A Ferris wheel (also called a big wheel, giant wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondolas, capsules, or pods) attached to the rim in such a way that as the wheel turns, they are kept upright, usually by gravity. Some of the largest modern Ferris wheels have cars mounted on the outside of the rim, with electric motors to independently rotate each car to keep it upright.

The original Ferris Wheel was designed and constructed by George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. as a landmark for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, although much smaller wooden wheels of a similar idea predate Ferris's wheel, dating perhaps to the 1500s. The generic term "Ferris wheel" is now used in American English for all such structures, which have become a very common type of amusement ride at amusement parks, state fairs, and other fairs or carnivals in the United States.

The tallest Ferris wheel is the Ain Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, which opened in October 2021.

Terminology and design The term Ferris wheel comes from the designer of the best known early example, George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., whose Ferris Wheel Company built a large amusement for the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition in 1893.

The Ferris Wheel Company was formed in 1892 for the [construction and operation of] "wheels of the Ferris or other types for the purpose of observation or amusement", the source of the modern usage observation wheel for the type.MSN Encarta – Ferris Wheel

Design variations include single- (cantilevered) or twin-sided support for the wheel, and whether the cars or capsules are oriented upright by gravity or by electric motors. The most prevalent design uses twin-sided support and gravity-oriented capsules.

Early history Early 17th-century pleasure wheels; to the left an engraving by Adam Olearius, to the right a modern depiction of a period Turkish design

"Pleasure wheels", whose passengers rode in chairs suspended from large wooden rings turned by strong men, may have originated in 17th-century Bulgaria.

The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia, 1608–1667 describes and illustrates "severall Sorts of Swinginge used in their Publique rejoyceings att their Feast of Biram" on 17 May 1620 at Philippopolis (now Plovdiv) in the Ottoman Balkans. Among means "lesse dangerous and troublesome" was one:

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:

Similar wheels also appeared in England in the 17th century, and subsequently elsewhere around the world, including India, Romania, and Siberia.

A Frenchman, Antonio Manguino, introduced the idea to the United States in 1848, when he constructed a wooden pleasure wheel to attract visitors to his start-up fair in Walton Spring, Georgia.

Somers' Roundabout

In 1891, William Somers installed a fifty-foot wooden wheel at Atlantic City, New Jersey, and later others at Asbury Park, New Jersey, and Coney Island, New York. In 1893 he was granted the first U.S. patent for a "Roundabout".explorepahistory.com – Ferris Wheel Inventor Historical Marker George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. rode on Somers' wheel in Atlantic City before 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.

The original Ferris Wheel

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.

With a height of , it was the tallest attraction at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, where it opened to the public on June 21, 1893. It was intended to rival the Eiffel Tower, the centerpiece of the 1889 Paris Exposition.

Ferris was a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a bridge-builder in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 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-ton, axle comprising what was at that time the world's largest hollow forging, manufactured in Pittsburgh by the Bethlehem Iron Company and weighing , together with two cast-iron spiders weighing .

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. The cars were 24 feet long, 13 feet wide, and 10 feet high. The wheel carried some 38,000 passengers daily. It took 20 minutes to complete two revolutions: the first involved six stops for passenger exchange, and the second was a nine-minute non-stop rotation, for which the ticket holder paid 50 cents.

The Exposition ended in October 1893, and the wheel, which had closed in April 1894, 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. William D. Boyce, then a 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 for the 1904 World's Fair and finally destroyed by controlled demolition using dynamite on May 11, 1906.

Antique Ferris wheels

The Wiener Riesenrad (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 Josef I's Golden Jubilee, it has a height of 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.

Following the demolition of the Grande Roue de Paris in 1920, the Riesenrad became the world's tallest extant Ferris wheel. In 1944 it burnt down, but was rebuilt the following year with 15 passenger cars, and remained the world's tallest extant wheel until the Technocosmos was constructed in 1984 for Expo '85, at Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.

Still in operation today, it is one of Vienna's most popular tourist attractions, and over the years has featured in numerous films (including Madame Solange d`Atalide (1914), Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), The Third Man (1949), The Living Daylights (1987), Before Sunrise (1995) and novels.

World's tallest Ferris wheels

Chronology of world's tallest wheels

1893: the original Ferris Wheel was tall. Built for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, it was moved to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1904 for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, and demolished there in 1906. 1895: the Great Wheel was built for the Empire of India Exhibition at Earls Court, London, UK, and was tall. Construction began in March 1894 and it opened to the public on July 17, 1895. It stayed in service until 1906 and was demolished in 1907, having carried over 2.5 million passengers. 1900: the Grande Roue de Paris was built for the Exposition Universelle, a world's fair held in Paris, France. It was demolished in 1920, but its height was not surpassed until almost 90 years after its construction. 1920: the Wiener Riesenrad was built to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Emperor Franz Josef I, at the entrance of the Wurstelprater amusement park in Austria's capital Vienna. Constructed in 1897, when the Grande Roue de Paris was demolished in 1920, the Riesenrad became the world's tallest extant Ferris wheel with , and it remained so for the next 65 years until 1985, its 97th year. 1985: Technocosmos, later renamed Technostar, was an 85-metre (279 ft) tall giant Ferris wheel, originally built for the Expo 85 World Fair in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan. Work began on dismantling Technostar in November 2009. 1989: the Cosmo Clock 21 was built for the YES '89 Yokohama Exposition at Minato Mirai 21, Yokohama, Japan. Originally constructed with a height of , it was dismantled in 1997 and then in 1999 relocated onto a taller base which increased its overall height to . 1992: Igosu 108 at Biwako Tower, Ōtsu, Shiga, Japan, opened April 26 at tall, hence its name. It has since been moved to Vietnam, where it opened as the Sun Wheel on a new base, now totaling tall. 1997: the Tempozan Ferris Wheel, in Osaka, Japan, opened to the public on July 13, and is tall. 1999: the Daikanransha at Palette Town in Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan, is tall. 2000: the London Eye, in London, United Kingdom, is tall. Although officially opened on December 31, 1999, it did not open to the public until March 2000 due to technical problems. 2006: the Star of Nanchang, in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, China, opened for business in May and is tall. 2008: the Singapore Flyer, in Singapore, is tall. It started rotating on February 11, and officially opened to the public on March 1, 2008. 2014: the High Roller, in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, is tall. It opened to the public on March 31, 2014. 2021: the Ain Dubai in the United Arab Emirates is . It opened to the public on October 21, 2021.

Timeline