| Hand Trucks are widely used today all over the world as a way of moving large or heavy objects with minimum effort of the part of the user. They are a way of making life easier for those whose job role is to transport large objects, such as porters in train stations who have to move loads of baggage every day. How then, have Hand Trucks managed to retain their place in today's world of mechanical, and often automated engineering?
The design of a basic Hand Truck is based upon a simple cart, such as those pulled by horses, ponies or dogs before cars became popular. Carts have appeared in literature since the second millennium BC, often being used in the act of transporting condemned prisoners for humiliation or having them tied to the cart and being given a public whipping. There have been many types of cart throughout the years; a few examples of these are Dogcarts, which were used in the transport of hunting dogs; light, two wheeled and featured two seats set back to back. Also Whitechapel Carts; these were made primarily for families or light delivery services, and Hand Carts, used for manually transporting loads.
One notable event in history is the Mormon handcart movement. This started in 1856 and lasted until 1860 and is a classic example of hand carts being used in mass quantities. This period, where nearly 3000 Mormon pioneers in the USA emigrated from Nebraska or Iowa to Utah due to their religion and approximately 300 died in bad weather conditions in Wyoming, has left the memory of the hand cart pioneers firmly etched into the minds of those who live in Salt Lake City, Utah, where a statue has been erected commemorating a pioneer family pulling a handcart.
However, the function of a Hand Truck was not to be denied, especially after the exposure of the Mormon handcart movement. Hand Trucks have been used all over the world, gradually evolving from being made from wood into strong, metal structures, capable of transporting various loads depending on the strength of the Truck itself. No longer does one size fit all; different styles and strengths of Hand Truck are being made all the time. Different countries even have different names for the Hand Truck. In the United Kingdom they are also known as 2-wheel dollies, stack trucks or sack trucks, and in New Zealand they are called bag barrows.
Various other types of automated trucks have been made to assist workers in their jobs, such as fork lift trucks, monorails/rail guided vehicles and conveyor belts. However, these all require a high cost to keep maintained, and so even though their capacity of transporting loads is increased tenfold when compared to the manual Hand Truck, costs of maintenance and repair have to be taken into account. This is one of the reasons why Hand Trucks are still so popular in the workplace today. In addition to this, Hand Trucks now come in such a large variety, with different types of wheels to combat different types of ground surface this serves to make them indispensible to the world's industrial market.
To explore our range of hand trucks in general, further, please visit our website at http://www.slingsby.com |
