The morning call., 1893-09-23
AN ENGINEERING FEAT.
The Greatness of the Ferris Wheel
Is Now Apparent.
Troy Tim es.

This is an era of engineering triumphs,
| but the greatest OF all recent successes
/ along that line is admitted to be the Ferris
wheel at the Chicago Exposition. Con-
ceived almost in a moment, constructed
| against the advice of many of the most
skillful members of the profession,
evolved from the pig metal in less than six
| months, it was set in motion on June
81. and siGce that time daily has lifted
| thousands high in the air and brought
| them safely back to the ground. The
notable achievement of the Paris EXPOSE
| ton was the Effel tower, but that was re-
maTkabe only for its height. The Ferris
! wheel is a massive yet delicate piece of
macnlnery-SO massive that $50 ton load
| of human beings has little more effect upon
it than fly upon carriage wheel, so
| delicate that its great power is exerted
| without the slightest jar.
| That the idea of the wheel came to
! George w. G. Ferris like al inspiration is
apparent from his statement:
I'VE used 10 have a Saturday afternoo
| club, chiefly engineers, at the W Orld's Fair.
Ii was al one of these dinners, down in
| Chicago chOphOuSe, that | hit on the idea.
l remembered remaTklng that L would
build wheel-a monster. | got some pa
per and began sketching it out [ fixed
the size, determined the construction the
of people il would hold, what we would
charge. the plan of stopping six times in
the first revolution and loading, aud then
making complete turn-in short, before
dinner was over had sketehed out almost
the entire detail, aad my plau has neyer
varied an item from this day. The wheel
stands in the Plaisance at this moment as
| il stood before me them
HIS fellow-englneers laughed at the idea,
said that 1t would not work. and that no
way could be found for revolving the
great mass. and advised him not to risk
his reputation upon such wild project.
But he persisted, completed the plans,
and, submitting them to the directory
OF the fair, asked for concession. The
managers were reluctant to give even
a shadow of recognition to a scheme
so daring. aad il was not until the middle
of December, 1892, that he was assured OF
a right to EXHIBIT that marvel of engin-
eeTing skill. In five months the 22O0 tons
OF iron and steel necessary for the wheel
were nodded into form in Detroit, taken
to Chicago and put together, and so per-
feet were the plans that each piece fitted
to Its place as accurately as though formed
on the spot.
Only less wonderful than the designing
OF the wheel was the planning for putting
il into position. The foundations for the
towers were started thiTty-fve feet below
the surface of the ground. and were built
l..
Heavy steel bars were buried in this ce-
ment and to these the towers were bolted,
making II Impossible to overturn the wheel
without uprooting the foundations. The
axis upon which the wheel turns weighs
seventy tons, and this great weight was
lifted 140 feet in the air and settled in its
sockets without the least difficulty. Seq
ment by segment the wheel was riveted to-
gether and the cars attached aud the mo-
ment arrived for setting it in motion.
Many plans had been considered for
applying the motive power. but the one
| finally decided upon was an endless chain
operating on two SprOcket wheels. To be
effective the wheel had to be perfect in
its revolutions, and not until the ma
chlnery was started was the bold designer
sure that success was his But every
thing worked as planned and the great
triumph OF Mir. Ferris was complete.
The wheel itself is $50 feet in diameter
and Its highest point reaches 26S feet above
the earth. The weight is four times that
nf the great cantileyrr bridge at Niagara
Falls. SO strong is it that the great gale
in July, in which the wind reached a velo-
city of 10 miles an hour. had no percepti-
Bile effect upon the structure. 1t cost
1892. 600, large sum to invest in an ex-
pertinent, but the success of the inventor
is bringing large returns, and he is ping
fortune as well as fame. The company
which controls the W eel. of which Cap
tain r. w. Hunt. formerly of this city, is
president. is also coming money" out of
the invention.
The points to which Mr. Ferris alludes
with especial pride are the perfection of
the pini0n wheel and the success of the
tension spoke. He shows that there is
less DETECTION proportonalely in the wheel
than In the pinion wheel of the finest
watch, and this he believes is due to the
tension spokes. The tension spoke is less
expensive than the stiff spoke, and the lat
ter could not have been used in the
wheel on account of the great weight
Mr.. Ferris thinks the tension prin-
ciple will come into general use, and
he says it would be feasible to build fly
wheel as large as his structure and use it
In every day machinery. The largest ten
sion wheel heretofore built was in Sent
land. But lat was only 30 feet in diameter,
and was used as a water wheel.
Such is the achievement in mechanical
engineering OF man with only dozen
years of practical experience in his profess
sion. Mr.. Ferris was graduated from the
Rensselaer, Polytechnic Institute in 1881,
and his work since that time has been
largely in connection with the building of
bridges. That he has studied and thought
as well as worked is proved by the fame
which now is his.