Ferris wheel

The prototype of the modern Ferris wheel was a device set in motion by the muscular power of man, which appeared in the 17th century .

The first Ferris wheel was built in 1893 by engineer George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. ( born George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. ). It was installed at the World Columbian Exhibition in Chicago . ^[1] The wheel was created as an American response to the Eiffel Tower in Paris . The diameter of the wheel was 75 meters , weight - 2000 tons . The wheel was driven by two steam engines with a capacity of 1000 liters. with. each one. 36 cabs, about the size of a bus, were attached to the wheel rim. Each cabin had 20 seats and 40 standing places, and thus, the total passenger capacity of the attraction was 2160 people. Turning the wheel took twenty minutes. The wheel axle, which weighed 70 tons, was at that time the largest steel forged part in the history of technology. The wheel was taller than the tallest skyscraper of the time, but four times lower than the Eiffel Tower.

After the exhibition closed, this wheel was moved twice to another place. The wheel was finally disassembled in 1904 after it worked for a year at an exhibition in St. Louis .

The importance of Ferris’s contribution to the construction of Ferris wheels is evidenced even by the fact that in English the Ferris wheel is still called the ferris wheel , that is, the “Ferris wheel”.

One of the most famous Ferris wheels, designed by Ferris shortly after his death, in 1897, is located in Vienna and has survived to this day. It is called Wiener Riesenrad and is one of the main attractions of the Austrian capital.

The first Ferris wheel in the UK was built in London in 1895 . It was copied from Ferris’s wheel in Chicago by two young Australian engineers, Adam Gaddelin and Gareth Watson , who subsequently built another two hundred Ferris wheels around the world. The London wheel existed from 1895 to 1906 , having managed to drive 2.5 million people during this time. It was located in the Earls Court area .

Observation Wheels

The so-called " observation wheels " ( Eng. Observation wheel ) - a new type of observation wheels. The first wheel of this type was the London Eye . This wheel was opened in 1999 . Currently, the construction of wheels of this type is underway in Las Vegas , Shanghai , Moscow , Berdyansk and some other cities.

The main difference between the observation wheel and the classic-style observation wheel is that the cabs of the observation wheel are not suspended from the rim, but mounted outside the rim. If the cabs of an ordinary Ferris wheel are held in position due to gravity , then the observation wheel to keep the cabs in the desired position requires a complex mechanical stabilization system.

Other types

An unusual type of classic Ferris wheel was a wheel with sliding cabs. This wheel was built in the 1920s at Coney Island Park in the Brooklyn New York area. It has been preserved to this day and is now used in Deno's Wonder Wheel Park. A copy of this wheel is valid at Disney Land California Park.

In 1999, an Ferris wheel for cars was created for an exhibition in the Netherlands , where instead of a cabin, a platform was used on which the car was fixed.

In the USSR , the Ferris wheel was a very common attraction in the parks of culture and recreation , which were available in any fairly large city. As a rule, standard wheels were used in all cities. In addition to the "large", in most cities there were small children's wheels, known as the "Sun" attraction. "

In Moscow today there are 7 Ferris wheels installed in various parks. The lowest wheel is 25 m; the highest - 83 m. Most rides are over 10 years old; the oldest is the wheel in Izmailovsky Park , built in 1958.

Largest Russian Ferris Wheels

The largest Ferris wheel in the world ^[2] - High Roller ( English High Roller ) in Las Vegas (height 167 m), opened for visitors March 31, 2014 .

• Singapore Flyer Ferris Wheel in Singapore (165 m) - was the largest Ferris wheel in the world in 2007-2014.
• Nanchang Star - 160 meters high, located in Nanchang (China). Third in the world in height.
• London Eye - height 135 meters; was the largest in the world in 2000-2006, before the discovery of the Nanchang Star wheel. It remains the fourth highest in the world and the largest in Europe .

The largest Ferris wheel of the classical type (not counting the observation wheels) in the world: Fukuoka's heavenly dream , installed in the Japanese city of Fukuoka ; diameter - 112 m, total height - 120 m.

The 90-meter Euro -wheel ( Euro -wheel at the Mirabilandia amusement park . (Italy), built in 1999 ; was the largest in Europe before the opening of the London Eye.
Prior to this, the largest in Europe was the Moscow Wheel named after the 850th anniversary of Moscow (height 73 meters, diameter 70 meters; opened in 1995, dismantled in 2016).

• Ferris Wheel in Vienna . Built by Walter (Walter) Basset in 1897 and still exists in Vienna . Wheel height - 64.75 m.
• The Paris Ferris Wheel is one of the largest mobile Ferris wheels. Height - 60 m. It does not require a permanent foundation, since ballast tanks with water of 40 thousand liters provide stability. For the first time this wheel was mounted in Paris in anticipation of the celebration of the millennium . In 2003, the wheel was moved to Birmingham , where it was until February of the following year, after which it was moved to Manchester . After that, the wheel again returned to the European continent. In the summer of 2005, it was mounted in Amsterdam .
• The Ferris wheel in the city ​​park of Pripyat is one of the symbols of the Chernobyl exclusion zone . This wheel was never used, as it was supposed to open on May 1, 1986 , that is, five days after the accident .
• The Ferris wheel in Kharkiv Gorky Park is the highest in Ukraine (55 meters). Built and open to visitors in 2012.
• The Ferris wheel in Odessa (the third tallest in Ukraine - 45 m) was built in 2011 and is located in the park named after T. G. Shevchenko.
• The Ferris wheel in Minsk is the highest in Belarus (54 m) ^[3] .
• Ferris wheel in Izmaylovsky park of culture and rest .
• The ferris wheel in Ashgabat is the largest closed-type ferris wheel in the world (47.6 m) ^[4] .

Planned

• Dubai is under construction ^{[ when? ]} Ferris wheels 210 meters high ^[5] . The giant attraction will be located on an artificial island. The launch of the wheel is planned for the opening of the 2020 World Exhibition .
• In Moscow: the concept for the development of the united territory of VDNH , the Botanical Garden and Ostankino Park, developed in 2015, involves the construction of a new Ferris wheel 135-140 meters high in the Park of the Future, which will occupy the southern part of the current territory of VDNH . By June 2018, it was planned to complete the construction of a wheel 220 meters high ^[6] .

• Attraction
• Ferris Wheel List

• Norman D. Anderson. Ferris Wheels: An Illustrated History. Popular Press. ISBN 0-87972-532-X .

• (English) An article about George Ferris and his invention on the website of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• (English) Information on the history and arrangement of Ferris wheels
• (English) A detailed article on the Ferris Wheel in Chicago

  Vienna Ferris Wheel (animation) Google Maps KMZ ( 3D model - KMZ file for Google Earth )