Defunctland: A Roundabout History of the Ferris Wheel

[Music] the year was 1851 in the United States of America not even 100 years old was hoping to make a strong impression on the world stage not just the proverbial world stage but a literal one the United Kingdom was hosting the first true World's Fair while France had been showcasing its own technology and popular national expositions since 1798 the great exhibition of the works of Industry of All Nations would be the first attempt to bring the world together in the name of unity diversity and of course competition inside the beautiful Crystal Palace exhibition hall countries would set up displays of their achievements hoping to assert dominance over one another in the areas of art and industry the u.s. in particular was hoping to make an impact among the world powers at seventy-five years young the US was still building a sense of identity and national culture despite many European countries looking down on the u.s. the ingenuity displayed by the country at the fair would legitimately astound its critics and inventions such as a fascinating firearm a revolver designed by Samuel Colt would become some of the highlights of the Faire many believe that the exposition had two overall winners obviously the host the UK but also the underdog the us feeling confidence the US plan to host their own Great Exhibition the exhibition of the industry of All Nations in New York City just two years after London's fair the exhibition was another success with the most memorable achievement being Elijah Otis's elevator safety device that would allow for large buildings known as skyscrapers to be built in major cities around the world some towering as high as 20 storeys another achievement of the fair was the Latin Observatory a 290 foot tall wooden observation tower which was the tallest structure in New York at the time despite the fair success the US was still looking for its place in the industrial world and the country was still trying to develop its culture and while some would argue that it never fully would over the next four decades it certainly would achieved one important all-encompassing almost abstract idea an idea that the world would obsess over a term that companies would tout for over a century and a concept that would eventually seem to disappear in an instant it was the promise of tomorrow it was the optimism toward the future and it was the idea of progress [Music] On February 6th 1859 in the village of Bluebell in what is now South West Ontario Canada a baby was born in a small pine cabin on a modest farm the baby boy would belong to the farmer and his wife it was their first child as their son would grow the farmers work habits translated a clear and powerful lesson never be afraid to leave everything behind at a moment's notice to chase an opportunity in the first few years of his life the farmer's son would see his father go from a farmer to an oil driller to a farmer again to a salt miner and once more back to a farmer his father might have taught him to chase opportunities but he certainly didn't instill in a son a good judgment for what a worthwhile opportunity was after the 1853 fair World expositions were a dime a dozen or around $3 a dozen when adjusted for inflation these fairs were often time by the country's to celebrate certain historical events the first significant world's exposition in the US after the New York Fair was held in 1876 to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence the Faire located in Philadelphia signified progress for the u.s. in terms of national culture and innovation another highlight of the Centennial Exposition was the display of the torch bearing right arm from the soon to be built Statue of Liberty a France funded monument with steel work by French engineer Gustave Eiffel the very next year at France is 1878 exposition the head of the sculpture was on display the Centennial Exposition drew in over ten million visitors which makes sense because the fair had the largest fork-and-knife in the world but it was not enough to make a profit which means that someone wasn't charging enough to see the largest fork-and-knife in the world it was common for World's Fairs to run at a loss in fact many believe that the financial benefits to hosting affair could not be calculated using ticket sales alone the US and every World's Fair host was acquiring honor influence and respect for their country back when that mattered in 1877 at the age of eighteen the farmer's son left his home in New Jersey following his father and his brother to California under the whir of the gold rush but they changed their minds halfway through their journey settling on a farm in Kansas instead less than a decade later they were moving once again this time to Florida a come by another family heading in the same direction the farmer's son who would work as a mailman in his first few years in Florida would fall in love with the 16 year old daughter of the farmers with which he traveled and he would marry her on New Year's Day in 1888 the farmer's son would then try his hand in farming in Florida purchasing an orange grove around this time in the