Our "Future Tech" contributing writer Paul Schilperoord, whose recent book on "exciting innovations in transportation" you can order here, showcases today the various mono-wheel ideas, covering their development till the 1930s - modern ones will be featured in Part 2. Most of the images (plus a good deal of great info) courtesy of Douglas Self, used by permission.
One wheel is all you really need?
How would you like to spend your hours in traffic caged inside a giant wheel?
Maybe this is why these vehicles never caught on as serious transportation, but the bizarre concept of the monowheel has captivated engineers for almost a century and a half.
Swiss engineer Mr. Gerdes astride/inside his one-wheel motorcycle, 1931
See Chinese Military in modern times enjoying monowheels (presumably for balance training, but maybe simply... for fun?) -
Monowheel is popular for travel between remote Russian villages:
Some outlandish mono-wheel concepts from 1925 "Science & Invention" and "The Electrical Experimenter" in 1918:
Wacky time of Victorian experimentation
Back in the 1860s, bicycle design was by no means uniform. Engineers were still widely experimenting with Velocipedes and bicycles, tricycles and quadricycles powered by pedals, treadles or hand-cranks. It was in that wacky time that the idea of the even wackier monowheel was born; a vehicle with one large wheel with the rider and drive-system inside its circumference.
Rousseau of Marseilles wheel; right - The Jackson Monowheel: both are from 1869
Just like other human-powered road vehicles of the time, early monowheels are powered either by pedals with a friction-transmission onto the outer wheel or hand-cranks directly connected to the wheel axle. There was also one idea of a horse-drawn monowheel:
But who was first? Patent research shows there was some pretty fierce rivalry going on. Georg Bergner from Washington, Missouri managed to get to the patent office with his ‘Monocycle’ design just hours before Allen Greene and Elisha Dyer from Providence, Rhode Island showed up with theirs on that summer’s day of June 22, 1869. And there was even a third American monowheel patented that year by Richard C. Hemmings from New Haven, Connecticut.
All three of these monowheels are hand-cranked, only the Greene & Dryer patent has a number of bulging wheel spokes which make it quite an acrobatic manoeuvre to get into the contraption, while two support struts stop it from falling over. That year also saw the introduction of two further pedal-driven monowheels in France, followed by several similar machines in the 1880s and 1890s.
The Greene & Dyer Monowheel: 1869
Lewis Harper, unknown date for this concept; right - wheel by Richard Hemmings, 1869
Become your own gerbil
Now you need just one good look at a monowheel to spot some of the dangers involved: keeping the damned thing in balance is difficult enough, not to mention the danger of rotating along inside the wheel during quick acceleration or braking. The latter effect is also known as ‘gerbling’, but was not a serious problem until the motorization of the monowheel.
So no, in case you are wondering, neither the introduction of the highly sensible Safety Bicycle – characterized by having two wheels of identical, or nearly identical size and a chain-driven rear wheel – or the motorcycle in the mid-1880s stopped monowheel inventors:
M. Gauthier's wheel, 1881; right - Harper's monowheel: around 1892.
The first motorized monowheel
Although the motorcycle had already been invented in 1885, it took another two decades for the first inventor to fit an engine to a monowheel. The first motorized monowheel seems to be the Italian Garavaglia machine, shown at the Milan Exposition by the House of Garavaglia in 1904. The driver in the photograph sits relaxed in his stool with the steering wheel in his hand, but the whole display seems to be balanced by a smaller stabiliser wheel on the side.
A second, slightly better design for motorized monowheel appeared in France made by Erich Edison-Puton in 1910 and powered by a 150 cc single-cylinder De Dion engine of 3.5 hp. Here the driver sits inside the wheel more like the position on a normal motorcycle.
Garavaglia Machine, 1904; right - Erich Edison-Puton in 1910
A propeller-driven monowheel
As if the concept of the (motorized) monowheel itself was not dangerous enough, American inventor Clinton T. Coates got the ‘brilliant’ idea of fitting propeller-drive to one. His design, patented in 1911, features a monowheel with a push propeller at the back. The advantage of this arrangement, however, is that the propeller always pulls or pushes the wheel forwards, without relying on the weight of the rider and engine to provide reaction. There is therefore no possibility of gerbilling due to incautious acceleration, but it could still happen during braking.
