THE INVENTOR OF THE WHEELBARROW.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 196, 5 January 1877, Page 13

THE INVENTOR OF THE WHEELBARROW.

It takes a great man to do a little tiling sometimes. Who do you think invented that very simple thing called the wheelbarrow ? Why no less a man than Leonardo da Vinci. And who was he ? He was a musician, poet, painter, architect, sculptor, physiologist, engineer, natural historian, botanist, and inventor — all in one. He wasn't a " Jack at all trades and master of none," either. He was a real master of many arts, and a practical worker besides. When did he live ? Somewhere about the time that that Columbus discovered America. And where was he born ? In the beautiful City of Florence, in Italy. Perhaps some of you may feel a little better acquainted with him when I tell you that it was Leonardo da Vinci who painted one of the grandest pictures in the world — "The Last Supper, — a picture that has been copied many times, and engraved in several styles, so that almost every one has an idea of the arrangement and position at the table of the figures of our Lord and his disciples; though I am told that, without seeing the painting itself, no one can form a notion of how grand and beautiful it was. And only to think of the thousands of poor, hard-working Americans who really own, in their wheelbarrow, an original " work "of Leonardo da Vinci !— St. Nicholas.