AstroMedia The Ferris Wheel Manual - Página 2

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The Ferris Wheel

Wheels with seats to take passengers up and down are much

older than you would think: The oldest report mentioning such a

device is from an English traveller who saw one in 1620 in the

Bulgarian town of Plovdiv. For a long time these wheels had only

six or eight seats and were operated by hand. Therefore it was

important that the weight was evenly distributed. The ﬁrst large

ferris wheel was shown at the Worldʼs Columbian Exposition

1893 in Chicago. It was over 80 metres tall, had 36 gondolas for

60 passengers each, and could therefore transport up to 2,160 (!)

people at the same time. It was constructed by the American

engineer G.W.G Ferris Jr., after whom these wheels are now

named.

This was the trigger for the construction of a number of ferris

wheels in the old world as well, some of which are still in

operation today, like the one built in 1897 in Viennaʼs Prater.

Gondola,

side wall

Hub

Driving wheel

Stand 1,

cross-beam

Stand 1,

right truss

Stand 1,

stanchion 1

In the 20th century stationary ferris wheels lost their attraction

until the London Eye started operating in the year 2000. At that

time it was the tallest wheel in the world, measuring 135m. The

current record holder is the Singapore Flyer, that can transport 28

people in each of its 28 gondolas to a height of 165m.

The AstroMedia Ferris Wheel follows in the tradition of tin models

meant to be driven by toy steam engines that were produced for

the children of wealthy families at the end of the 19th century.

To ensure the wheel can be driven by the moderate power of the

AstroMedia Steam Engine, the construction minimises friction as

much as possible and uses a gear reduction of 15:1. This means

that the diameter of the driving wheel ﬁtted to the ferris wheel is

15 times as large as the diameter of the one ﬁtted to the crank

shaft of the steam engine.

Rim 2

Rim 1

Gondola,

cubicle

Stand 2,

left truss

Mounting plate