[Anonymouse]

Ahem.

I didn't fix something so much as solve it, to wit: my sister needed her defunct washing machine taken out of the fitted unit built around it, but she couldn't move it. Thinking (correctly, as it turned out) I might be able to help, I went round to hers.

The washer turned out to be fitting very snugly, but I discovered it could be tilted backwards, so it wasn't secured inside the unit as she'd feared. But even with nonslip gloves I couldn't move it, either. Washers are hard to grip, being smooth and all that, and there was no space at all on either side. Plus the washer's feet seemed to be catching on the stone-tiled floor, so it just would not slide forward. The problem, I surmised, was mechanical advantage - ironically, if I'd been at work I'd have had the ideal tool, i.e. a sack truck...but of course my sister certainly didn't have one of those.

Then it hit me: The Egyptian Solution!

This is a method I once used to move an entire freestanding bookcase (designed and built out of chipboard by yours truly!) without unstacking it first: get something under it to serve as a roller and thus give you mechanical advantage, just as the Egyptians did with those massive blocks they carved to build the pyramids.

In this case, a rolling pin did the job nicely. With that in place I could pull the washer out enough to reach in behind it and pull the beggar out. Simples! Who says history isn't important?

Behold the power of applied physics and human ingenuity!