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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> >As you know from your usage of handtools and other manual labors, pulling 
> is
> always the preferred method of work over pushing. It is easier to control
> your efforts, and easier to control the outcome. One rarely skins a knuckle
> when pulling the wrench.


True just short of the word 'always'.  Yes, planes, drawknives, spokeshaves 
all work with a much finer degree pulled than pushed.  That too is why I 
favor 
Japanese saws, the teeth are backwards and cut on the pull stroke.

How-some-ever, one does not pull an axe.  With an axe you are concentrating a 
lot of force on a small edge and you'd get not where drawing it.  A 
wheelbarrow performs two functions:  being a 'unicycle' cart, it is the most 
maneurverable and it is also made to tip.  You can accurately shed the entire 
load in 
one  simple motion.  Pushing the wheelbarrow consentrates a lot of force 
accurately on moving the one tire much the idea behind swinging an axe.  Yes, 
I' ve 
stalled a loaded wheelbarrow and just about landed in the tray, but it was 
mainly due to stupidity rather than the dynamics of the barrow.

A large wheeled cart can be pulled as well as pushed.  The larger the wheels, 
the easier the pull (or push).  Many a time I've pulled the cart on level 
ground and switched to pushing when going up a steep grade.

It's the small wheels and four of them that I see as the weakness in the 
system.  A wheelbarrow is an effective second class lever with the wheel 
being the 
fulcurm.  You are concentrating the downward vector balanced on one wheel.  
But a four-wheeled cart amplifies the irregualarity of the ground.

There's a reason why two wheeled carts are so popular.     </HTML>