Following yesterday's post on the spherical drive system, my fellow Pratt ID alumnus Jay G. wrote in with where those omniwheels may have come from. An Australian company called Rotacaster produces the crazy-looking wheels, sometimes called "Ezekiel Wheels," you see here. The wheels are used in the Rotatruck Stair Climbing Hand Truck:
Why are they called Ezekiel Wheels? Here's where it gets interesting: The wheels' designer, Henry Guile, claims their inspiration came from The Bible:
The first chapter of Ezekiel describes a vehicle with four wheels and "their appearance and their work was as if it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel." From this simple idea, the Ezekiel Wheel was born.
Guile reportedly worked on the design of the wheels for years but was never able to get it quite right. But his son Graham picked up where he left off and perfected the design. The father and the son, and I guess the Holy Ghost fits in there somewhere too.
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