Long hours and low pay were the rewards of the immigrant peddler. According to one son of a Lower East Side pushcart operator, his father would “get up at 5:30, go get his pushcart from the pushcart stable on Sheriff Street, New York city where he rented it for about a quarter a day. Then he’d wheel it over to the wholesaler on Attorney Street. Then he’d take it over to the ferry to Greenpoint. where he would make $2.00 or 2.50 a day, six days a week feeding a family of seven.

      Via: The Tenement Museum

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Ancient Chinese technology:  "The wheelbarrow above is reported to have been invented in south-western China in the first century BCE. The design was similar to rickshaws with the goal to carry heavy loads long distances. To the western eye the design of the Chinese wheelbarrow looks clumsy and appears to have no capacity for carrying substantial loads. In fact, the wheelbarrow designed for use by two people has a load bearing capacity of nearly two tonne.

The resourcefulness and creativity of the Chinese in utilising the wheelbarrow was limitless. There are even accounts of wheelbarrows affixed with sails and reaching speeds over land or ice of forty miles per hour.  A testament to the practicality and efficiency of the Chinese wheelbarrow design is its survival in a modern context, as it remains in use in China today.. "

Via: The Powerhouse Museum

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