From Washing Machine to Midget Auto

What do you get when you cross a washing machine with a toy wagon? A car, of course -- or as they called it back in the early 1930s, a midget auto. To build his car, Stanley McCrary, from Seattle, took the motor from an old washing machine and attached it to the wagon. He made the clutch and steering equipment by himself, and attached a little tank capable of holding a gallon of gas. There isn't much else written about McCrary's machine except that it could run at twelve miles an hour on level ground. We suppose the sight of a boy on his homemade auto spoke for itself.

Unless you know your cycling history, a bike is the last thing you'd expect would be encased in Marcel Berthet's shell-like vehicle, pictured left. Berthet, a French cycling champion, designed the Velodyne streamliner with Marchel Riffard, chief engineer at a renowned French airline firm. The machine was reportedly capable of moving between 40 and 60 miles an hour. To ride the machine, the cyclist would enter a small door in the side f the shell and lower his head below the opening at the top. During race, he'd use a peephole to navigate. As strange as the vehicle looked, it was developed principles of aerodynamics. Like the tip of a plane, the two-feet wide front of the Velodyne was narrow enough to overcome a significant amount of wind resistance. Berthet ended up setting a new record after breaking 49.992 km in his Velodyne, prompting judges to ban recumbent bicycles from bike races in 1934.