Bumper cars
Bumper cars , autodrome , Bumpercars or bumper car (other names see parlance ) means a ride , which on many fairs and amusement parks can be found. In the basic structure, small electric cars, which are supplied via current collectors, can be controlled freely over a surface, whereby the vehicles are secured against bumps with a wide circumferential rubber ring.
history
In Germany there were bumper cars for the first time at the 1926 "GeSoLei" exhibition on the old exhibition grounds of Messe Düsseldorf . 60 percent of the site presented itself as a fairground. Already at the big Moers fair in 1927, the company Peter Tusch from Krefeld showed its first bumper car (self-driving car).
However, development began in the American amusement park Coney Island . In the first two decades of the 20th century, the automobile attracted a lot of attention; they wanted to make this “rich people's toy” accessible to the common man. One of the first rides of this kind was in 1906 Neville's Automobile Railroad ("Nevilles Auto-Bahn"), on which the individual carriages were guided by a rail similar to the mechanical horse race. However, the development soon moved towards freely moving vehicles. At the Gadabout and the Dodge'em , they have been attached to a net-like overhead line since 1919 , as it is known today from bumper cars. Others were equipped with batteries and later with internal combustion engines, which led to the development of the go-kart track around 1930 . Both variants still exist on Coney Island today, but they are no longer special.
There are also the bumper cars known from the fair or the Wiesenfest or folk festival , which work with a chip, in amusement parks such as Thurn Castle in a different version: The structure is similar to that of the “folk festival scooter”, but when you enter the park Paid once for all attractions and rides, which, in contrast to the folk or meadow festival, allows you to change your scooter without having to “invest” another chip.
technology
Construction and transport
Stationary scooter hall in wood construction
Mobile post scooter
Two-column scooter under construction
Two-column scooter
The mobile ride can be transported with two to three trucks .
The bumper cars are classified according to the number of pillars supporting the roof. Most of today's scooters are two-column scooters and have all the important parts housed on a so-called center-section wagon. When opened hydraulically, it becomes a scooter hall and only needs to be decorated with light and decorative elements. These elements, like the chaisee (vehicles), are transported in extra baggage vehicles. In the past, there were mostly six or eight-column scooters on the road, which were very complex to assemble, as the entire scooter hall had to be assembled piece by piece from heavy individual parts.
In the early days of the traveling bumper cars, the scooter halls were made of wood with few iron parts. These scooters usually had 16 roof-bearing posts. This results in today's usage:
- Post scooter - wooden construction.
- Six-, eight-, ten-, twelve-column scooters - steel construction that has to be built by hand from many individual parts.
- Two-pillar scooter - lightweight steel construction on a central construction wagon that is unfolded.
The first two-pillar only had the roof on the middle section. The entire substructure was transported in a separate baggage car and had to be assembled from individual parts by hand. With modern two-pillar scooters, everything is on the middle section except for the chaise, light and sound technology.
The assembly time of a modern bumper car is around eight to ten hours with two to three people. About half the time is needed for dismantling.
Power supply
Children's bumper cars; The conductive grid and the pantographs are clearly visible
Close up of a pantograph
Pantograph in roll form
Bumper cars without grid over the driving area; Electricity comes from the strip-like subsegments of the driving surface
The ride of a bumper car typically has an area of approximately 15 m × 30 m for the driving surface. This usually consists of a steel surface that must be able to carry electricity. In the most common variant, about three meters above the driving surface, there is a conductive grid that serves as an overhead line . The drive works in a similar way to that of a tram or a trolleybus . The runway and grid are connected to a direct current circuit, the grounding is via the runway. The voltage is up to 110 volts , the current strength up to 1,000 amperes . The electric cars close the circuit between the driving surface and the grille via two sliding contacts. The pantograph rods at the rear of the vehicles serve this purpose .
