Editing Ferris wheel (section)

==Early history==
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| style="border: 0;" | [[File:Olearius uvesel.jpg|198px|center]]
| style="border: 0;" | [[File:ferris ups.jpg|150px|center]]
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| colspan="2" style="border: 0; font-size: 89%; line-height: 1.0em; padding: 0.5em;" | Early pleasure wheels depicted in 17th-century engravings, to the left by [[Adam Olearius]], to the right a Turkish design, apparently for adults
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[[File:Hora din Dealul Spirei, 1857.jpg|thumb|Dancing the [[Hora (dance)|hora]] on [[Dealul Spirii]] (Spirii Hill), [[Bucharest]], Romania (1857 lithograph)]]
[[File:Magic City3, Paris, 1913.jpeg|thumb|[[Magic-City]], [[Paris]], France, 1913]]

"Pleasure wheels", whose passengers rode in chairs suspended from large wooden rings turned by strong men, may have originated in 17th-century Bulgaria.<ref name=stillturning /><ref name="eyes in the sky">{{Cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/581259.stm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060625210527/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/581259.stm|url-status=dead|title=UK &#124; Eyes in the sky|archive-date=June 25, 2006|website=BBC News}}</ref>

''The Travels of [[Peter Mundy]] in Europe and Asia, 1608–1667''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/travelspetermun01mundgoog|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150119124337/https://archive.org/details/travelspetermun01mundgoog|url-status=dead|title=The travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia, 1608-1667|first1=Peter|last1=Mundy|first2=Richard Carnac|last2=Temple|first3=Lavinia Mary|last3=Anstey|date=July 10, 1907|archive-date=January 19, 2015|publisher=Cambridge [Eng] Printed for the Hakluyt Society|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> describes and illustrates "''severall Sorts of Swinginge used in their Publique rejoyceings att their Feast of Biram''" on 17 May 1620 at [[Philippopolis (Thrace)|Philippopolis]] (now [[Plovdiv]]) in the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] [[Balkans]].<ref name="eyes in the sky" /> Among means "''lesse dangerous and troublesome''" was one: {{blockquote|''like a Craine wheele att Customhowse Key and turned in that Manner, whereon Children sitt on little seats hunge round about in severall parts thereof, And though it turne right upp and downe, and that the Children are sometymes on the upper part of the wheele, and sometymes on the lower, yett they alwaies sitt upright.''}}

Five years earlier, in 1615, [[Pietro Della Valle]], a Roman traveller who sent letters from [[Constantinople]], Persia, and India, attended a Ramadan festival in Constantinople. He describes the fireworks, floats, and great swings, then comments on riding the Great Wheel:<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wDJtAAAAMAAJ&q=%22I+was+delighted+to+find+myself+swept+upwards+and+downwards+at+such+speed.%22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160424091655/https://books.google.com/books?id=wDJtAAAAMAAJ&q=%22I+was+delighted+to+find+myself+swept+upwards+and+downwards+at+such+speed.%22|url-status=dead|title=Pietro's Pilgrimage: A Journey to India and Back at the Beginning of the Seventeenth Century|first=Wilfrid|last=Blunt|date=July 10, 1953|archive-date=April 24, 2016|publisher=J. Barrie|via=Google Books}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|I was delighted to find myself swept upwards and downwards at such speed. But the wheel turned round so rapidly that a Greek who was sitting near me couldn't bear it any longer, and shouted out "soni! soni!" (enough! enough!)}}

Similar wheels also appeared in England in the 17th century, and subsequently elsewhere around the world, including India, Romania, and Siberia.<ref name="eyes in the sky" />

A Frenchman, Antonio Manguino, introduced the idea to America in 1848, when he constructed a wooden pleasure wheel to attract visitors to his start-up fair in Walton Spring, [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]].

