Motoring on One Wheel 



It's kept upright by means of a gyro- 

 scope and is steered by a gyroscope also 



WHILE gyroscopes have been used 

 to prevent ships from rolling and 

 to keep torpedoes on their courses, 

 it has remained for an Iowa inventor to 

 apply the principle to a one-wheeled 

 automobile to maintain its equilibrium 

 in steering. 



In this unusual vehicle, the operator sits 

 above and forward of the center of the 

 wheel, with a one-cylinder gasoline engine 

 at the rear to balance his weight. With 

 the engine behind him, the driver 

 would have to stop every time an ad- 

 justment of the engine parts was necessa- 

 ry, which would not always be convenient. 

 The inventor seems to have neglected to 

 provide some form of folding step to keep 

 the vehicle upright when the gyroscope is 

 not running; but a stand somewhat 

 similar to those used on motorcycles 

 could easily be attached. 



The drive from the one-cylinder gaso- 

 line engine to a sprocket on the pneumatic 

 tired wheel is by means of a chain, like 

 that used in motorcycle practice. The 

 vehicle is less flexible than a motorcycle, 

 however, since it has no 

 form of speed-changing 

 mechanism and must 

 rely on a slipping cone 

 clutch or spark and 

 throttle control to give 

 any desired speed 

 changes. 



The steering gyro- 

 scope is supported on 

 two bell-crank levers, 

 one on either side of the 

 seat. When it is desired 

 to steer the car to the 

 right, the right-hand 

 lever is pulled backward 

 so that the gyroscope 

 case is lifted up off the 

 left lever support. The 

 precessional movement 

 in evidence will cause 

 the machine to turn to 

 the right until the gyro- 

 scope and its case is 

 allowed to drop so that 



You can 

 swing a - 

 round cor- 

 ners easily on 

 this machine 



Gyroscope 

 steering lever 



Spark control 



Gas control 



The machine has but one wheel, 

 which supports, on four forks, a 

 platform carrying an operator's 

 seat at the front and a one- 

 cylinder motorcycle engine at 

 the rear. The platform houses 

 a balancing gyroscope mount- 

 ed on a vertical shaft and run in 

 vacuum by an electric motor 



it is supported equally on both lever arms. 

 Both gyroscopes are mounted in vacu- 

 um cases, and are driven by current from 

 a small storage battery carried on the 

 frame supporting the seat, and between 

 the seat and the gasoline engine. Whether 

 or not the weight of the storage battery 

 would seriously affect the economy of 

 such a vehicle, and the distance which 

 f,.^f,i,n,= t.nK could be run without 



charging the battery, 

 the inventor does not 

 state. 



In any event, the in- 

 vention embodies the 

 use of interesting princi- 

 ples. One-wheeled mo- 

 torcycles are always an 

 attractive field for ex- 

 periment and invention. 

 Their number will un- 

 doubtedly increase 

 rapidly. 



Imagine the sensation 

 of racing down the road 

 on a one-wheeled vehi- 

 cle! All the world's 

 ahead, only the one 

 wheel's underneath, and 

 a man's free to career 

 and careen as much as 

 he likes — or more! No 

 wonder inventors ex- 

 periment. 



223 



