By Nationaal Archief – [https://www.flickr.com/photos/29998366@N02/4193508328/ E nwielige motorfiets / One wheel motor cycle]Uploaded by kalatorul, No restrictions, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9447435
Some inventions make you wonder: Did they really think this was a good idea?
Meet the monowheel – a vehicle so strange and so bold that it put the driver inside the wheel instead of on top of it.
Yes, inside.
Imagine sitting in a tiny seat surrounded by a massive spinning circle, praying that physics is on your side.
When the wheel became the world
By book author J. T. Goddard; illustrator unknown – Losslessly cropped from Google’s scan of The velocipede: its history, varieties, and practice; author: J. T. Goddard; publisher: Hurd and Houghton; location: New York; OCLC:12320845 OCOLC: 659342545, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19219637
The first monowheels appeared in the 19th century, when inventors were obsessed with doing everything differently.
In 1869, French inventor Ernest Godin patented a “single-track rolling machine,” the ancestor of all future monowheels.
Soon after, curious minds in England, Germany, and Italy started building their own versions.
The result looked like something between a bicycle and a hamster cage: a huge outer wheel, a seat in the center, and pedals or even a small engine to make it move.
It was futuristic, ridiculous and completely mesmerizing.
How it was supposed to work
The idea was simple enough.
The outer wheel rolled forward, while the inner frame (with the rider inside) stayed balanced.
The motion came from pedals, chains, or, later, small engines.
Then reality hit.
At any decent speed, the rider and inner frame started spinning uncontrollably inside the outer wheel – a terrifying phenomenon politely called “gerbilling.”
Yes, that means the driver literally flipped upside down inside the wheel.
And some daredevils reached 60 km/h (about 37 mph) doing it.
The golden age of monowheel madness
In the early 20th century, monowheels became a mix of invention and entertainment.
They appeared in fairs, circuses, and motor shows. Crowds loved them.
They were loud, absurd, and perfectly photogenic.
One of the most famous monowheel daredevils was Mario Morelli from Italy.
In the 1930s, he built a gasoline-powered monowheel with a 2-horsepower engine and claimed speeds of 80 km/h (50 mph).
Watching him ride was like watching a man challenge gravity and lose, gloriously.
When physics said “no”
Monowheels were a triumph of imagination but a disaster of engineering.
Their biggest problems?
- Turning. They didn’t. The wheel just wanted to keep going straight.
- Braking. Try to stop too fast and you’d flip forward – sometimes spectacularly.
- Visibility. The giant ring blocked the rider’s view.
- Balance. Even small bumps sent the whole thing wobbling.
In short: monowheels worked beautifully in drawings, terribly on roads.
So, they never went into production.
A comeback – sort of
By Postdlf, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15979895
But the idea didn’t die.
It just evolved.
Today, the word monowheel lives on in electric unicycles and gyro-stabilized scooters.
The concept is the same – one wheel, one rider – but now computers and sensors handle the balance.
Modern monowheels can go up to 70 km/h (45 mph), run for dozens of kilometers, and actually look pretty cool.
The dream of one wheel didn’t fail – it just needed a few decades of progress and a microchip.
Why we love crazy ideas like this
Maybe because they remind us that imagination comes before logic.
Every inventor who built a monowheel knew it was risky – but they tried anyway.
That mix of madness and curiosity is what drives progress.
You fall, you flip, you fail and then you try again, but smarter.
Monowheel is proof that every “stupid idea” has a bit of genius in it.
Reflection
The monowheel was never practical.
It was never safe.
But it was unforgettable.
It showed what happens when humans refuse to stay within the lines – when we look at something as simple as a wheel and think, “What if I sit inside it?”
That spirit is what keeps us inventing.
And maybe, that’s what makes us human.
👉 Want more? Read the next story — “Dymaxion Car – The Three-Wheeled Dream That Crashed Into Reality.”
The futuristic car that looked like a zeppelin on wheels — brilliant, bizarre, and doomed from the start.