M o n o w h e e l s.

THE FIRST MONOWHEEL PATENT: BERGNER, 1869

Above: The first known patent for a monowheel. This is USA patent 91,510; Greene & Dyer's patent is 91.535 so Bergner only just squeaked in ahead of them. Note the very wide dual-rim wheel, which would appear to make "steering by body movements" a rather tricky proposition. There is no information as to whether this design was actually constructed. A most interesting point is that Bergner states that monowheels had already been in use before this date, which implies that the Rousseau monowheel above was not the first. Perhaps there is a legion of lost monowheels... a poignant thought. Image & info kindly provided by Stephen Ransom.

THE HARPER MONOWHEEL

The monowheel cycle of Lewis H. Harper, from McHught, Minnesota. Date currently unknown. This machine was exhibited in a velo exhibition in England and achieved a then unheard of speed of 30 miles an hour. Harper won a prize in England and proudly returned to his native country to demonstrate his invention. But at his first public appearance in the United States, the bicycle crashed, injuring its inventor severely. Propulsion was by pedal drive to the lower inner wheel. This design looks suspiciously similiar to the Rousseau monowheel above. Had Mr Harper been to Marseilles? Image & info kindly provided by Ian Bennett.

The monocycle which was ridden by Harper in England probably should be credited to Friedrich Langmaak and Peter Streiff. Apparently this monowheel was displayed on the stand of G.H. Strong at an exhibition of machinery held in San Francisco in 1886.

Info kindly provided by Stephen Ransom.

THE HEMMINGS MONOWHEEL

This monowheel design was patented by Richard C Hemmings of New Haven, Connecticut in 1869. This design is unusual as it appears to be hand-propelled; not a good choice as our leg muscles have much greater power. Possibly the legs are contributing; the drawing seems to show the feet on treadles, but they don't appear to be connected to anything. The rider is protected from the weather by an awning J. Whether this machine was ever built is unknown. US Patent No 92,528

THE GAUTHIER MONOWHEEL

A French monowheel: the design of M. Gauthier. Post 1881. This design has eight spokes and a wheel of 2 metres diameter. The picture apparently shows the machine with one side removed, but this by no means certain. The accompanying text seems to imply that there were spokes on one side only, offset so that the rider's CG came above the wheel tread. This picture was originally published in the French scientific journal La Nature at some date after October 1881. The text stated that this sort of monowheel, with the rider inside the wheel, was not new, and despite the improvements of M Gauthier remained "impracticable for ordinary mortals" because of the difficulty of balancing without the front-back stability provided by the two wheels of a bicycle. Having tried a monowheel myself, I can verify that this is true. Picture courtesy of Henk Schuurih.

HARPER'S MONOWHEEL: 1892.

Harper's monowheel: around 1892. A monowheel with six spokes and some very complicated bracing around the periphery of the wheel. The widely-spaced spokes would allow the rider to get in and out relatively easily. Whether this machine was ever built is unknown. My original source described this as "a design for a French military monowheel", but I have since found the same picture in Scientific American for 1894, where it is described as "Harper's Unicycle" implying American origin, and there is now no doubt that this invention was the brainchild of Lewis W Harper of Minnesota. This is almost certainly the same Harper referred to above. Note that the drive is transmitted from crank shaft to big wheel by vertical shafts and bevel gearing. Picture courtesy of Ian Bennet.