The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1893-10-28
The Man of the Wheel.

~ '''NS'NA Se"Ni A~Pu'uttvu' tAC Ca poSi-
ton at Chicago may establish, says the
Review of Reviews, it will have brought a
generous and just measure of fame TO a
young engineer, whose daring and brilliant
exploit has already set him far in the front
rank of the engineers of America, if not of
the world. This is George Washington
Gale Ferris, the inventor, as he may be
properly called, of the great Ferris wheel,
who is not over 30 years of age. There
are few among those who attend the world
fair who do not visit this huge and curious
mechanism, few who do not pause to won
der and to marvel at its bulk, its symmetry
and its tremendous strength But it is the
members of Mr. Ferris own profession who
best realize the full measure of his achieve
ment
For, after all its spectacular qualities are
dismissed, the wheel is the triumph of
modern engineering. 1t brings into play
new mechanical principle, and exhibits
the almost limitless possibilities of steel
construction. When one considers all fhe
problems which its building involved, the
absolute perfection of its design, the mas
sive strength of its slender and apparently
frail contour, that much of it was wholly
experimental and that it was built against
the Judgment of many of the ablest cngi-
neers of the United States, it would seem
that there is no feat, no possibility of me-
chanics so great that between Bessemer
and a genius brain it may not one day be
realized
When the young engineer conceived
the wheel [250 feet in diameterl as almost
the flash inspiration of moment, and ex-
planned its features to his brother engineers,
they promptly stated that the scheme was
not feasible. They claimed that when it
revolved it would become an ellipse. Be
sides there was no way of revolving such
an enormous mass, any way. There were
objections in multiple. Not that they ex-
actly secuted the idea. Its author $ posi-
ton in the engineering world was too well
established. But in the interest of his
long and hard-earned reputation they ad-
vised him to let the project alone.
Given the circumstances, in no other
country than America would the wheel
have ever been built. 1t took three years
to complete the Eiffel tower Even here it
took two years 10 build the St. Louis
bridge. Both were comparatively simple
work. The builder of the Ferris wheel
had not only to construct work equalling
these, but in such way that it would
move, and, moreover, move perfectly-a
far greater problem.
On December 2S every scrap of iron and
steel used in the wheel was "pig." On
June 21, less than six months later, :, 200
tons of this "pig,' converted into revolv-
ing 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 crick or
crack, ever since.
As to what the great wheel represents
in mechanics Mr.. Ferris says that it might
be considered as typifying the latest devel-
opment of engineering science. There are
really two wheels, one built 30 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 degree hitherto never realized
the capacities of tension spoke. The
wheel is not only perfect pinion wheel,
but tension wheel as well, and these, says
Mr., Ferris, may be regarded as the chief
points. 1t isas perfect pinion wheelas the
little wheel that goes ficking back and forth
in your watch. In all that immense diam
eter there is less DETECTION 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 stiifspokes, the tension or jointed spokes,
When Mr.. Ferris first proposed to build a
tension wheel of this diameter the feat was
regarded as impossible. 1t 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 that 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 DETECTION from the perfect
circle