The D'Harlingue Monowheel, 1917; right top - Popular Mechanics 1914; right bottom - The Coates Monowheel, 1912
Within the next few years, Alfred E. D’Harlingue – also from St. Louis – actually built a propeller-driven monowheel, which appeared on the cover of Popular Mechanics magazine in 1914. His design, however, features a front-propeller fitted directly onto the engine that can be swivelled for steering. The engine steering mechanism is fitted onto a backbone chassis running to a contra weight at the back. The driver sits quite high from the ground and almost upright with the tubular chassis running between his legs.
"Gerbilling" is counter-effected by two small wheels at the back and two spikes at the front, which also protect the propeller blade, but seem more like a recipe for disaster than a safety measure should the entire apparatus rotate forward at high speed and the spikes bore themselves into the ground.
In 1915 D’Harlingue also patented a propeller-driven monowheel with the engine in the centre of the wheel, driving a front-mounted propeller via chain-drive and the driver sitting on a seat behind and outside of the large wheel.
A New Terror of the Road
“A New Terror of the Road”, headlined the February 1923 issue of Everyday Science & Radio News. No, this was not a reference to the propeller-driven machine by D’Harlingue: on the front cover was a monstrous monowheel creation by a Professor E.J. Christie of Marion, Ohio.
According to the article, this machine had a centre wheel with a diameter of 14 feet with smaller ‘gyro wheels’ on either side weighing some 500 pounds each. The centre wheel was powered by a 250 hp airplane engine, which Christie hoped would give this “Mother of all monowheels” a top speed between 250 and 400 kph. Although the front cover of Popular Science Monthly from April 1923 depicted it on a racing track, we have no idea what ever happened to Professor Christie.
on the right - "Everyday Science & Radio News" for Feb 1923
Across Europe on a Monowheel!
The 1920s, however, also saw the introduction of a few more ‘sensible’ motorized monowheels, which were really aimed as useable one-wheeled motorcycles. One of these was the mid-1920s Italian Motorouta that was actually produced in limited numbers. According to an advertisement of the time this machine had a 175 cc engine coupled to a 3-speed gearbox. It must have worked reasonably well, since a Swiss engineer by the name of Gerdes set of with a Motorouta machine for a rather grand trip from Switzerland to Spain in 1931. We know that he made it to Arles in the south of France, but whether he ever reached Spain is unclear.
"Motorouta"; right - Davide Cislaghi wheel, 1923
"Dynosphere" for the geek driver in all of us
Another fascinating chapter in monowheel history was written by a chap called Dr. John Archibald Purves from England, who seriously believed that one huge wheel encompassing five passengers was far more efficient than a car with four (smaller) wheels. In 1932, Purves designed the remarkable Dynosphere.
This monowheel differed from other designs in various ways. For one, it was wide enough to stand up by itself, without the need of continuous and rather tricky balancing. The outside of the wheel was part of the surface of a sphere, so that it did not touch the ground over its entire width and could be tilted sideways for steering. The outside consisted of a metal framework, so that the driver could look through the openings in the wheel frame.
(pictures provided by David Worth and Tom Anable)
Purves built a few different prototypes that were either petrol-driven or electrically powered. These machines were tested on the beach at Brean Sands and at Brooklands racing track. A short surviving film clip of the latter shows the difficulty in making a smooth ride – even at fairly constant speed – without the occupants gerbilling back and forth inside the wheel. It has even said to have knocked someone over during this test-run because of the inadequate stering system. The project was soon abandoned after that. The last known news from the project was a finished model of a five-seating Dynosphere with an enclosed glassed-in cabin, complete with bumpers and headlights.
The 1930s saw a couple more unsuccessful monowheels, including the Monowheel Tank Project that never progressed beyond the drawing board, after which it was quiet for decades, when the monowheel made a come-back.
This is only Part 1, the nex will cover the rest of weird mono-wheel vehicles from 1930s to our days, and in the possible follow-ups we will also show some weirdest two-wheels known to man:
Here is, for example, pretty modern Mono-Wheel by Ben Wison (more info) -
Now if only someone could figure out a way to attach four of these things together with some kind of carriage in the middle ... now THAT would be something.
Have you checked out the Bombardier company's concept unicycle? Hydrogen cell for power, anime styling. Good pictures at http://www.gearbits.com/archives/000336.html
I can't imagine who would want to live in a place like that. You would never own your bit, only rent it, and you couldn't do anything serious to personalize it. Talk about the Neighborhood Association from Hell. Of course, I wouldn't mind if large numbers of other people went to live in one and left the real land open for people who appreciate it.
I highly recommend anyone interested in it to do check out arcosanti if they find themselves north of phoenix.