===Somers' Wheel===
[[File:Somers Wheel (Roundabout) c. 1892.jpg|thumb|William Somers' Wheel, installed 1892, immediate precursor to the original [[Ferris Wheel (1893)|Ferris Wheel]]]]
In 1892, William Somers installed three fifty-foot wooden wheels at [[Asbury Park, New Jersey]]; [[Atlantic City, New Jersey]]; and [[Coney Island]], New York. The following year he was granted the first U.S. patent for a "Roundabout".<ref>[http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-35D explorepahistory.com – Ferris Wheel Inventor Historical Marker] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312032622/http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-35D |date=March 12, 2016 }}</ref><ref name="patents">{{Cite web|url=http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/v/a/vac3/flat2.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140225223641/http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/v/a/vac3/flat2.html|url-status=dead|title=U.S. Patents for Ferris Wheels|archive-date=February 25, 2014}}</ref> [[George Washington Gale Ferris Jr.]] rode on Somers' wheel in Atlantic City prior to designing his wheel for the [[World's Columbian Exposition]]. In 1893 Somers filed a lawsuit against Ferris for patent infringement; however, Ferris and his lawyers successfully argued that the Ferris Wheel and its technology differed greatly from Somers' wheel, and the case was dismissed.<ref>{{cite book| last=Cahan|first=Richard| title=A court that shaped America: Chicago's federal district court from Abe Lincoln to Abbie Hoffman|year=2002|publisher=[[Northwestern University Press]] |location=Evanston, Ill.|isbn=0-8101-1981-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/courtthatshapeda0000caha/page/45 45]|url=https://archive.org/details/courtthatshapeda0000caha|url-access=registration|edition=[Online-Ausg.]}}</ref>

===The original Ferris Wheel===
{{Main|Ferris Wheel (1893)}}
[[File:Ferris-wheel.jpg|thumb|The original Chicago [[Ferris Wheel (1893)|Ferris Wheel]], built for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition]]
The original Ferris wheel, sometimes referred to as the Chicago Wheel, was designed and constructed by Ferris Jr. and opened in 1893; however, an earlier wheel was created for the New York State fair in 1854, created by two Erie Canal workers.<ref name="WDL">{{cite web |url = http://www.wdl.org/en/item/11369/ |title = Bird's-Eye View of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893 |website = [[World Digital Library]] |year = 1893 |access-date = July 17, 2013 }}</ref><ref name="Anderson">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SkFQ5tgWKfEC&q=Ferris+wheels:+an+illustrated+history|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160802050740/https://books.google.com/books?id=SkFQ5tgWKfEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ferris+wheels%3A+an+illustrated+history&cd=1|url-status=dead|title=Ferris Wheels: An Illustrated History|first=Norman D.|last=Anderson|date=July 10, 1992|archive-date=August 2, 2016|publisher=Popular Press|isbn = 9780879725327|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref name="Meehan">{{Cite web|url=http://www.hydeparkhistory.org/newsletter.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130118143455/http://www.hydeparkhistory.org/newsletter.html|url-status=dead|title=Hyde Park Historical Society: Chicago's Great Ferris Wheel of 1893, Patrick Meehan|archive-date=January 18, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol42/pp322-338|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141011214156/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50329|url-status=dead|title=The Kensington Canal, railways and related developments &#124; British History Online|archive-date=October 11, 2014|website=www.british-history.ac.uk}}</ref>

With a height of {{Convert|80.4|m|ft|0}}, it was the tallest attraction at the [[World's Columbian Exposition]] in [[Chicago, Illinois]], where it opened to the public on June 21, 1893.<ref name="WDL" /> It was intended to rival the {{Convert|324|m|ft|0|adj=on}} [[Eiffel Tower]], the centerpiece of the [[Exposition Universelle (1889)|1889 Paris Exposition]].

Ferris was a graduate of [[Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute]] and a [[Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]], bridge-builder. He began his career in the railroad industry and then pursued an interest in bridge building. Ferris understood the growing need for structural steel and founded G.W.G. Ferris & Co. in Pittsburgh, a firm that tested and inspected metals for railroads and bridge builders.

The wheel rotated on a 71-[[Short ton|ton]], {{convert|45.5|foot|m|adj=on}} axle comprising what was at that time the world's largest hollow forging, manufactured in Pittsburgh by the [[Bethlehem Steel|Bethlehem Iron Company]] and weighing {{convert|89,320|lb|kg}}, together with two {{Convert|16|ft|m|adj=mid|-diameter}} cast-iron spiders weighing {{convert|53,031|lb|kg}}.<ref name="Meehan" />

There were 36 cars, each fitted with 40 revolving chairs and able to accommodate up to 60 people, giving a total capacity of 2,160.<ref name="Anderson" /> The wheel carried some 38,000 passengers daily<ref name=stillturning /> and took 20 minutes to complete two revolutions, the first involving six stops to allow passengers to exit and enter and the second a nine-minute non-stop rotation, for which the ticket holder paid 50 cents.

