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A wheelbarrow is a small hand-propelled vehicle, usually with just one wheel, designed to be pushed and guided by a single person using two handles at the rear.
The term "wheelbarrow" is made of two words: "wheel" and "barrow." "Barrow" is a derivation of the Old English "bearwe" which was a device used for carrying loads.
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.
The earliest wheelbarrows with archaeological evidence in the form of a one-wheel cart come from second century Han Dynasty Emperor Hui's tomb murals and brick tomb reliefs.
The first wheelbarrow in Europe appeared sometime between 1170 and 1250. Medieval wheelbarrows universally featured a wheel at or near the front (in contrast to their Chinese counterparts, which typically had a wheel in the center of the barrow), the arrangement now universally found on wheelbarrows.
By the 13th century, the wheelbarrow proved useful, however, going by surviving documents and illustrations the wheelbarrow remained a relative rarity until the 15th century. It also seemed to be limited to England, France, and the Low Countries. Eastward diffusion of the technology was uneven and not especially fast: the wheelbarrow was still unknown in Russia and its neighbors as late as the reign of Peter the Great. The conscript laborers who dug millions of cubic yards of earth to create the city of St. Petersburg--with its extensive system of canals and the levees and embankments required to keep the city dry--carried dirt either in handbaskets or the fronts of their long, tunic-like shirts. On the occasion of Peter's first visit to England, the young tsar and his traveling companions found a wheelbarrow in the garden of the house where they lodged; not knowing its purpose, they used it for drunken wheelbarrow races.
The term "wheelbarrow" is made of two words: "wheel" and "barrow." "Barrow" is a derivation of the Old English "bearwe" which was a device used for carrying loads.
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.
The earliest wheelbarrows with archaeological evidence in the form of a one-wheel cart come from second century Han Dynasty Emperor Hui's tomb murals and brick tomb reliefs.
The first wheelbarrow in Europe appeared sometime between 1170 and 1250. Medieval wheelbarrows universally featured a wheel at or near the front (in contrast to their Chinese counterparts, which typically had a wheel in the center of the barrow), the arrangement now universally found on wheelbarrows.
By the 13th century, the wheelbarrow proved useful, however, going by surviving documents and illustrations the wheelbarrow remained a relative rarity until the 15th century. It also seemed to be limited to England, France, and the Low Countries. Eastward diffusion of the technology was uneven and not especially fast: the wheelbarrow was still unknown in Russia and its neighbors as late as the reign of Peter the Great. The conscript laborers who dug millions of cubic yards of earth to create the city of St. Petersburg--with its extensive system of canals and the levees and embankments required to keep the city dry--carried dirt either in handbaskets or the fronts of their long, tunic-like shirts. On the occasion of Peter's first visit to England, the young tsar and his traveling companions found a wheelbarrow in the garden of the house where they lodged; not knowing its purpose, they used it for drunken wheelbarrow races.
