Monk's excellent "centrifugal bucket method" (Jun 04 2004) was the inspiration for this idea:
So imagine a yoke that is an arch. You only have to bend your knees
slightly to put your shoulder under the top of the arch. The arch is
free-standing, because it has T-Shaped feet set perpendicular
to the
arch. There's a notch on the inside curve for your shoulder.
The yoke is made of hollow plastic, and holds five gallons of water.
A hollow tube runs from each end of the arch to close to the top of
the arch, and ends in a funnel which is a little higher than the top of
the arch. This is both the fill and pour spout.
Once the arch is filled, you simply get a shoulder under it and
straighten up. Now you can carry it wherever you want with a
minimum of slosh and no knee-knocking.
When you set it down, you simply lean forward to tilt it, and the
water pours out of the spout.
Since the arch is made of moulded plastic, other versions could be
easily made, such as a traditional two-shouldered design.
Also, the arch can be treated like any other container:
It could be pressurized for spraying plants, possible with a foot pedal
on one end of the arch.
It could be made much smaller for ladies and smaller people, or
larger for really strong people.
It could be designed to stack (all one size) or nest (5 gallon to 10
gallon in one-gallon increments).