late 1880s France was planning another World's Fair the 1889 Exposition Universelle to commemorate the centennial of the French Revolution the exposition was to feature a tower that was 1,000 feet tall at the urging of Gustave Eiffel the Fair Committee asked for ideas from engineers one concept was to celebrate the anniversary of the French Revolution by constructing a 1,000 foot tall presumably non-functioning guillotine unfortunately this idea would not win the hearts of the committee who instead chose eiffel's concept of an iron tower inspired by the Latin observatory designed by two of eiffels employees the Eiffel Tower would be an elegant and powerful structure towering over Paris the exposition itself would be a huge success as well with over 30 million visitors it was said to be the best attended peaceful event in the history of the world many Americans laughed at Frances idea of a 1,000 foot tower in Paris believing it would become an eyesore to the city but when iPhone and his associates were able to pull it off with elegance and grace the us naysayers appeared as fools still developing their national culture the US desperately wanted to display artistic prowess and what better way to do it than with a fair of their own immediately after Frances successful exposition the US began planning their own World's Fair to be held in 1892 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus landing in the New World unlike the Centennial Exposition the US was hoping that the Columbian Exposition would be both an artistic and financial achievement Chicago was chosen for the location of the fair bidding slightly higher than New York in February of 1890 Chicago the second-most populated city in the country was given little more direction than topped the Eiffel Tower eight months later little had developed the committee was stalled on a number of issues mainly the fair's location within Chicago unfortunately the stagnation would be the least of the fair's problems in October of 1890 concerns of a global recession made their way to the United States if a panic occurred there was no chance that the fair would be a success despite this the committee would push forward taking first big step in electing Chicago architect Daniel Burnham to the fairs chief of construction Burnham a well-respected figure in Chicago along with his partner John route who would die from pneumonia less than three months later was a fine choice to lead the development of the fare Burnham will go on to assemble a team of talented designers demanding that they create the greatest fare in the history of the world in November Jackson Park on the south side of Chicago and on the shore of Lake Michigan was selected as the location for the fair not only would the area provide a beautiful view of the lake but Jackson Park also included the Midway Plaisance a mile long strip of park that was more swampy than it was beautiful in December 1890 Burnham had developed a rough map for the fair including a mile long pleasure garden for the Midway which was to include displays of both education and amusement Burnham also left an empty space for the fair's tower which had still not developed past its initial concept of the Eiffel Tower but better a few months later the Westinghouse company was hired to provide electricity to the fair bidding just below the Edison General Electric Company a company that was a year away from a merger that would transform them into General Electric the Faire plan to have an electricity building with inventions and innovations from Edison and Tesla yes would be amazed by the innovations to the incandescent lamps and electric lights which meant no more kerosene and no more gas the farmer's son now a farmer himself with his orange grove in Florida was failing just as his father had a fries had destroyed many of his newly acquired crops as his father had uprooted his family to pursue uncertain opportunities the farmer's son was about to do the same with his first child on the way the farmer's son would travel once again this time to Chicago hoping to secure employment as a carpenter there will be plenty of construction with the World's Fair in the carpenter hoped to establish his family in the Illinois city with a newly born son and now a second child on the way the farmer's son and his wife arrived in Chicago in 1890 in the summer of 1891 construction began on the first of the fair's main exhibition buildings there were to be 14 great buildings each with a different industry represented such as the fisheries building the forestry building the mines and mining building the agricultural building in the horticultural building among others there was also a cold storage building built by Hercules ironworks in the ice and refrigeration machine manufacturers the companies would show off their advancements in refriger technologies with their new ice boxes some holding 50 pounds of ice resulting in milk not souring as quick as it used to despite the building's purpose as a showcase of ice coolers it would briefly catch fire during its operation the construction of the fair continued the dedication was scheduled for October 1892 and the opening