—on which two people carried objects, one at each end (but a barrow is a rigid carrying device). Wheelbarrows made it to Europe in the 11th or 12th century. A stained-glass window at the Chartres Cathedral in France dating from 1220 is believed to be the earliest picture of a wheelbarrow in the Western World. A manuscript illumination from 1286 shows the European wheelbarrow with a long and graceful curve. It was in Europe that the design was reversed with the wheel moving from the center to the front of the box and the motive power to the rear.
Wheelbarrows have a prominent place in American history. L. P. Febermeyer became "the celebrated champion wheelbarrow pedestrian of the world" by pushing one from San Francisco to New York City in about six months. He walked 4,500 miles, arriving in July of 1879. There are still wheelbarrow races. One of particular note in Australia goes from "an historic pub to an historic port." The Wilkinson manufacturing Co. started producing the familiar rubber-tired wheelbarrows in Omaha in 1947.
CSI set out to develop a watershed change in the wheelbarrow by making it store compactly without sacrificing any utility or function. The evolution began not with wheelbarrows, but with a new folding wheel design developed by inventor Rick Shapiro which he applied to the forward wheel of three wheel jogging strollers. Shapiro recognized that to make jogging strollers "fold flat" it would require a new folding method for the forward wheel—which is generally directly angularly to the rolling surface.
Shapiro's jogger introduces
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During the California gold rush
of 1849 and '50, men attempted the long trip cross-country pushing tools and belongings in wheelbarrows. Most didn't make it all the way cross-country.
Since then, many varieties of carts
and wheelbarrows have been developed, with metal and plastic base units, and one or more wheels. Improving upon such an essential staple device--one seen and pondered by "everyman" is the
hardest type invention to improve. Why? Because "everyman" ponders and at least fleetingly explores what method could exist to improve upon
the staple device such as a wheelbarrow, like a toothbrush or a fork.
Finally, Shapiro worked with
the CSI design team to refine the new compact wheelbarrow design in several prototypes before CSI introduced the world's most compact solid tub wheelbarrow. The CSI change to wheelbarrows has eluded
inventors and wheelbarrow manufacturers worldwide--many have provided a small step forward in function or utility, but none have achieved the solution of making wheelbarrow devices compact, fully functional,
with no detaching parts or reconstruction required.