Sure, the project has mostly stalled in a larger sense, but is still self supporting. One thing the pics don't capture is the experience of being in those buildings, very unique, and very refreshing in a sense. It was early summer when I visited, very hot out, and yet quite cool and comfortable inside, without any AC on. The internal distribution of thermal energy and movement of air felt much more fresh and alive than the artificial cold tomb-like experience of most of Phoenix's large buildings that time of year.
Aesthetics aside, Soleri has a gift for creating true living spaces.
Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket... Having an entire city in one structure leaves the entire population very vulnerable to a variety of disasters: fire, epidemic, power failures, enemy or terrorist attack, etc., not to mention the attendant problems of utilities, waste disposal, emergency evacuation, and maintenance. Some ideas look a lot better on paper than in reality.
They aren't such a clever idea, 1 million people crammed in, what if a bomb goes off in a very important place, you could have up to 1 million casualties!
I've always thought that Solari's megacities were to some extant a reactin to Frank Loyd Wright's Broadacre City; a vison of continent ecompassing sprawl. PT: actually his vision was a bit more heterogenous. The exteriors aren't very uniform because building really only provides a concrete slab and basic infrastructure. Everything else would be built by the individual "condo-owner."
These are all grand ideas that lead to something bigger. While the concerns raised by the commenters here are all valid, these represent the first step in being able to colonize other worlds once they are determined to be able to sustain life, or we have developed the capacity to make other worlds sustain life.
Arcologies like this provide us with an opportunity, built on Earth, to discover the flaws, problems, logistical hurdles and potentials for disaster that exist in the designs prior to building them in space and sending them, fully loaded, to another world, or building them on that world. If they can be made stable in an environment that is already relatively stable, they have passed the first step towards being able to support human life elsewhere in the universe. It is only a few more baby steps to design them in such a way as to be able to survive elsewhere and/or travel there under their own power and land safely.
To those who dismissed the idea's based on fear filled sentiments, I am profoundly sorry. A bomb can cause 1 million casualties due to the close proximity of the living quarters? Damn, all it takes is a bigger bomb, which you know each country is always developing and the benefits of being spread out are lost, and the cons are all thats left. Destruction of natural ecosystems around the entire world have been destroyed based on people wanting to own "their" piece. At least with arcologys nature has a better chance of surviving. And humans still just have human problems, like thinking you need more than you have. Americans wake up to the world your part of please.
Another cult complete with a saintly founder who enjoys his own opulent private quarters (with desert swimming pool) while his acolytes do all the drudgery trying to get his unwieldy designs to work.
He nowadays passes his time making styrofoam models for the trademark wind chimes. Incidentally, his eco-friendly minions directly invest molten metal into the styrofoam sending gouts of poisonous black hydrocarbons into the otherwise pristine high-desert skies.
"Thinking globally but acting locally." What a crock!
Mainly someone said this seems like putting all your eggs in one basket - well think about it this way: Earth = One Basket. We need to spread out and this is a logical primer.
Next to the guy who said leave land to the people who appreciate it. The point of this is to give everyone the opportunity to appreciate land not divide it up and fence it off and 'customize' it.
There will never be enough land to go around and some of the best land is taken by people who assume they have a right to keep it from everyone else.
There's a candidate for the Darwin Award in the first picture of the wheelbarrow BBQ!
First, the heat of the fire will most likely cause the wood frame to start smoldering or burst into flames. Second, the wheelbarrow is not stable and is likely to tip over. But the worst offense is the uncapped gas can in the background...
The clip belongs to the film Animals are beautiful people, from the same director of TGMBC. It's a great film, but it's been known for a while that this scene and several others were actually staged and/or manipulated for dramatic effect.
The American Eagle is the remains of an F-104 Starfighter fuselage, an aircraft which was also powered by a J-79. What? No-one is impressed by a fact a brief google search would have revealed? Fine, be glad we're living in the future, rather than in the book-laden, internet-free past.
Thank you for publishing my pic and linking to my photo blog.
But you got a couple of things wrong. The village is called "Planina v Lazu" and the mountain on the right looking down on it is "Slatna". The picture was taken from "Prvi Vogel" which is 2181m high.
Thanks again and be sure to check out more pics on my blog.
Aircraft carrier looks like its coming into port everglades, in Ft. Lauderdale. FL. They used to have the air and sea show every may and before/after the event the boats/subs/aircraft carries parked in Ft. Lauderdale Harbor...seriously cool
The squirrel drinking a Guinness gif is taken from a longer Guinness commercial called "Dream On", which may be found here: http://www.spike.com/video/guinness-dream-club/2444983
The weird arm-flapping guy on the third animated gif is Andre van Duin, a dutch commedian. This clip is from very early in his carreer. I think he is like 60 jears old now, while in the clip he must be in his early 20's.