was scheduled for May 1893 but weather and construction issues had been constantly plaguing development worse now in the summer of 1891 there was still no Eiffel Tower challenger the nation's leading architects and engineers were not stepping up to the plate it seemed that the fair's placement in Chicago had disinterested many of the top minds of the Northeast and Burnham was furious the local Chicago newspaper The Tribune even put out a competition urging for ideas that could best Eiffel and best they would if the submissions weren't all plausible one suggestion was for a telescopic tower that would raise an intervals over a long period of time with a restaurant on top with incredible views a proposed 9,000 foot tall tower with a 1,000 foot base built 2,000 feet into the ground was suggested by the toboggan transportation company the engineers proposed multiple toboggan lines the guests could take for fast travels to cities such as New York and Boston not to entertain this ridiculous concept too much but a passenger sledding from the top of the 9,000 foot tall tower located in Chicago all the way to New York at Olympic toboggan speeds would take ten hours what one would do after arriving in the new city with only the possessions that could fit inside the toboggan with no mode of transportation back is unclear a less impossible but more dangerous idea was a 4,000 foot tall tower with 2,000 foot cables attached to giant passenger cars these cars would be thrown off of the tower with guests inside and would be stopped by the elastic cable bouncing them to a halt this predated the sport of bungee jumping by about a century but just because something was ahead of its time does not automatically mean that it was good the engineer of the death Tower clarified that there would need to be at least eight feet of feathers at the bottom in case the cable snapped a courteous precaution that would have saved absolutely no-one Gustave Eiffel himself even contacted the exposition committee offering his services and helping them defeat himself this was one of the luckiest moments for Burnham and fair organizers while they did not hire eiffel the news that he would possibly be designing the fair's flagship attraction angered the architect engineers that were previously unconcerned dove the fairs development the committee kindly turned eiffel down and began to feel more serious and practical submissions from American engineers [Music] in April of 1892 Birnam and fair designers made what would be the boldest decision that they would make the majority of the buildings at the fair were to be painted white this results in a gorgeous neoclassic look to the exposition which would soon be referred to as the White City while opposed by the modern architects of the time the fair would be beautiful and would help the u.s. to be seen as an artistic force while the White City that was the fair would be organized clean and safe the rest of Chicago would be given the name the black city mostly for its poor sanitation and its billowing smoke Chicago is seen as a dangerous place the most dangerous in the country in the first half of 1892 almost 800 murders occurred in the city yet its danger was romanticized glorified it was exciting even with violent crime and dirty streets Chicago was a place to be Burnham would gather architects and engineers in a type of think-tank to determine the fair's signature attraction at one of these meetings a young engineer just over 30 years old listen to Burnham's pleas for an attraction he was motivated to pitch a concept and he develops an idea that he had been considering for years a large steel spinning wheel the man's name was George Washington Gale Ferris jr. George Washington Gale Ferris jr. approached the committee about his idea for an Eiffel wheel the committee wasn't convinced but after many trusted engineers backed the proposal they conceded and allowed Faris's wheel to be built to be placed in the middle of the fair's Midway the fair would take in 50% of the profits from the wheel after the first $300,000 the agreement was made in December of 1892 two months after the fair's dedication in a mere five months before its opening in March of 1893 the wheels iron axle weigh nearly 45 tons and forged in Pittsburgh arrived in Chicago it was miraculously lifted and placed on the supports as the engines for the wheel were still being constructed over 200 yards away and the wheel itself was still not complete while Burnham and the fair organizers were in a panic over the impending opening of the fair the United States as a whole was in a panic over the economy a variety of factors including over investment in the railroads which had been very good for the fair had caused a deep economic recession which would be very bad for the fair in times of economic uncertainty the first thing cut from a family's budget would be travel and leisure spending the fair was relying on people not just from the US around the world to attend despite the stress of the economy Burnham pushed on employing around 20,000 workers in April of 1893 to have the fair ready for the May first opening one of them being the farmer's son now