Editing Ferris wheel (section)

===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>