Looking for a new set of wheels? Try this one for size and forget the other three

Only twelve days ago I was writing about my last visit to the Brooklands Museum before the big lockdown. It feels like a generation ago and it is hard to comprehend the speed at which our freedom to roam and congregate has almost entirely disappeared. Most of us are now in lockdown with no clear end to our incarceration.

After a week of lockdown, however, I think most of us are getting into a routine and trying to make the best of the enforced rest and the ability to concentrate on long-deferred tasks. I’ve concluded that lockdown does have its benefits, including catching up with old friends we may have neglected in recent years.

Although closed, Brooklands is striving to keep up our spirits through the museum’s Twitter feed and I have been amused by all the historic tit-bits coming out of the archives. Try this “remarkable invention in ‘spherical locomotion’ which, it is claimed, will one day revolutionise modern transport”: We’re still waiting but it was fun while it lasted. See the Dynosphere, aka Jumbo, in action at Brooklands below in 1932. The four-seater monowheel was designed in 1930 by Dr J.A.Purves. And just savour those plummy 1930s accents.

You can find many more fascinating newsreel moments at the British Pathé feed on YouTube

Follow Brooklands on Twitter: @BrooklandsMuseu

9 COMMENTS

    • It should park on a sixpence (..as Nubar Gulbenkian said: “..whatever that is”!)

      It’s great that all these old Pathé newsreels are available to watch FOR FREE online!

      I remember (..here he goes again!..) for the cinema’s birthday I ordered a whole roster of films (Carry On Up The Khyber, Apocalypse Now, Black Rain – I think – and many more, plus some old newsreels of Manchester in the 1950s) ..and the old newsreels – about 12 minutes of them – cost more to rent (about £130, or more) than Apocalypse Now, which was only £80! ..So enjoy these online free quirky reels ..I do! ..and broadcasters pay a fortune to include them in nostalgia programmes!

  1. This was replaced, by a large air ball that you roll down hills inside.

    What an epic bit of machinery, just goes to show some futuristic designs, are not really futuristic at all, but a rehash of the past.

    A nice covid vignette.

    • Well, it was just a bit before my time and I haven’t ridden/driven anything quite so unusual. I’ve had my moments, though, particularly when I was a road tester and feature writer for a national motorcycle magazine. Love to try one but I don’t think any survived. There certainly isn’t one in the Brooklands collection.

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