settled in Chicago with his family and working on the fair work conditions were dangerous and many deaths occurred due to accidents despite the chaos of construction Chicago was excited for the fair it was time for their city to shine and newspapers reported on many of the fair's exhibitions and attractions including displays on the Midway and a quickly built World's Fair Hotel everyone seemed to be disappointed that Ferris wheel would not be open for the big day but Burnham was focused on delay matters as simple as painting the buildings on May 1st 1893 with Burnham the fair's organizers the engineers President Grover Cleveland and even the builders still constructing it the World's Columbian Exposition opened to the public hundreds of thousands of people flooded in some estimates claimed that nearly half a million enter Jackson Park that day guests viewed the many grand exhibits and walked up and down the Midway small recreations of countries were present such as a street in Cairo that featured a show of a belly dancer doing a dance that was commonly referred to as the hootchy-kootchy with an accompanying tune supposedly improvised by one of the fair's organizers you guests could go near the lake and walk on a new invention the travelator whereas it would later become known a moving walkway a man named Whitcomb Jetson found a way to fasten two pieces of fabric together with a metal device called a class blocker it would later develop into the popular fashion device the zipper also on display was an electric kitchen oven controlled by thermostat although it was unfortunately still not able to clean itself guests would be able to collect the first ever elongated coins later known as a pressed penny these would quickly become collectors items at similar amusement type fairs other more regrettable inclusions on the Midway were a series of Native villages later referred to as human zoos in which people from far-off places such as Indonesia and West Africa would reside in an exhibit supposed to appear similar to their own native villages just nearby that visitors would be able to ride Thomas Rankin snow and ice Railway a bobsled ride where guests would race around a track one precursor to the roller coasters that would soon populate the country the fun ride will be criticized after a sled flew off of the track resulting in the death of a passenger guests were also able to try new delicacies such as a new snack named a Cracker Jack a new gum called a juicy fruit in a new breakfast cereal called shredded wheat finally a patriotic almost creepy poem recited by schoolchildren named the Pledge of Allegiance would debut with hundreds of thousands of people roaming the fairgrounds it seemed that the fare would be a huge success and Chicago was well on its way to topping Paris the very next day only 10,000 people showed up to the fair three days later many major banks in Chicago began to close as the economic recession reached the city only 3,000 visitors a day entered the fair at the end of May the recession worsened and crowds continued to fall Burnham and the other architects were no longer concerned of beating Paris they were just hoping that the fair wouldn't be one of if not the greatest failed event in the history of the world worse right next door showman Buffalo Bill Cody had brought his popular Wild West Show to Chicago and had parked it right next to the exposition the fair had denied his request to be part of the festivities so his buffalo bill drew tens of thousands of people the fair received no part of the profits in June of 1893 Faris's wheel was tested without cars shortly after the cars were hung on June 11th Burnham and Faris's wife tested the in two days later the press were allowed to experience the wheel the ride was huge 264 feet tall with 36 cars weighing 13 tons each each of which could hold 60 people with seating for 38 excitement was high for the wheel but it was hurting the fare many people refused to make the trip to Chicago until after the main attraction was open not wanting to waste their time or money on an incomplete land or fare rather miraculously Ferris was able to get his monstrosity of Steel moving and ready for guests on June 21st Ferris opened his attraction in attendance at the fair boosted significantly many were quick to point out that the low attendance in the first two months of the fair could have been avoided if the land or fair would have opened as a cohesive unit yes were slightly underwhelmed by the wheel at first expecting it to be thrilling or dangerous however it was serene and beautiful and guests quickly became entranced in its wonder only on a few instances did claustrophobic guests or riders that were afraid of heights caused a panic and tried to jump off the ride all of these attempts were thwarted by placing a fare attendant in each car many couples wanted to get married at the top of the wheel inviting the entire wedding parties without permission from the fares organizers who denied them access and married them in offices instead the wheel operated for the next four months of the fair pulling in 1.5 million visitors earning over $700,000 with Faris's company profiting