Here at Automology, we love cars. Good cars, that is. But we also love the strange stuff—stuff that may have been forgotten by history, stuff that is just too weird for us to completely forget. Here are some of the weird stuff that I have collected over the past year or so…
Lady Norman’s Motorized Scooter
So, motorized scooters are not a recent invention then. Back in 1916, as the First World War raged across the channel, Lady Florence Norman was using her petrol-powered scooter to get to work in London.
Gas Powered Roller Skates
Pictured above is Mike Dreschler, who seemed to think that strapping a one-horsepower air-cooled petrol engine to your back and roller skates to your feet was a great way to get around Hartford in Connecticut. Back in 1962, Mike controlled the speed with the accelerator in his right hand.
An Early Attempt at Fuel Efficiency, the Dynasphere.
Built in 1932 by a Dr Archibald Purves who believed that a single wheel would be more efficient than four. Seeing as the beastie never took off, I am guessing that there were some stability problems with the design.
Even Back in the 1930s, Chicago had Parking Problems.
Just like today, big cities back in the 1930s had parking problems. In Downtown Chicago, the vertical car park was born. The design was actually just a large Ferris wheel with ample spaces to park on. The basic design can still be found in use around the world.
A President Endorses a Car and Pranks his Friends.
Apparently, President Lyndon Johnson was an avid fan of the Amphicar when it arrived in 1961. According to legend, he enjoyed pranking his friends pretending his brakes had failed as he ‘hurtled’ down the slipway into the lake before he told them that the car was also a boat.
Heat Wave, Let’s Have a Mobile Swimming Pool.
Called the Swimmobile, this was a local government initiative in New York in the 1960s. City Workers would drive the Swimmobile to underprivileged neighbourhoods where the kids did not have access to summer activities.
Rhino 1, an ATV to Replace the Tank.
The Rhino was envisioned to be the All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) of the future. Described in 1954 as having the stability of a bulldozer with the speed of a car, the Rhino was built to have serious off-road capability. Obviously, the military did not agree with the billing and now the Rhino is just a footnote in history.
The World’s First Motorized Traffic Fatality.
Bridget Driscoll is officially listed as the first person to be killed by a car. The event happened in 1869 (note: before Benz invented the Car) in Britain when the unfortunate victim, aged 44 at the time of the accident, stepped in front of the vehicle travelling at “tremendous” pace and driven by Arthur Edsall. Now, the vehicle was most likely travelling between 4 and 8 miles per hour as in those days, all cars had the speed restricted.
L’oeuf Electrique.
Designed and built by Paul Arzens in 1942, the vehicle never went into production, which is a shame because it truly is weird and wonderful-looking. The name literally means “electric egg” and was supposed to be what the designer believed the future of cars would be.
The First Person to Go Over Niagara Falls in a Barrel and Survive.
Okay, so this one is not really automotive but it just leaves me with so many questions. So, on her 63rd birthday, a school teacher by the name of Annie Edson Taylor jumped into a barrel with a pillow, had her friends compress the air inside the barrel with a bicycle pump and then seal her in. She was then pushed out into a raging river and succeeded in going over Niagara Falls and not being smashed to death at the bottom. Why? Just what would possess anyone to take such a ridiculous risk? We may never know.
