Abstract: One postie trails the Airwheel electric unicycle in Birmingham. The company says the devices are now becoming popular with urban commuters. Let's have a general knowledge from beginning to end about the one-wheeled wonder.

This world is full of wonders, and most people have already drawn benefit from two-wheeled electric scooters. So what is the one-wheeled scooter like, and is it better than the two-wheeled one? Early experiments with one-wheeled transport included the “dynasphere” — an electronically powered mono-wheel from the 1930s. Unfortunately the device had a tendency to “gerbil”, sending the driver racing around the wheel frame if the device braked too suddenly.

Then a monocycle invented by Langmark and Stuef of California from 1895, consisting of a cycle moving within a large wheel. One-wheeled transport has traditionally been difficult to steer.

Despite the obvious advantage of one-wheeled devices that there's less rubber on the road; there are fewer moving parts and both hands are free for carrying the shopping items, the vehicle, self-balancing one-wheeled electric scooter has had a patchy history. From the impressive yet futuristic prototype of the 1930s to the circus unicycle, mono-wheel transport, it has suffered a fatal design flaw that it's hard to operate or steer.

Companies such as Ryno Motors in the United States and Airwheel in the UK are producing unicycles with internal stabilizers that will scoot a passenger along at 12 kilometers per hour.

The scooters from Airwheel are not only portable, but also cheap to run as well as fun to ride. Recently it's not just mailmen that are giving the futuristic transport thumbs up. City commuters are now using them to get that final leg from the Tube station to home. The electric unicycle has an effective range of 28 kilometers. It can recharge its batteries when it goes downhill. When the road is rugged, the scooter can gutter jump or even take off road. That is the one-wheeled wonder in 21st century.