nearly $400,000 despite this ferris claimed he did not receive all of the profits owed to him he soon faced bankruptcy and his wife left him the Columbian Exposition would end as a success in its Chicago Day celebration on October 9th 1893 would bring in over 700 thousand guests to the fare beating Paris's single-day record by over 300,000 visitors this put the fare in the black cementing it as a financial success in the beauty and grace of the white city would cement it as an artistic success as well the fair's achievements would be slightly overshadowed as it was revealed that the owner of the hotel referred to as the World's Fair Hotel had turned out to be a new kind of killer a serial killer murdering many of the residents of the in the US now had its own Jack the Ripper in the danger of Chicago that have once been romanticized was now feared the country was shook by the details of the murders of HH Holmes at the same time the US was trying to build its national culture it's innocence was slipping away quickly after the fair the farmer son continued his career as a carpenter building and selling homes and even constructing the st. Paul Congregational Church for his friend and preacher Walter Parr it seemed that he had finally found a sustainable profession something his father never could six months after the Columbian Exposition closed Faris's wheel would be moved to near Lincoln Park on the north side of Chicago the move would take 86 days and cost fifteen thousand dollars or around four hundred thousand dollars today in July 1895 the wheel was reconstructed and by October it was running once again George Ferris would see the beginning of an unsuccessful second run for his creation before dying of typhoid fever in 1896 at the young age of 37 his legacy would be strong as he created a new type of amusement ride one that would bear his name and will become a staple Affairs and Parks for decades and centuries to come even the Midway that his wheel was placed would become a common term and design element of the amusement parks that would follow despite all of his contributions perhaps his greatest achievement came in 1900 when Paris held their first Exposition since their 1889 Fair the exposition featured Paris's own Great Wheel a near replica apheresis ferris had taken on eiffel and now Paris was taking on him the wheel ferris built for the Chicago fair would be moved once again where it would entertain guests at the 1904 st. Louis Exposition celebrating the anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase this would not be the only reoccurring attraction from the Columbian Exposition as another a little Egypt show would see the return of the hoochie-coochie the st. Louis Exposition would end on December 1st 1904 the wheel sat still for a year and a half before on May 11th 1906 after stripping it of its valuable parts Faris's creation was destroyed in the most graceful respectful and safe way that a wheel of its size could be it was blown to bits by 300 pounds of dynamite in total over 2.5 million people had been entertained by the attraction and many knockoffs would soon be built throughout the world increasing the prominence of the ferris wheel the United States had sought respect for its art from the world with the fair in the wheel and in doing so might have contributed to their national culture more than the fair organizers realized unlike the Eiffel Tower the US had not constructed a beautiful sculpture of steel with grace and elegance that could stand in Paris and fit they had created a an amusement ride the country was still young but they had proven their industry and art through the fairs of the past half century but Faris's wheel might have been the greatest display of what would soon become a key part of America's culture excess thrill and amusement and for better or for worse that's progress the farmer sons family now consisted of five children the exposition had led to a prosperous career in Chicago so much that he suggested to his wife that they named their third son Columbus after the Columbian Exposition she wasn't thrilled about the name and the couple decided on the name Roy for their third child instead the farmer's son wouldn't raise the issue again with their fourth child choosing to name him after his friend Walter Parr although they would refer to him as simply Walt in 1906 the farmer's son decided it was time to move his family out of Chicago the rise in crime in the city had finally gotten to him so the farmer's son Elias and his family act their bags and headed for Marceline Missouri [Music]

Channel: Defunctland

Views: 848,071

Keywords: defunctland, kevin perjurer, theme park, extinct, abandoned, defunct, history, disney, disneyland, disney world, previous, attractions, on ride, lights on, ferris wheel, chicago world's fair, columbian exposition, daniel burnham, hh holmes, devil in the white city, amusement park history, ferris wheel history, original ferris wheel, carousel of progress, carousel of progress history, world's fair, world's fair history, world expo

Id: OsJu0XA429A

Length: 23min 19sec (1399 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 05 2019