1924 year. Motorway near the National Stadium in Rome. And what is it that is moving along it? A huge wheel driven by a motorcycle engine, and in it sits a driver who is clearly indifferent to the danger of flying out of it like a stone from a sling! In the hands of an ordinary car steering wheel (isn’t it amazing ?!), and feet on the car pedals. At each turn, the driver's body tilts along with the wheel to one side, then the other, but finally, there is a stop. The driver simply puts his feet on the ground, showing everyone that this is how you can prevent him from rolling over, and it's … worth it!
The driver of this unusual vehicle was David Jislaghi, an officer of the Italian motorcycle troops from Milan. Obsessed with the idea that one big wheel is better than two small ones, he built a one-wheeled motorcycle and began to ride it around to show its merits by personal example.
His unicycle, which the inventor himself calls "velosita", then "motomot", has only one moving part - a large pneumatic tire, put on an inner steel rim. On the outer surface of the rim there are rollers that support the movement of the tire. There is also a drive roller driven by the power of the motor. It is pressed against the rim of the tire and makes it rotate around the rim that is stationary. Well, the driver does not turn with the wheel, because the weight of the engine and fuel is added to his weight, and all these weights are located below the center of gravity of the wheel, which gives him greater stability.
None of the inventor's colleagues believed in his car, and he made a bet that he would get on it from Milan to Rome, and then go to Paris and … he got to Rome!
This is how the American magazine Popular Science wrote about this invention of the Italian officer, while at the end it was added that this vehicle had excellent prospects. However, it was only a stretch to say that it was really an invention. The unicycle, a vehicle with an offset center of gravity and one wheel, was known long before this rally from Milan to Rome! Monocycles, still with a conventional pedal drive, became quite popular in the 60s of the XIX century, along with the "spider" bicycle.
Well, then in the April 1914 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine there was a story about a strange apparatus in the form of a large wheel, but with … a propeller like an airplane and with a rotary engine. It was installed on a long frame that went through the entire car (it also had the driver's seat!), And on the back there was also a counterweight weight that balances the weight of the engine. Four "legs", two in front and two in the back, did not allow this country to roll over or fall forward or backward. Despite its strange appearance, it was quite efficient. In 1917, they still managed to embody this design in metal, but there was little sense from it. "We played and quit!"
1917 year. The First World War, and again on the cover of the Popular Science magazine there appears a completely inconsistent creation - a "two-wheeled unicycle", which no longer has one wheel, but two - a small front and rear well, just very large, and the driver's seat is located at the rear. It is clear that out of the blue, for example, on a highway, this "car" would still show itself. But on a battlefield pitted with shell craters, she would immediately have fallen to one side! How could it be stored? Which "stall"? And what would happen to the driver if he fell with this device? Yes, it turns out, coming up with an original apparatus - and adding - drawing it - is one thing! But making it work in such a way is quite another! But … this strange "device" was drawn beautifully, to be sure, and, of course, served the development of imagination and fantasy. Well, the soldiers who received such "machines" could only be regretted!
But for all its obvious delusionalism, the idea of a combat monocycle did not die in the bud, but was thrown up again on the pages of Popular Science magazine in the November 1933 issue. It reported on a certain Italian inventor who made it to England (was it not David Jislaghi?), Drove 280 miles on his unicycle at a speed of 100 km / h on just one gallon of gasoline, and proposes to build on it high speed single … tank! Yes, yes - a tank in the form of a monowheel with two supported wheels at the back and a machine gun for firing forward. The entire space inside the wheel rim was covered with armored caps. According to those who offered this car, it will be very difficult to get into it from the front. Well, and from the sides it will have to be protected by armor. For some reason, none of the would-be inventors of such one-seater "combat mechanisms" could not figure out that a person cannot simultaneously drive a vehicle and fire from a weapon placed on it. Well, and shooting from a place is clearly stupid, since the firing sector of such a vehicle will be very small. But they wrote about this, discussed this topic, as if it was not immediately clear that this idea had no future!
In 1938, a new project appeared - so to speak, probably not by washing, but by skating. Again in the journal Popular Science it was reported that the development of … a tank-sphere is in full swing in the USA! As you can clearly see from the picture on the cover, it was also a unicycle. So that this sphere could make turns, it was invented to consist of two halves. Moreover, each of them was supplied with embossed lugs and rotated independently of the other. Armament was placed in sponsons on the axes of rotation and in the central part of the tank, which remained stationary during movement. The engine was supposed to be isolated from the crew compartment and to provide it with protection from poisonous gases - that's even how!
After World War II, unicycle from the covers of American magazines immediately disappeared, now our Soviet and then Russian magazines began to write about them, for example, such a popular magazine as Modelist-Constructor. For example, in 1997 it talked about a monocycle - a tricycle - with a drive wheel in front, inside which there was a driver and an engine, and two support wheels at the back, between which there was a platform for cargo or a seat for a passenger. The project from the 2011 magazine was also very original - a wheel without a motor, but consisting of a pneumatic tire of a large diameter to roll off the mountains on it!
But there is no hope that such unicycle will flood the streets of our cities, primarily because they are not needed in the city, and in general they are inconvenient. In the countryside … maybe they will remain as an example of the technical ingenuity of enthusiastic home-made enthusiasts. But in science fiction films, these machines have found, one might say, their "second life". For example, a unicycle, rolling along a chute, was shown in the Soviet science fiction film for children "Teens in the Universe". The Americans also paid tribute to this futuristic type of transport, since it all started with them. Watching Star Wars. Episode III: Revenge of the Sith "- General Grievous escapes from Obi-Wan on just such a monocycle, and many of the combat vehicles in the episode" The Clone Wars "are also monocycles. They are also in the movie "Men in Black 3". And although this is not real life, but works of the genre of film science fiction, monocycles still exist!
However, no, there is something that is quite consistent with the idea of a monocycle and that, again, first appeared on a magazine cover. Beach squirrel wheel! Two float wheels, and between them a tubular structure with paddle blades, inside which there is a person. And then everything happens, as with a squirrel: a person moves inside such a wheel, and it turns, and the device itself floats on the water due to this. Interestingly, on the beaches today something similar has already appeared, so at least this way the idea of a unicycle has nevertheless found its embodiment.
