Segway — Nothing New Under the Sun

The dis-oriented author watched with interest in 2001 when inventor Dean Kamen unveiled the Segway. The Segway is a two wheeled, self balancing scooter. If you listened to the hype, Kamen suggested that his device would revolutionize transportation all over the world. The Segway has not lived up to the hype. It does, however, represent original thinking and some pretty clever engineering.

Recently I was in Amish country near my home and I discovered that the Segway may not be as original an invention as Kamen suggests.

This is a picture of an Amish Segway near Fairbank, Iowa. Apparently it runs on hay and oats.

One of the common uses of Segways is to run tours in tourist spots like Paris or San Francisco on Segways. I guess you could use these to tour Amish country.