In 1914, a very entertaining car was shown in London - it was designed for four people, under the hood was a gasoline engine, which was gaining popularity, but there were only two wheels under the car. They were located like a bicycle - longitudinally to the car. But the device did not fall even while standing still and when driving at low speed!
The remarkable mechanism was made by a Russian inventor, Count Pyotr Petrovich Shilovsky. Incidentally, the former governor of Kostroma. Shilovsky did not make a special secret from his device: the balance of his car was provided by an untwisted flywheel, which created the effect of a gyroscope.
With a total weight of the car of about 2750 kg, the flywheel was made of metal 12 cm thick and a meter in diameter. A pair of fifty-kilogram pendulums helped to avoid "distortions". The pendulum was spun by a special electric motor powered by the main engine.
It is interesting that initially Shilovsky offered his invention at home, but was extremely disappointed with the reaction of the authorities. So much so that he proposed the concept of his device to the Wolseley automobile plant in 1912, received approval and two years later showed the car to the public.
No matter how surprised people were, no matter how hard they tried to overturn or rock the device, the car did not show a tendency to overturn. Having emboldened, people began to try to ride a car, to change places "on the go". The gyrocar showed miracles of stability and reliability.
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The inventor has patented his mechanism in England and Russia. But the outbreak of the First World, and then the October Revolution put an end to Shilovsky's plans to produce his cars. The count left for Russia, where the Soviet government at first accepted him wonderfully, even allocated funds for the development of a steam locomotive with the same device as a car, but then the count was still forced to leave again to England, where he died after World War II in poverty.
The first working gyrocar was buried underground to prevent destruction during hostilities. In 1938, a unique car was dug up, restored and for ten years stood as an exhibit in the museum of the Wolseley plant. And then … it was recognized as having no value and started up for metal.
Pyotr Petrovich Shilovsky also developed a lot of other interesting inventions: a heading indicator with a gyroscope for aircraft ("Oroscope" - it was installed, for example, on the super-heavy "Ilya Muromets"), a mechanism for stabilizing the guns for ships (again sold to the British, did not arouse interest at home) and etc.