Another and very rare variant consists in the fact that the driving surface has a chessboard or strip-like structure and the arrangement of the subsegments alternately leads to the plus or minus pole. The size of the partial areas is designed so that every vehicle - regardless of its location or position - can "tap" at least two adjacent segments and thus the required and different poles. For this purpose, the vehicles have several current collector brushes on their underside, which then feed the voltage to the vehicle through bridge rectifier circuits. This rectifier also prevents short circuits. The advantage of such a supply is that the usual nets above the roadway and the pick-up bars on the vehicle can be dispensed with. The manufacturer Bertazzon calls this concept "Floor Electrical Pick-Up". Such a system is z. B. in the amusement parks Hansa-Park in Schleswig-Holstein, in Duinrell in the Netherlands and in Tscheljuskinzew-Park in the Belarusian capital Minsk . In Hansa-Park, the system is located in a space-themed hall, where the optically disruptive network was dispensed with due to special effects. This bumper car was built by Bertazzon together with Mack Rides .
In 2007, the first bumper car drove at the Munich Oktoberfest to operate three of its vehicles with a photovoltaic system .
vehicles
A bumper car from the 1950s
Bumper car vehicle from the 1960s - the all-round rubber buffer is clearly recognizable
A modern bumper car vehicle (front view)
Small children's bumper car in the style of a vintage car
Vehicle with headrest
Underside of a vehicle. Brush off the sliding contact, the front wheel and the motor can be (steered) rotated all around
The vehicles, also called “ chaise ”, usually have seats for two people. In its interior there is the steering wheel and a pedal (which only acts as a button ) in the foot area of the left or right seat. In countries with left-hand traffic , this is located in the foot area of the right-hand seat as in the prototype. The car is controlled via the steering wheel, which is attached in the middle so that both occupants can steer alternately. A bumper car only has one front wheel, also in the middle of the car. This actually consists of the drive motor, in which the rotor (inside) is a specific feature . As a result, the stator (outside) ( external rotor motor ) rotates around which a wide rubber tire is attached and thus forms the drive. In addition, the steering geometry is such that the motor rotating around its horizontal axis - which always remains in one direction of rotation - can be rotated endlessly with this steering wheel around its vertical mounting axis. Depending on the position of the steering wheel, the car therefore not only drives to the right or left, but due to the design, with the engine at 90 ° to the vehicle axis, it is even non-powered or rotating on the spot. If you turn the steering wheel further, the vehicle will consequently start to drive backwards (or if you turn further forward again, etc.). Through this construction, steering, stopping and also the direction of travel can be controlled via the steering wheel.
However, driving backwards for a long time can disrupt the rest of the operation. That is why there are more and more vehicles that are equipped with a "steering lock", here the steering wheel cannot be turned endlessly and reversing is no longer possible.
Since all electric cars have an all-round rubber buffer at the same height , accidents such as head-on collisions or rear-end collisions are relatively harmless at the low speeds of the cars . The vehicles nevertheless have seat belts for each seat, headrests, a rubber steering wheel with impact cushions and padding on the dashboard and entrances. It is compulsory for children to wear a seat belt.
The typical vehicles weigh around 200 kilograms and consist of a steel frame and plastic body. The dimensions are about 2 meters long and 1.2 meters wide. They reach a top speed between 6 and 10 km / h. Many vehicles are based on real cars, that is, trademarks and typical design elements (such as the shape of the radiator grille) have been adopted.
The Italian company Bertazzon, for example, manufactures such systems. The manufacturers Reverchon (France, before 2008) and " Gebrüder Ihle Bruchsal " (Germany, before 2000) no longer exist.
service
By inserting a chip to be bought at the cash register in the corresponding slot in the car, the car is ready to go. The slot is usually on the “hood” of the vehicle or to the right of the steering wheel. If the power of the ride is switched on for the next round, the journey can begin. The electric motor is activated via the pedal in the footwell. Reversing is achieved by turning 180 degrees. The start release is indicated by an acoustic signal.
Until well into the 1960s, most bumper car companies were still collecting money or tickets by hand. But as early as 1957, the bumper car pioneer Bruno Tusch from Krefeld was the first to introduce the “automatic scooter” in Germany. He acquired the patent rights for this from a French showman and then continued to develop the technology with his sons Peter and Eduard as well as the Parganasch company - that is, chaise-longues with chip machine and driving chips as well as the driving system - until the current standard was reached. With the automatic scooters, there was no need to collect / collect tickets or money. The advantages of this were personnel savings and the possibility of faster and shorter tours.
The company Bruno Tusch und Söhne Krefeld operated not only Germany's first, but also for a few years only automatic scooter, until the patent was sold and other scooter operators followed suit in the 1960s.
