nPostednon February 14, 2014
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| The original Ferris Wheel. |
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nMyntwo favorite “Ferris”s are the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Offnand the amusement park rides. I bet you can tell fromnone glance at this page which Ferris we are talking about today!
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nGeorgenWashington Gale Ferris, Jr., was the American engineer who creatednthe original Ferris Wheel for the 1893 Chicago World’s ColumbiannExposition.
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nBeforenthe wheel that made his name famous, George Ferris worked in thenrailroad industry and with bridge building. He started his ownncompany to inspect metals for railroads and bridges.
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nFerrisnwent to Chicago when he heard news of the planned expo—and when henheard about a contest for engineers. Several years before the EiffelnTower had been built for the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris. Thendirectors of the World’s Columbian Exposition challenged Americannengineers to design a monument that would surpass the Eiffel Tower innsome way (in other words, to out-Eiffel Eiffel). When Ferris showednthem his idea for a giant wheel from which visitors could view thenentire expo, the directors dismissed the idea as unsafe.
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nFerrisndidn’t take “no” for an answer. He got endorsements from trustednengineers who had inspected his plans and deemed the wheel safe. Andnhe even convinced local investors to provide $400,000 towardnconstruction costs. His persistence paid off; the directors gavenFerris the go-ahead to build his wheel.
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| View from a car. |
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nThisnwheel carried way more people than any “Ferris wheel” I’ve ever ridden! Itnhad 36 cars, each with 40 revolving chairs. Each car could seat 60npeople—so the ride as a whole could seat 2,160 people at a time!
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nOncenthe fair opened, it took about 11 minutes to load up all the riders.nThen the wheel turned continuously for a 9 minute ride! The riders ofncourse had to go through another lengthy load-up period to get off ofnthe ride; so riding the Ferris Wheel could conceivably take aboutnhalf an hour!
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Here are two Ferris wheels
I have tried: the mini-wheel in
the little-kid section of
Knott’s Berry Farm, and the
much larger wheel at Disney’s
California Adventure.
They only fit from 40 to maybe
180 riders at a time. |
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nStill,nit was worth it—people came in droves to ride the Ferris wheel at ancost of 50 cents per ride! By the time the expo had closed, about 38nTHOUSAND people had had rides, and by the time the Ferris wheel wasntorn down in 1906, about 2.5 MILLION people had ridden on it!
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nAlsonon this date:
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Valentine’snDay n
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nand morenValentine’s Day
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nLantern Festival in China
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nBasant Panchami
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Inventornand “Queen of Paper Bags” Margaret Knight’s birthdayn
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nPlannahead:
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nChecknout my Pinterest boards for:
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nFebruaryn holidays
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nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for:
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nMarchn holidays
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Valentine’snDay 
