Revolving Car on Rails

This was printed in the Salina (Kansas) Herald, Jan. 1, 1891

WOW!

Intersting

Cool!

Strange...usually the OP would type it all out word for word.

Seems like those were days when rides were romantic, now they sell tickets to the wheel of death.

Now I'm an OP?

I'm sorry batgirl. My keyboard has betrayed me. Thanks for the beautiful post. I can only imagine the awe on those peoples faces. I suppose that's the most touching thing about it when reading it in this time.

Round and round she goes.  Where she stops, nobody knows.

How cool, My wife just bought an exact jewelry replica of this lovely

Batgirl is that one really chill security guard at school who let’s you speak freely

WOW !!!!

Was it ever completed? I think a mobile Ferris Wheel would've still been the talk of today...what happened? For a moment, I even imagined the enthusiasts building a sized down replica for their hamsters. 

Ah, there she goes - 1:25. Everyone worked so hard to create a one time fun ride. But it just doesn't compare to the Cyclodial Charlotte.

Personally, I always imagined the Ferris Wheel's story to have begun with a date. Two little kids, distant neighborhoods, a love story, things change, 20 years later:

"The last time I saw her we [were] playing by the fields, just us two. It was summer and all the kids had run out to the river as soon as dawn hit. But here we were right under the sun, no better than the grass we were rolling on. I kept thinking about the windmill - it looked just like a seesaw, you know? A special kind of seesaw. And I kept thinking that one day I'm going to get her up there..."

Interesting fact: the first known sighting of the windmill was in Persia, and since then they've spread all over the world. In the 21st century, they're commonly regarded as a relic of the past, but ironically, futurists hold a very different view.

Remember these:

Or these:

Oops, my bad, the last one is an actual Ferris Wheel.

That second video is really interesting. That guy finally started blinking at around 2 minutes. Anyway, maybe I'll watch the full docu if there is one.

Jeez, I feel like that guy in that film The Words.

There has just been constructed the most unique combination of revolving wheel and inclined railway that the genius of the inventor has ever conceived. The wheel is on the principle of the big contrivance which was one of the principle features of the World's Fair--the Ferris wheel.

The giant wheel is moved up and down an inclined railway with a rotary motion, thus permitting the passengers to move forward and upward and downward and forward at the same time. There are ten cars attached to the wheel at regular intervals, each car capable of holding forty persons.

The first wheels constructed are to be operated at the Centennial celebration at Nashville, Tenn[?], and will make the circuit of the entire grounds utilized for the celebration, a distance of two and one-half miles, on what is called the Intermural railway. These wheels will slowly revolve during the entire journey. When at the top of the wheel the passengers will be 200 feet ded[?] with revolving electric lights of great power, and of sufficient brilliancy to be visible a long distance away.

William J. Cronin, who is the inventor of the wheel, has named it the "Cyclodial Charlot," and he believes it to be the most novel transportation idea of the century. The detail of the invention is marvelous, both as to simplicity and power. There is hardly as much mechanism to it as is noticeable in the Ferris wheel, but the movement is easier and can be made infinitely more rapid without the least danger of car or sea sickness afflicting the passengers.

The wheel does not make its way along the railway after the fashion of the truck of an ordinary car, but at its axis are four small but exceedingly strong wheels, which glide along the inclined track.

Thus it will be seen that the rails of the track cross the wheel about midway, so that the wheel revolves constantly between the rails, instead of that its movement does not affect their position. At Nashville the passengers of the wheel will practically have a birdseye view of the grounds from every side, and, as stated, at a height of 200 feet.

Owing to the height of the wheel from the ground, the station at which the passengers may embark or leave the wheel are constructed at a distance midway between the track and the earth. There will be five of these stations at Nashville, located at the most important points on the grounds. It is estimated that the wheel will make the entire circuit of two and a half miles in about forty minutes. This allows ample time for taking on or discharging passengers.

What renders this wheel of special interest is that it is to be one of the great examples of American genius at the Exposition Universale[?] at Paris in 1500[?], arrangements therefor having already been made. The Ferris wheel, the first of its kind, created no end of...(page cut)

(page cut)...from the ground, fifty feet higher than the highest point reached in the trip around the Ferris wheel.

The motive power of the wheels will be electricity. In the center of the wheel a motorman will be stationed who will be able to start, stop or reverse the wheel for cars at will, and instantaneously. When desired[?] a brass band will occupy the center of the wheel, without participating in the roundabout journey of the cars. The sides of the contrivance will be stud-...(page cut)

(page cut)... altogether above them. This of course makes it necessary for the railway itself to be a considerable distance above the ground, and necessitates a solidity of construction that rarely exists in an arrangement of this sort.

The advance of the wheel around the track is at the rate of about five miles an hour, while the wheel revolves at about half that rate. As in the case of the Ferris wheel, the cars are always at a level. They are attached to the rim of the wheel in such a manner...(page cut)

(page cut)...talk in Europe, and this notable improvement upon it is likely to add to the reputation which that wheel gained for the genius of the American Inventor.

It has also been practically decided to erect a wheel and railway of this sort in Atlantic City, to be experimented with during the summer resort season. This however, largely hinges upon the wheel's success at the National Centennial--Correspondence of the New York Journal.

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