Porridgehead - Name that wheel?

[porridgehead]

Hola folks! Long time no see. This is a puzzle with no current answer, but I was hoping somebody might shed some light on this interesting piece of hardware. To further aid in confusion, there is no guarantee that this is automobile related, though there have been enough spring wheel ideas bounced about (heh, I made a funny) that this could have once seen road use.

So, dear patient and knowledgeable autopuzzlers, does anybody know of the origins, uses, applications or name of this particular piece of hardware?

[MG]

A cursory inspection reveals that the central mounting hole is fitted for a "key". Since the rim itself appears to be rigid, the object of the whole exercise appears to be to allow the central hub to change its location within the confines of the rim. Because of the keyway and the absence of traditional lug nuts, I suspect this is a drive pulley for some sort of industrial application, such as drive pulley for a belt. The flex in the hub location would allow for some form of tensioning, much as the tensioner on a modern serpentine automotive belt works. One suspects the whole affair was designed for relatively low speed operation.     

One further suspects that alcohol was somehow involved!   

[neilshouse]

It looks like what is known as a 'resilient' or 'self sprung' wheel I imagine that inside the small cylinders are springs.
Here's another that I found courtesy of Hemmings.

[porridgehead]

Did some digging into this. Notice the car on the left? Model T. The rear hub of a model T is keyed, with six bolts. According to the kind folks at the Model T Ford Club, this is indeed for a T. Funky.

[Carnut]

You should have your Avatar as a puzzle...

I just can't work out if he uses it to play tunes; if it's some early form of jet-assisted propulsion; or if he just fell off his bike backwards on to a traffic cone?!

[MG]

Or all three!   

[Otto Puzzell]

Did some digging into this. Notice the car on the left? Model T. The rear hub of a model T is keyed, with six bolts.

Penske would have done it differently

[guido66]

Here's a modern version: 

[Otto Puzzell]

Front Page Featured!

http://www.autopuzzles.com

[CyCarConsulting]

Tweel airless by Michelin

[Otto Puzzell]

Time for the Black Hole?

[MG]

Oooohhh, Porridgehead won't like that......

[Otto Puzzell]

He can take it up with me when he makes his quarterly visit.

[MG]

Why do some of the best people come and go from places like this?     I don't know. Tis a mystery.

Fortunately for you, I am as constant as the constellations in the heaveans!   

[Allemano]

I was wondering about the same thing as well.
Most strange are those puzzlers which are very active and keen for a period and suddenly disappear and never come back again.

Hopefully there's not a sad story behind...

[Oguerrerob]

Another view

[mymokke]

Could this be an early version of a "James Vernon Martin" suspension wheel, later used on the 3-wheeled Martinet?
The Martinet used self suspened wheel/tire units on the front wheels hidden behind decorative face plates so they would appear to be conventional.

[Oguerrerob]

similar wheels

[Oguerrerob]

Another one mounted in a Protos 1916

[grobmotorix]

I do not know an answer, but I´d like to show some more of those experiments:

[grobmotorix]

Could it be the "Seaton Spring Wheel" from Hubert H.Ward & Associates, Cleveland, Ohio?

I´ve found this article that shows a quite similar wheel design:

[Oguerrerob]

I've found another similar wheel

[grobmotorix]

The Pavesi has been my first idea, too, when I´ve seen this topic.

But those devices do not serve as springs within the wheel or rim.
They can be fold out to receive an extra amount of traction off road.

[Otto Puzzell]

Black Hole?

[WayneB]

Odd that nobody has mentioned the most well known application for a self sprung wheel.