Chicago World's Fair 1893. |
Saturday, November 07, 2009
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5 comments:
This was the very first Ferris Wheel and the capacity was in the hundreds!
Read "The Devil in the White City"....In my opinion...the Best Book written about the Colunbia Exposition....
It is of interest to note that this first observation wheel is a cable stayed tension wheel, as opposed to the rigid hub and spoke construction typically seen in portable wheels and even the massive park based wheels of today. However the two newest permanent observation wheels the London Eye and the Singapore Flyer are both tension wheels.
If I can shake enough dust out of my brain, the original wheel was erected first in Chicago then later dismantled and movet to St. Louis for the 1904 Exposition. Not finding commercial success forlowing the exposition, it was eventually sold and dismantled for scrap.
This was the first wheel that was known as a "Ferris" wheel, but there were many pleasure wheels that preceded it. If you want to learn all about them, Norman Anderson's book, "Ferris Wheels: An Illustrated History" is the right volume. He also publishes a periodic newsletter.
An article about the newest style of wheel design is in the October 2009 issue of "Civil Engineering"; a new biography of Ferris by Rich Weingardt has just been published; and there will be a single segment on cable about big, bigger, biggest structures with focus on the most innovative wheels since the one in 1893. It's an area of popular amusements that continues to develop with newer technology, with no limit yet in sight.
"The Devil in the White City" was one of the best books that I have come across in quite a while. The detail of the Exposition being interspersed with the activities of a serial killer made for interesting reading. The author details the reasons for and the construction of the Ferris Wheel, along with many of the other exhibits including Haggenback's animals.
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