The Exposition ended in October 1893, and the wheel closed in April 1894 and was dismantled and stored until the following year. It was then rebuilt on Chicago's North Side, near the high-income enclave of [[Lincoln Park (Chicago)|Lincoln Park]]. [[William D. Boyce]], then a local resident, filed a Circuit Court action against the owners of the wheel to have it removed, but without success. It operated there from October 1895 until 1903, when it was again dismantled, then transported by rail to [[St. Louis, Missouri|St. Louis]] for the [[Louisiana Purchase Exposition|1904 World's Fair]] and finally destroyed by controlled demolition using dynamite on May 11, 1906.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Ferris__George.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140716104710/http://www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Ferris__George.html|url-status=dead|title=George Ferris|archive-date=July 16, 2014}}</ref>

===Antique Ferris wheels===
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| style="border: 0;" | [[File:Wiener Prater Vienna Austria 20476.JPG|128px|center]]
| style="border: 0;" | [[File:Wiener Riesenrad DSC02378.JPG|235px|center]]
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| colspan="2" style="border: 0; font-size: 88%; line-height: 1.0em; padding: 0.5em;" | {{center|[[Wiener Riesenrad]], Vienna, built in 1897, originally had 30 passenger cabins but was rebuilt with 15 cabins following a fire in 1944}}
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The [[Wiener Riesenrad]] ([[German language|German]] for "Viennese Giant Wheel") is a surviving example of 19th-century Ferris wheels. Erected in 1897 in the [[Wurstelprater]] section of [[Prater]] public park in the [[Leopoldstadt]] district of [[Vienna]], [[Austria]], to celebrate Emperor [[Franz Joseph I of Austria|Franz Josef I]]'s [[Golden Jubilee]], it has a height of {{Convert|64.75|m|ft|0}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://wienerriesenrad.com/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816092808/http://www.wienerriesenrad.com/index.php?menu=info&source=technik&lang=en|url-status=dead|title=Vienna Giant Ferris Wheel - Since 1897|archive-date=August 16, 2016|website=Vienna Giant Ferris Wheel}}</ref> and originally had 30 passenger cars. A demolition permit for the Riesenrad was issued in 1916, but due to a lack of funds with which to carry out the destruction, it survived.<ref name="wienerriesenradhistory">{{Cite web|url=http://wienerriesenrad.com/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304092136/http://www.wienerriesenrad.com/index.php?menu=geschichte&source=geschichte&lang=en|url-status=dead|title=Vienna Giant Ferris Wheel - Since 1897|archive-date=March 4, 2016|website=Vienna Giant Ferris Wheel}}</ref>

Following the demolition of the {{Convert|96|m|ft|0|adj=on}} [[Grande Roue de Paris]] in 1920,<ref name="Anderson" /><ref name="worldfairs">{{Cite web|url=https://www.worldfairs.info/expopavillondetails.php?expo_id=8&pavillon_id=504|title=Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Paris 1900 - Le bilan d'un siècle|website=worldfairs.info|year=1900|language=fr}}</ref> the Riesenrad became the world's tallest extant Ferris wheel. In 1944 it burnt down, but was rebuilt the following year<ref name="wienerriesenradhistory" /> with 15 passenger cars, and remained the world's tallest extant wheel until its 97th year, when the {{Convert|85|m|ft|0|adj=on}} [[Technocosmos]] was constructed for [[Expo '85]], at [[Tsukuba, Ibaraki]], [[Japan]].

Still in operation today, it is one of Vienna's most popular [[tourist attraction]]s, and over the years has featured in numerous films (including ''Madame Solange d`Atalide'' (1914),<ref name="wienerriesenradhistory" /> ''[[Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948 film)|Letter from an Unknown Woman]]'' (1948), ''[[The Third Man]]'' (1949), ''[[The Living Daylights]]'' (1987), ''[[Before Sunrise]]'' (1995) and novels.