Not exactly school, but not far off

I finally made it to college to do a degree (Art & DT) when I was 29, married and with a school-aged child. Most of the others on the course were straight from school though and pretty clueless.

One guy in particular stood out for gormlessness - can't remember his real name, but everyone called him Rodney. At the end of our second year we all had to produce something in our various specialisms - mine was furniture design, so I made a chair - a beautiful thing of solid elm and wrought iron. Rodney's specialist subject was Product Design and he came up with a genius idea: he re-designed the wheel-barrow. Let's face it: the wheel-barrow has been around for centuries, carting loads of soil around building sites since the pyramids were built - surely Rodney could improve on such a blatently flawed design.

His idea: instead of having the wheel at the front of the barrow, he put it in the middle - i.e. where the handles met the barrow. The only real difference to a normal barrow being that you'd have to push down on the handles to wheel it along, rather than pull up. Genius.

Until he explained his design in a seminar and a couple of us old-timers pointed out that it would be impossible to get it off the ground if the contents weighed more than the operator. I helpfully suggested that perhaps a pair of heavy-duty divers' boots should be supplied with every barrow, to keep the poor sod pushing it on the ground.

Funnily enough, I think I saw something very similar in and 'Innovations' catalogue the other month...only £29.99. Bargain.
(Che Grimsdale Best before:, Thu 13 Aug 2009, 15:25, 6 replies)

I am almost loath to comment
as it makes me sound even more of a wanker than usual but wheelbarrows were invented independently the world over, judging by the variations in design, and in the twentieth century James Dyson has managed to revolutionise it once again, thus basing his entire career around a swivelly ball.

Still, Rodney's sounds flawed.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Thu 13 Aug 2009, 15:30, closed)

Clicked
Every course has a Rodney, I think it's the way life balances things up.
I'd dearly like to see builders all over the world trying out Rodney's creation.
(SpangoTheWonderBadger is brewing beer, Thu 13 Aug 2009, 17:16, closed)

It would work
if the load was placed over the wheel. Surely that would mean that effectively there wouldn't be any weight to lift, it would just need balancing. His principle, therefore, is clearly sound as a pound
(tinypod will never learn. Ever., Sat 15 Aug 2009, 0:32, closed)

Surely
you'd have problems with the center of gravity? You'd spend more time trying to balance it rather than getting it from A to B via a plank suspended between two blocks of flats.

I'd don't know why I'm calling you Surely.
(SpangoTheWonderBadger is brewing beer, Mon 17 Aug 2009, 11:55, closed)

Yes but...
...imagine you had your perfectly balanced load of, say, soil, and you had to wheel it down a slope, and the load shifted forwards...

Wheeeeeee! Wheelbarrow turns into seige-engine, flinging poor labourer head-over-heels down the slope.
(Che Grimsdale Best before:, Mon 17 Aug 2009, 13:50, closed)

Who would have thought?
Building sites are just one step away from a chaotic mass of seige warfare?
Could be a scene from 'The Plank'.
(SpangoTheWonderBadger is brewing beer, Mon 17 Aug 2009, 16:02, closed)