THE FERRIS WHEEL | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 12, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 19.

THE FERRIS WHEEL.

The Review of Reviews for September publishes an exceedingly interesting article on "Engineer Ferris and His Wheel," descriptive of that singular exhibition of American ingenuity and progress. The writer says:—

Given the circumstances, in no other country than America would the wheel have ever been built. It took three years to complete Eiffel tower. Even here it took two years to build the St. Louis bridge. Both were comparatively simple work. The builder of the Ferris wheel had not only to construct a work equaling these, but in such a way that it would move, and, moreover, move perfectly—a far greater problem.

On December 28 every scrap of iron and steel used in the wheel was "pig." On June 21, less than six months later, 2,200 tons of this "pig," converted into a revolving mechanism as perfect as the pinion wheel of an Elgin watch, began to turn on its 70-ton axis, and has been turning, without let or hindrance, without creak or crack, ever since.

It is not easy for the mind to grasp the stupendous nature of this undertaking. The wheel itself is 250 feet in diameter; at its highest point it is 268 feet above the earth. That is to say, if Bunker Hill monument were used as a yardstick to measure it, the towering monolith would fall short 50 feet. If the wheel were set in Broadway, by the side of Trinity spire, it would lift the passengers of its cars to a level with the apex of that soaring steeple. The obelisk of Luxor, or Trajan's pillar, at Rome, would not be long enough to serve for a radial spoke.

Then, again, as to its enormous weight. The Niagara cantilever, just below the falls, was looked upon as an engineering wonder when it was built. Its construction required three years. The Ferris wheel was built in five months, and its weight is four times that of the Niagara bridge. The St. Louis bridge was another wonder, and its weight is about equal to that of the big wheel complete. The Cincinnati cantilever is another huge bridge; it is 1,300 feet, a quarter of a mile long, and it would about balance the scales with Mr. Ferris' big toy. And the one is set immovable, resting on two supports, while the wheel is swung upon an axle lifted 140 feet in the air. It has 36 cars, and in these two regiments of soldiers could be seated and swept with an almost imperceptible motion high above the White Wonder.

I said, "Precisely what does the great wheel represent in mechanics?"

"Well," Mr. Ferris replied, "I suppose you might consider it as typifying the present progress, the latest development, of mechanical engineering. You know there are really two wheels, one built thirty feet within the other. These are joined by truss work, such as is used in our finest bridge construction. Beyond all that, the wheel develops, to a degree hitherto never realized, the capacities of a tension spoke. You know that the wheel is not only a perfect pinion wheel, but a tension wheel as well, and these, I suppose, may be regarded as its chief points. I do not know whether you have stopped to consider, but it is as perfect a pinion wheel as the little wheel that goes flicking back and forth in your watch. In all that immense diameter there is less deflection proportionately from a true circle than from the pinion wheel of the most perfect watch made. This is due to the fact that it has, instead of stiff spokes, the tension or jointed spokes. When I first proposed to build a tension wheel of this diameter, the feat was regarded as impossible. It was held that the spoke rods on the upper side of the wheel at any given moment, instead of sustaining the weight of the upper part of the wheel, would, from their own weight, as they hung vertically, pull down the arc of the wheel which they bore upon, and thus cause the wheel to become elliptic. As a matter of fact, they do nothing of the kind. There is absolutely no deflection from the perfect circle.

"Considering some of the mechanical difficulties in the construction of the wheel, you will note that it stands directly east and west; thus the southern side of the wheel receives the entire brunt of the sun's rays, whereas the northern side is not only shaded by the southern but by the cars as well, causing a difference in expansion, varying, from the heat to which it is subjected, of from three to six inches. All these little problems had, of course, to be met, for even this slight variation of five or six inches in the total diameter of 250 feet would be sufficient, unless properly dealt with, to cause a disturbance in the working gear."