After the operator has switched off the traction current, the vehicles roll out and stop on the drive surface. A new chip can now be inserted or a driver change can take place. Vehicles that are no longer occupied are pushed by the staff to the edge of the drive area and parked there.
The staff uses so-called driving keys to operate the bumper cars, which can be withdrawn at the end of the journey. The customers' driving chips, on the other hand, fall into a collection container in the vehicle after the journey, which can hold up to 100 chips or 1 kg. Ejecting the chips is accomplished by reversing the power supply. For a fraction of a second, the road is the positive pole and the network is the negative pole - this activates a magnetic coil that ejects the chip from the machine with a bolt.
A single trip for two people in Germany usually costs 2 to 3 euros by 2020. There are often discounts when buying multiple driving chips. Passengers keep trying to outsmart the system. Most often, a driving chip is provided with a cord or other extension so that it can be pulled out again after the journey or does not fall through the collecting container. However, this works very rarely, as the staff pays close attention to abnormalities of this type.
Records
The bumper car with the world's largest driving area is called Super Skooter and belongs to the Meyer family of showmen from Neuwied (Germany). Its driving area is 21 m × 31 m (651 m²) and its base area (overall dimensions) 30 m × 40 m (1200 m²).
For a long time, Rue Le Dodge was the world's largest bumper car in an amusement park. It is located in Six Flags Great America in Illinois , was commissioned in 1976 and has a driving area of 600 m² (15.8 m × 38.0 m).
Germany's largest stationary bumper car has been in the Allgäu Skyline Park since 2008 . The carriageway here measures 24 m × 44 m (1056 m²).
According to the Guinness Book of Records , the longest ride on a bumper car with 28 hours was completed by Jan Spekker and Manuela Benus in Hamburg during the Hamburg Summer Cathedral in August 2016.
Trivia
youth club
The bumper car ride is accompanied by (usually very loud) music. Techno, dance and disco music is predominantly played. The operator or commander typically makes his own announcements in between. A lighting system , recently also made of LED lamps, provides disco effects. Fog machines briefly cover the runway in white fog. The entire entertainment system is computer-controlled in modern bumper cars.
At folk festivals, the bumper cars are a popular attraction and meeting place for young people to “hang out” because of the music program and the disco atmosphere.
Use of language
The term bumper car / auto scooter has become generally accepted as the self-naming of amusement park operators in Germany. In doing so, he has largely replaced the German term “ Selbst -fahrer / Selbstfahrer” , which was initially widely used .
The term bumper car was formed from the word automatic scooter and does not come from the car-like chaise.
In the south-west of Germany, the box car or Knuppauto continue to be the predominant variant in old Bavaria, while the ride is called Autodrom in Austria . In Tyrol you can still find the variant Puffauto / Buffauto , and in Switzerland Putschauto / Botschauto , more rarely there also ajar names like Putschiauto , Tütschiauto or Iidütschbahn .
The adapted spelling Autoskooter is actually the correct spelling, but is rarely found. The word scooter refers to a children's scooter or motor scooter in English, but in German Skooter / Scooter can also refer to a boat with runners, which is intended for sailing on water as well as on ice surfaces. There are also scooters as a wheelchair variant for people with walking difficulties .
Comparable rides
According to the same principle, there are also rides with electric boats in water basins. These are protected from collisions by a rubber ring.
There are also bumper cars-like rides in which battery-powered cars and motorcycles are driven on a circuit that can be used as desired, e.g. B. can be formed on a parking lot or other concrete surfaces using old car tires, mobile or permanently installed. These vehicles also have circumferential rubber rings to protect against collisions.
Web links
- Image of a precursor to the bumper car, 1928
- Swiss verdict on a tooth injury from impact with bumper car steering wheel
- Construction of a two-pillar bumper car in fast motion on YouTube
Individual evidence
- ↑ Super scooter. The Meyer family, accessed on November 23, 2014 .
- ^ Bumper cars - Allgäu Skyline Park - Bad Wörishofen. In: skylinepark.de. Retrieved August 8, 2016 .
- ↑ Longest marathon, bumper car. Guinness Book of Records, 2016, accessed February 3, 2017 .
- ^ "Second round - bumper cars" , Atlas on German everyday language (AdA), Phil.-Hist. Faculty, University of Augsburg, November 10, 2005