It turns out that all sorts of creative geniuses are working on unicycles. I
went back to the IBM patent server (http://www.patents.ibm.com/ibm.html) and
found a unicycle that can be ridden on the water (assuming that it really
works). I’ve put the patent documents at http://www.unicycling.org/unicycling/
patents/wateruni/.
It looks like there are a bunch of other bizarre unicycle variations at the IBM
Patent Server. I may try to get the rest and put them on the unicycle page.
Beirne
Re: A unicycle for riding on water
Text item:
Beirne wrote:
>It turns out that all sorts of creative geniuses are working on unicycles. I
>went back to the IBM patent server (http://www.patents.ibm.com/ibm.html) and
>found a unicycle that can be ridden on the water (assuming that it really
>works). I’ve put the patent documents at http://www.unicycling.org/unicycling/
>patents/wateruni/.
I checked this one out too. The writing was atrocious! It also reads like an
advertisement. As an editor I could have improved it tremendously by cutting out
at least 2/3 of the text, which repeats itself over and over.
The design has a wheel with a water jet at the bottom. It looks like the rider
would be mostly underwater, at least up to the chest. Therefore, when pedaled,
the wheel would move forward and up, until the rider was nearly on his back
before making any significant movement forward. Real useful.
To see a far more practical water unicycle, look here:
http://www.calweb.com/~unifoss/thingnot/dontdo.htm#26
Not incredibly useful, but probably a lot more fun!
John Foss
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Re: A unicycle for riding on water
> To see a far more practical water unicycle, look here:
>
> http://www.calweb.com/~unifoss/thingnot/dontdo.htm#26
>
> Not incredibly useful, but probably a lot more fun!
I was intrigued by #8 which has a person on a unicycle scuba diving under water.
It seems like a great way to learn… but in my experience salt water will
totally ruin anything mechanical.
Any idea what this person did with the uni afterwards?
Robert Bernstein Santa Barbara, CA rdb@silcom.com
Re: A unicycle for riding on water
Thanks for putting the info about the two patents on the Unicycling homepage. It
was amusing to read about these contraptions. I wonder if there are more patents
related to unicycles…
> It turns out that all sorts of creative geniuses are working on unicycles. I
> went back to the IBM patent server (http://www.patents.ibm.com/ibm.html) and
> found a unicycle that can be ridden on the water (assuming that it really
> works). I’ve put the patent documents at http://www.unicycling.org/unicycling/
> patents/wateruni/.
>
> It looks like there are a bunch of other bizarre unicycle variations at
> the IBM Patent Server. I may try to get the rest and put them on the
> unicycle page.
>
> Beirne
–
Anu Garg agarg@ces.cwru.edu anu@wordsmith.org http://www.wordsmith.org/anu