In 1923, Dunkley entered the history books with a fairly unlikely motor vehicle – a motorized perambulator. The Dunkley Pramotor was a scooter attached to the rear of a large baby pram, and the nanny rode standing astride the engine on the scooter platform. Initially powered by a 1HP horizontal single-speed two-stroke which required a push the bathtub and leap aboard with your ankle-length dress start, the following year a 2-speed version was offered with a kickstarter and clutch lever making life oh so much easier for intrepid nursie.
These brilliantly thought-out contraptions were promptly banned from footpaths and parks meaning they had to share the road with lumbering milk carts, motor bicycles and the local laird’s Hispanic Wheezer. This proved problematical of course, with a one-horse engine having difficulty pacing the milko’s cart let alone Sir Richcant’s 17 liter behemoth, so Dunkley’s solution was to produce a 750cc version of the Pramotor.
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| This is the Dunkley Pramotor, introduced in 1921, or 1923 according to some sources. The Pramotor was a scooter attached to the rear of a large baby pram, and the intrepid nanny rode standing astride the engine on the scooter platform. Early versions were powered by a 1 HP horizontal single-speed two-stroke engine. It was manufactured by W.H. Dunkley of Birmingham, UK. |
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| This was clearly taken on the same photoshoot. Note the heavyweight wheels on the pram to carry the weight of the scooter attachment. |
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| This version has a seat for more relaxing pram-driving. |
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| This is the hard-top version, with stream-lined nose. No seat for the nanny on this model. |
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| This illustration may well have been the inspiration for Dunkley’s device. |
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| This shows a different form of the Motorpram; here there are six wheels rather than five. In Figures 1 and 2 the pram is propelled by a fifth wheel assembly under the pram body that incorporates a small engine. The nanny stands on a platform at the back which is supported by a sixth wheel. It all looks rather clumsy, and it is not quite clear how you would steer it. Figure 5 adds a steering wheel, which controls Ackermann steering of the front pair of wheels. Source: US patent 1,565,719 of Dec 1925. |
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| This is the form of pram seen in the photographs, with the motor-trailer articulated with the rear axle of the pram. Here the bevel gearing on the engine appears to give a step-up rather than the reduction that would actually be needed. This drives a disc 89 which appears to give friction drive to the rear wheel; the effective gear ratio could be altered by moving the disc and rear wheel sideways in relation to each other, but no means of doing this is shown. Source: US patent 1,565,719 of Dec 1925. |
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| Electric motorized perambulator in England, 1921. All that is currently known is that this is a Mrs P Mackenzie, in charge of an electrically-powered perambulator. It has been said it was the invention of a clergyman. The electric motor is visible at lower left just above the smaller wheel. There seems to be a gear-reduction drive from motor to axle. The battery is the box under the centre of the pram body. There seems to be two switches on the handbar. |