Thank you! Some days I get so involved in my own silly problems; in the little life I'm living (and feel is just SO important!) that I forget what an amazing, beautiful world with which God has blessed me. Thanks for the reminder to look around...
The pictures from holland aren't actually spiderwebs, but rather a protective covering created by caterpillars. They can cover entire trees and bushes in a dense white webbing to protect themselves from predators.
Camel spiders are so named because they can jump to the height of a camel's belly, and draw blood from them directly. That is scary, I don't care who you are.
Gorgeous photos! Spiders absolutely fascinate me. My avatar is actually a picture I took of a Golden Orb Weaver on her web in our backyard. Orb webs are the prettiest, but also pretty are the sheetlike webs that the Funnel Spider makes. We currently have a Funnel Spider living near the frontdoor of our house that is starting to build a sheet, and it's slowly getting bigger. We won't be taking it down anytime soon. Our house is a spider-friendly area. :P Two years ago, we had a funnel spider build a sheet that covered half of our front door! Let's just say it made for a very interesting conversation piece. :P
Wow...don't usually post stuff but these are beautiful!!! I'm inspired to find some webs and try this myself now...my house is also spider friendly...they are all called fred (for the boys) and of course Charlotte (for the girls)!!:)
an order of instinct prevails through all accidents of circumstance, though possibility is high along the peripheries of spider webs: you can go all around the fringing attachments
and find disorder ripe, entropy rich, high levels of random, numerous occasions of accident:
2) the possible settings of a web are infinite:
how does the spider keep identity while creating the web in a particular place?
how and to what extent and by what modes of chemistry and control?
it is wonderful how things work: I will tell you about it because
it is interesting and because whatever is moves in weeds and stars and spider webs and known is loved: in that love, each of us knowing it, I love you,
for it moves within and beyond us, sizzles in to winter grasses, darts and hangs with bumblebees by summer windowsills:
I will show you the underlying that takes no image to itself, cannot be shown or said, but weaves in and out of moons and bladderweeds, is all and beyond destruction because created fully in no particular form:
if the web were perfectly pre-set, the spider could never find a perfect place to set it in: and
if the web were perfectly adaptable, if freedom and possibility were without limit, the web would lose its special identity:
the row-strung garden web keeps order at the center where space is freest (intersecting that the freest "medium" should accept the firmest order)
and that order diminishes toward the periphery allowing at the points of contact entropy equal to entropy.
Not quite as beautiful as natural spider webs but look at this to see an amazing piece of art made from led lighting & thousands of crysals. http://www.flickr.com/photos/liverpoolbiennial/2892056332/in/set-72157607535470041/
I just wanted to say that I appreciate that none of these photos contained the actual spiders. While I find spiderwebs beautiful and fascinating, their creators scare the bejeezus out of me >.<.
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17 Comments:
Must be a mess in the wet.
And where's general grievous' from the revenge of the sith? Now that was a monowheel!
awesome. you dig up the craziest stuff. i love you daily!
FYI, the Chinese monowheels at the top were probably the ones used in the Olympic closing ceremony.
This also implies the artists during those ceremonies could've been soldiers? Strange.
There was also a steam-powered monowheel in the Japanese Anime, Steamboy.
actually they are the vehicles used in the closing.
and yes, those are soldiers.
they are the artistic section of the military.
almost every military has one.
Great post..!
lots more interesting monowheels here!
http://thenewcaferacersociety.blogspot.com/search/label/monowheels
*wonders why they didn't show mr. garrison's IT*
Now if only someone could figure out a way to attach four of these things together with some kind of carriage in the middle ... now THAT would be something.
Have you checked out the Bombardier company's concept unicycle? Hydrogen cell for power, anime styling. Good pictures at http://www.gearbits.com/archives/000336.html
amoeba - thanks, love your nick
great info everybody, thanks, will use in next part
feng - this is very visual... i can see it oh so clearly :0
Well you did leave of the segway and the single wheel battery motorcycle.
You know those Chinese mono wheels might have been for the Olympic ceremonies, they look the right size.
There's a life size model of a monowheel high-tech (likely conceptual) racer at Johnson Space Centre in Texas.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bjacques/2233110072/sizes/l/
Thank you Gaz, will go into the next part
These are seriously sexy! I love it!
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Sweet monowheel goodness! I must find one and drive it now.
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