Several days ago Zorro asked, "Did he say 100 people per car?? Please tell me what the capacity actually was." Sorry to make you wait so long, Mary, but here's the answer:
George Ferris planned to build a vertically revolving wheel 250 feet in diameter. The thirty-six cars, "each about the size of a Pullman" (a train car), would each hold sixty people and come equipped with its own lunch counter. Can you imagine a wheel large enough to "propel 2,160 people at a time three hundred feet into the sky over Jackson Park"? I can't!
Since some of you probably don't click on the photos to make them bigger, I want to show you ... again! ... the one I found of Ferris's completed wheel. This time I'll try to make it as large as possible. (If you click on it, you can make it even larger. Then you can see each "car" more clearly.)
Though I'm struggling to make myself read the parts about Holmes, Marylyn has the opposite problem: "In part II I got bored with all the construction talk and started anxiously anticipating Holmes’s next devious act." Marylyn, we are constitutionally very different people! But I guess we both already knew that, huh? LOL.
4 comments:
The Ferris wheel has been one of the most interesting parts for me. I never knew the history of them, and the idea of having so many people on one car is amazing to me. I am a scaredy-cat on Ferris wheels--I would be like the guy who started freaking out and the lady had to cover his head with her skirt!
I have been really busy and will be for the next couple of weeks, so I don't know when I will get to the discussion questions (and the end of the book. I would like to see some sort of justice in the end.)
Thanks for answering my question! Sixty people per car is still too many! No I cannot imagine the total load with every car filled.
Tell me what you know about the revolving platform/sidewalk for unloading boats coming to the Fair from the lake...I saw a picture of it somewhere. There is a revolving sidewalk at SeaWorld here for unloading from the log ride. Wonder if they are the same.
I don't mean to discuss out of the schedule and I don't know where in the book it is mentioned that Walt Disney's father worked on the construction of the fair. I can really see the influence that the fair had on Epcot Center at Disney World. Interesting.
You aren't discussing anything at the wrong time, Mary. Walt disney's father is mentioned in part 2, I think, or at any rate it was early in the book. Buddies, please discuss ANY part of the book that interests you!
Bonnie wrote: "Marylyn, we are constitutionally very different people! But I guess we both already knew that, huh? LOL."
Yes we did know that and what a boring world it would be if we were all the same...Lol
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