The Dynasphere Was a “monowheel” Built in 1932 That Could Travel up to 25

This picture preserves a moment few cameras ever caught — Nice Wheel: The Dynasphere was a “monowheel” built in 1932 that could travel up to 25 miles an hour. Made in 1932, it is the kind of image that turns a date in a history book into something you can actually see.

The 1930s were shadowed by the Great Depression, which put a quarter of American workers out of a job at its worst point. Yet the same decade produced streamlined trains, record-setting aircraft, grand public works, and a flood of documentary photography as magazines like LIFE sent cameras into everyday America.

Photographs like this one are a reminder that progress rarely moves in a straight line. For every invention that became part of daily life, dozens of confident prototypes ended up as curiosities — and the camera is often the only witness they left behind.