The product of the fertile imagination of a Professor E. J. Christie, this gyroscopic unicycle was supposedly capable of speeds of up to 400 miles per hour, although at the time of an article from the April, 1923 issue of Popular Science it had yet to be tested. This monster was 14 feet tall, weighed 2,400 pounds and used an airplane engine for power. See more photos including the patent drawings @ http://theoldmotor.com/?p=76326
How do you stop it from 400 m.p.h?
Holy Cow! If you wrecked on that thing it would slice you up like a cheese knife! How the heck do you keep it balanced? I wonder if he fell to one side at a high rate of speed if it would spin like a top?
Just a guess here but would the inner wheels (spinning weights) be for steering? I'm thinking braking one or the other would have a gyroscopic effect (precessing)causing the big wheel to change direction.
Never mind. Just read theoldmotor article. Duh.
"How do you stop it from 400 m.p.h?"
Chuck.....I don't think it was ever a problem....That was PR hype at the time. We were never able to find any record of it ever of having been run.
As always we have full coverage and also a neat set of patent drawings and more photos all about in the article.
Monowheels or monocycles and alive and maybe not so well today. Here is a video of V8 powered one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4YmVP6i4qw
A bunch of photos and video online.
Jim
I notice it has a model "T" steering wheel