Expo Motus: The Prehistory of the Automobile - Museo Galileo – Italy 
The dream of autonomous movement, independent of human and animal energy, is as old as the history of mankind. Its first expressions are lost in antiquity and are reflected in art, poetry and literature.
In thirteen stages, they take the visitor on an ideal journey that begins in Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC and ends with Karl Benz’s automobile in 1886. In between, there are extraordinary projects, which, from time to time, spring from intuitions destined to become a turning point in the field of automobility.
Exhibition Dates 08.04.2022 – 25.09.2022
Contact: https://mostre.museogalileo.it/motus/en
Address: Museo Nazionale dell’Automobile di Torino, Corso Unità d'Italia, 40, 10126 Torino (TO), Italy
281/A. Exposition "MOTUS" 2022
The exhibits on display show how the theme of ‘automobility’ has taken shape, starting with the invention of the wheel. With the swift development of technology from the third century BC onwards, this dream, which was already present in the culture of ancient Greece, has evolved into clear visions and eventually has become real.
281/B. Exposition "MOTUS" 2022
The Velocimano
Materials: wood (poplar, acacia, elm, ash), gesso di Bologna (plaster), canvas, forged iron, cast bronze, cured leather, vegetable hair, natural glues, boiled linseed oil, colored pigments, beeswax
A new means of personal transport called “velocimano” appeared in Italy in 1819 in Italy. Its name is due to the alternating movement of the arms, instead of the feet, that propelled the vehicle. It was a tricycle that, in the standard version, looked like a winged horse. Its inventor, Gaetano Brianza, organized a presentation in the Santa Radegonda theater in Milan in May 1819 and gave out to the public a poem entitled El gran cavall meccanegh (The great mechanical horse). The specimen on display, in the shape of a winged dragon, is one of the original models built by Brianza. The wings are actually two manual levers that generate the movement; when they are pushed in the opposite direction, the tricycle travels backwards. The steering is operated by feet. Stopping the wings is sufficient to brake the vehicle.
