The Origins of the Wheelbarrow

Abstract

The Origins of the Wheelbarrow M . J . T . LEWIS Historians of technology take it for granted that the wheelbarrow was unknown in Europe before roughly a.d. 1200, whereas in China it had been used, asJoseph Needham shows, since perhaps the 1st century b.c.' Just how the Western vehicle came about has been matter for specula­ tion. Along with Needham, Bertrand Gille and Andrea Matthies wonder if it was a case of stimulus diffusion—of westerners hearing at several removes, perhaps via Islam or Byzantium, of the Chinese man-powered one-wheeled cart and interpreting the concept after their own fashion.2 Lynn White, Albert Leighton, and Matthies suggest that it was also inspired by the two-man handbarrow—which had been in general circulation for a very long time—since, by substituting a wheel for the front man, the number of laborers needed could be halved.3 Leighton alternatively surmises that somebody maneuvering a two-wheeled cart by hand conceived the idea of a man-sized vehicle for small loads, which would be easier to manipulate with only one wheel. Less convincingly, because of the difference in size, Matthies also proposes that the wheelbarrow may have been adapted from a broken wagon. The Chinese wheelbarrow comes in two basic forms. The best known has a large wheel centrally mounted, the load being carried pannierfashion on either side, or even on top; the operator has to propel and guide, but not significantly to lift (fig. 1). A substantial load of people or of goods can be carried. This type was perhaps invented by Chuko Liang in the 3d century. The oldest illustrations, however, exemplified by figure 2—sketchy, fragmentary, but unmistakable—start around a.d. 100. All of these show a version with the wheel at or near the front and Dr. Ltwis is senior lecturer in industrial archaeology at the University of Hull. 'For Chinese wheelbarrows in general, see Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 4, Physics and Physical Technology, pt. 2, Mechanical Engineering (Cambridge, 1965), pp. 258-74, 759. "Bertrand Gille, “Machines,” in A History of Technology, ed. Charles Singer et al. (Oxford, 1956), 2:642; Andrea L. Matthies, “The Medieval Wheelbarrow,” Technology and Culture 32 (1991): 356-64. ’Lynn White, jr., “Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages,” Speculum 15 (1940): 147; Albert C. Leighton, Transport and Communication in Early Medieval Europe (Newton Abbot, 1972), p. 89.© 1994 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/94/3503-0003SJ01.00 453 Fig. 1.—Chinese center-wheel wheelbarrow, 1637, from the Thien Kung Khai Wu. (Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 4, Physics and Physical Technology, pt. 2, Mechanical Engineering [Cambridge, 1965], fig. 506; courtesy Needham Research Institute, Cambridge.) 454 F ig . 2. — Chinese front-wheel wheelbarrow, ca. a . d . 118, molde d brick from Szechwan. (Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 4, Physics and Physical Technology, pt. 2, Mechanical Engineering [Cambridge, 1965], fig. 508; courtesy Needham Research Institute, Cambridge.) 455 456 M. J. T. Lewis the load behind it, so that the operator has to lift up to half the weight.4 In the Western wheelbarrow this front wheel has been universal. Before the big navvy’s barrow of the Industrial Revolution, the capacity was generally small: not much more, it sometimes seems, than that ofa large basket, but easier to carry. There were occasions too when the load was great, and an assistant was requisitioned to pull by rope from in front (fig. 3), just as animals or men sometimes did in China. However labor-saving and versatile, the Western wheelbarrow did not take rapid root. Documents and illustrations suggest that for two centu­ ries it was a relative rarity and, moreover, was limited, as Matthies deduces from the pictures, to England, France, and the Low Countries. Not until the 15th century did it spread more widely, ultimately becoming a familiar sight on European building sites and civil-engineering works, in mines and factories, on farms and in gardens. When young, it sometimes traveled fair distances, like its Chinese cousins; it replaced porters and pack animals, for instance, in moving goods across the Alpine...