Monowheel

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Keith Dufrane on his 2011 Monowheel at the Doo Dah Parade in Columbus, Ohio

A monowheel (mono wheel) is a mostly motorized vehicle with an (outer) wheel. In contrast to a unicycle , you don't sit on the wheel, but in it or offset to the side. The wheel bearing corresponds to that of an orbital wheel .

Nowadays they are mainly driven for entertainment purposes, but during their pioneering days in the 1860s to the 1930s they were considered a potentially serious form of transport.

history

"Flying Yankee Velocipede" with hand drive, patented in 1869

An early monowheel was patented as the "Flying Yankee Velocipede" in 1869 by Richard C. Hemmings in the USA. The wooden construction was hand-operated, with power being transmitted to the 6 to 8 foot outer wheel via cables and a wheel under the seat. Steering was done either by shifting weight or by putting one foot on the ground. There was a plate above the driver's head, which was supposed to protect the clothing from falling mud or water.

At the same time G. Bergner patented a largely comparable construction with a handwheel. Allen Green and Elisha Dyer patented a unicycle in 1869 that differs significantly from the open design of the other two inventors. This vehicle has a set of spokes on both sides that connect the center to the outer wheel. The rider sits inside the spoke construction and drives the unicycle with two hand cranks.

Monowheels were also developed in Europe in 1869. One of them goes back to a French craftsman named Rousseau from Marseille . It was mainly made of metal and had an outside diameter of about 2.3 meters. It is still preserved today and can be seen in the Galbiati Museum in Milan. The pedals were rigidly connected to a smaller wheel inside. This in turn drove the outer wheel. The brake was implemented via the handlebars, whereby the driver pushed the handlebars forward, whereby a belt pressed a lever against the inside of the outer wheel.

Another monowheel manufactured in Europe in 1869 goes back to the company W. Jackson & Co. from Paris. It looks surprisingly modern and is only about 1.65 meters in diameter. It is driven by a pedal rod that was connected to the inner wheel. From February 1869 until the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, the Monowheel was advertised several times in the cycling magazine Le vélocipède illustra at a price of 300 francs. Since numerous other vehicles were also offered at the same time, the Jackson company could be more of a dealer than a manufacturer. A replica is in the Velorama in the Netherlands.

In the 1880s and 1890s, several similar pedal-operated machines followed around the world. Some of them have been shown at exhibitions, some designs are available as patents.

In 1904, during the Expo in Milan, Garavagia presented the first motorized monowheel under the name Petrol Monocycle . A brief description of the demonstration drive can be found in the French magazine "La Vie de l'Automobile", April 23, 1904 issue. Both the driver and the petrol engine are located inside the wheel and are connected to it via ball bearings. The power from the motor to the tire is transmitted directly via a pinion that engages in the toothed rim of the tire.

Motorized Monowheel Goventosa 1931

Another very early motorized monowheel was introduced by the Parisian inventor Edison-Puton in 1910. The vehicle consisted of a wooden wheel over two meters tall. It was powered by an approximately 3.5 hp , single-cylinder De-Dion engine with a displacement of 150 cm 3 . Such a copy is preserved in the Technik-Museum Sinsheim .

In the years 1912 to 1917 several models with propeller drive followed. From 1924, a monowheel was built in which the wheel was tilted slightly at an angle so that the driver had a clear view of the front. Many, mostly motorized, models followed, but none of them really caught on. Kerry McLean builds various monowheels in America, which are also street legal there. Pedal-operated monowheels were also used at the closing ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing .

control

On a two-wheeler, the rear wheel is usually driven while the front wheel is used for steering. With a monowheel, both tasks are performed by one wheel. The steering is done by shifting the driver's weight to one side, whereby the monowheel tilts to this side and drives a curve. Alternatively, the direction can be influenced by contact of a foot with the ground.

Problems

In the event of excessive acceleration or braking, there is a risk of the driver rolling over if the center of gravity is high. The bike can also impair forward visibility.

Web links

Commons : Monowheel  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b J. T. Goddard: The Velocipede: Its History, Varieties, and Practice . Hurd and Houghton, University of Princeton 1869, Hemming's unicycle or "Flying Yankee Velocipede", p. 76-81 ( Google Books ).
  2. ↑ Patent US92528 : Improvement in velocipede. Published July 13, 1869 , inventor: Richard C. Hemmings. ‌
  3. ↑ Patent US91510 : Improvement in velocipede. Published on June 22nd, 1869 , inventor: Georg Bergner. ‌
  4. ↑ Patent US91535 : Improvement in velocipede. Published June 22, 1869 , Inventors: Allen Green, Elisha Dyer. ‌
  5. ^ A b Monowheels: The strange story of vehicles with insufficient wheels. Retrieved May 31, 2016 .
  6. ↑ Patent US325548 : One wheeled vehicle. Registered April 22, 1885 , published September 1, 1885 , inventor: John Otto Lose. ‌
  7. ↑ Achmed Khammas: MUSCLE STRENGTH. In: www.buch-der-synergie.de. Retrieved June 2, 2016 .
  8. ↑ a b Regional Media Austria: Wooden bicycles in the Altmünster Oldtimer Museum. In: mein district.at. Retrieved June 2, 2016 .
  9. ↑ a b c d Monowheels: The story of vehicles with insufficient wheels. Page 2. Accessed June 2, 2016 .
  10. ↑ Kerry McLean Monocycle. In: Adventure Car. Kabel 1, June 4, 2014, accessed June 4, 2016 .
  11. ↑ Jane Jiang: monocycle showed in 2008 Beijing Olympic game ceremony. December 4, 2008, accessed June 4, 2016 .