Archimedes was right.
This happened about 1967 when I was in in high school, about 16yrs oldl. I was working part time, afternoons and Saturdays, in a sort of garden/pet supply business. Was called Johnny's Feed and Seed and was pretty big for that time. It stocked garden seeds of all sorts, prepackaged and bulk, grass seed by the barrel, fertilizer in stacks of 50lb bags (pet foods too), power gardening tools, etc.. Part of the job involved waiting on customers (using a hand cranked cash register), but mostly it involved handling the warehouse inventory. Lots of sacks to stack, unload, load, move, even put hay, straw, timothy and alfalfa bales away.
The business had a 3 ton flatbed truck to do pickups and deliveries. One week we needed more dry slaked lime, supplies were low. So the #3 guy gets to go pick up a load from the local plant. He comes back with the load, 3 tons worth, and backs up to the loading dock, parks and comes in to tell me 'unload and stack it in the warehouse'.
First time to do this for me, so I looked for the best two wheel hand truck we had, an ancient thing made of oak and iron. So I roll it to the dock and leave it to go onto the truck bed (3 tons of lime doesn't take much room when it's in 50lb bags. It was pretty easy to shift one to the hand truck and before long I had 12 bags on it. Then I tried to move it. Not happening.
I flopped and flung myself on those handles trying to get it to lean over, but nope. Solid. Now I weighed maybe 130lb then and getting that thing to move wasn't in the cards. I had put 600lbs on it. So I unloaded it to half and got it to move. Stacked that, came back and got the other half on the hand truck. Ok, it was easy so I repeated the procedure.
I was about half done when Guy#3 came out and told me to "stop! stop! stop!". I thought I'd messed up bad from how excited he was. Then he told me to look at the front tires on the flatbed. They were about 12" off the ground. The back end of the bed was under the loading dock bumper and as I removed the load, the truck springs were raising up the bed. Once it touched the bumper it stopped and, the entire truck frame pivoting on the rear axle, the front end was getting lift instead. A lever and a fulcrum indeed.
I had to reload the truck with enough weight to to drop the bed below the bumper before the truck could move. Guy#3 moved it out a few inches and I got to start over again. I think in total I must have moved 5 tons before I was done. Talk about a tired puppy that night. a
The business had a 3 ton flatbed truck to do pickups and deliveries. One week we needed more dry slaked lime, supplies were low. So the #3 guy gets to go pick up a load from the local plant. He comes back with the load, 3 tons worth, and backs up to the loading dock, parks and comes in to tell me 'unload and stack it in the warehouse'.
First time to do this for me, so I looked for the best two wheel hand truck we had, an ancient thing made of oak and iron. So I roll it to the dock and leave it to go onto the truck bed (3 tons of lime doesn't take much room when it's in 50lb bags. It was pretty easy to shift one to the hand truck and before long I had 12 bags on it. Then I tried to move it. Not happening.
I flopped and flung myself on those handles trying to get it to lean over, but nope. Solid. Now I weighed maybe 130lb then and getting that thing to move wasn't in the cards. I had put 600lbs on it. So I unloaded it to half and got it to move. Stacked that, came back and got the other half on the hand truck. Ok, it was easy so I repeated the procedure.
I was about half done when Guy#3 came out and told me to "stop! stop! stop!". I thought I'd messed up bad from how excited he was. Then he told me to look at the front tires on the flatbed. They were about 12" off the ground. The back end of the bed was under the loading dock bumper and as I removed the load, the truck springs were raising up the bed. Once it touched the bumper it stopped and, the entire truck frame pivoting on the rear axle, the front end was getting lift instead. A lever and a fulcrum indeed.
I had to reload the truck with enough weight to to drop the bed below the bumper before the truck could move. Guy#3 moved it out a few inches and I got to start over again. I think in total I must have moved 5 tons before I was done. Talk about a tired puppy that night. a