Boys Power Auto-Scooter With a One-Cylinder Motor (Aug, 1931)
Boys Power Auto-Scooter With a One-Cylinder Motor
GEORGE WENDEL, 12 and Billy Hawkins, 11, of Detroit, Michigan, failed to find the proper outlet for their speed urge in the ordinary scooter. Bicycles, even, palled after a time, for were they not muscle-powered vehicles of a by-gone generation?
So George and Billy picked up some rubber-tired wheels from a toy wagon, an ancient one-lung gasoline motor, and an assortment of odds and ends, and are now burning up the pavements of the Michigan metropolis.
A week later they both recieved an ASBO.
Its a sad state today that children do not have the freedom to do such things.
cATFLAP – There are no laws restricting kids today from repeating this – they’re just sidetracked by other things (media, computers, cellphones), the lost art of building stuff, and overly-protective parents, but that doesn’t mean they can’t.
Kids can still do this. They just can’t “burn up the pavement” with them. Unfortunately, most kids would much rather just buy something ready-made than take the time to create stuff like this.
So, these are the kids who invented go-carts? Cool. Funny how the name “auto-scooter” didn’t catch on.