George Washington Gale Ferris
George Washington Gale Ferris (born February 14, 1859 in Galesburg , Knox County , Illinois , † November 22, 1896 in Pittsburgh ) was an engineer for railroad engineering and bridge construction. His most famous invention, however, was the ferris wheel , which is called "Ferris Wheel" in English.
Life
His parents were George Washington Gale Ferris Sr. and Martha Edgerton Hyde Ferris. He had four sisters and two brothers. His grandfather Silvanus Ferris and the Reverend George W. Gale founded his birthplace. When his family wanted to relocate to California in 1864, the civil war and inflation caused money to run out, and they settled in Carson City, Nevada. Here George helped his father on the farm until he moved to the California Military Academy in Oakland in 1873. After graduating in 1876, he moved to the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, where he graduated as a civil engineer in February 1881.
He began his career in a New York railway construction office under the from the Battle of the Crater known General James H. Ledlie . In 1882 he moved to the Queen City Mining Company in West Virginia and after its closure the following year to the Louisville Bridge & Iron Company in Louisville, Kentucky. He gained a reputation as an expert in large steel structures and for his concrete work in compressed air chambers. For health reasons, he moved to the Kentucky and Indiana Bridge Company of Louisville in 1885, for which he should inspect steel acquired in Pittsburgh .
On September 18, 1886, he married Margaret Ann Beatty of Canton , Ohio, with whom he settled in Pittsburgh. With his former fellow student James C. Hallsted he founded his company GWG Ferris & Company, Inspecting Engineers . In 1890 he also founded Ferris, Kaufman and Company . His former classmate Gustave Kaufman (1859-1913) from Pennsylvania led the construction of the Cantilever Highway Bridge in Cincinnati over the Ohio River together with Frank C. Osborn (1857-1922) from Michigan .
For the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago , Daniel Burnham was looking for an impressive example of engineering that would even overshadow the Eiffel Tower built for the 1889 World's Fair in Paris . Ferris suggested "a kind of upright carousel " to give visitors an overview of the entire exhibition area from a lofty height, as in Paris. The term “observation wheel”, which is often used, is derived from this. The plan was rejected as unrealistic.
However, GWG Ferris was obsessed with the idea of building this Ferris wheel. Those responsible for the world exposition had concerns that the wheel would not withstand the stress and could collapse. After completing his studies, Ferris founded GWG Ferris & Co. in Pittsburgh. This dealt with the testing of steel for track and bridge construction companies. Ferris spent $ 25,000 on plans and specifications. In the early summer of 1892 the contract to build the ferris wheel was placed and withdrawn shortly afterwards. On November 29, 1892, the construction was approved on the condition that Ferris takes over the financing himself. Again he used his own money to be able to place the orders for the construction. Financing proved difficult until he succeeded in attracting some investors for the project, among them railway magnates Andrew Onderdonk (1848–1905) and William Vincent.
In January 1893, William Somers of Atlantic City was granted a patent on a ferris wheel ( roundabout ).
The biggest problem, however, was the time factor, as the opening was scheduled for May 1, 1893. A total of nine steel construction companies built the individual parts of the wheel, which is over 80 meters high. The biggest challenge was the wheel hub. At 56 t it was the heaviest single part that had been forged up until then. The total weight was 4,100 t. The 36 cabins were similar to railroad cars with space for 60 passengers each.
The Ferris wheel was opened on June 21, 1893 seven weeks late and has become a special attraction at the World's Fair. The cost was $ 250,000. At a fare of $ 0.50, total revenue was approximately $ 725,000. For the next two years he had to litigate the exhibition managers for the proceeds and at the same time defend himself against patent lawsuits. After he filed for bankruptcy and lost his company, his wife Margaret Ann left him a few months before his death in 1896. The Alsatian faith healer Francis Schlatter asked to marry the widow the following August (which she refused).
After the success at the World's Fair, some smaller Ferris wheels were sold to amusement parks in the USA. However, these were not commercially successful for Ferris. He invested a lot of money in the development of larger bikes, for which, however, there were no buyers. On November 22, 1896, he died lonely and impoverished in a hospital in Pittsburgh at the age of only 37 of typhus .
In September 1893, the American James Graydon applied for a patent for a ferris wheel that was a copy of Ferris' invention. The patent was bought by the British naval officer Walter Basset, who then had the first Ferris wheel in Europe built at the London exhibition center Earls Court . It was opened on May 25, 1895, and further buildings followed in Blackpool (1896), in the Vienna Prater (1897) and finally in Paris (1900) on the occasion of the world exhibition .
literature
- Richard G. Weingardt: Circles in the sky. The life and times of George Ferris. American Society of Civil Engineers , Reston 2009, XX, 162 pp., Ill., ISBN 978-0-7844-1010-3 , excerpts from Google Books .
- Richard G. Weingardt: George Washington Ferris , in: ders., Engineering legends. Great American civil engineers. 32 profiles of inspiration and achievement. American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston 2005, ISBN 0-7844-0801-7 , pp. 92-94, excerpts from Google Books.
Web links
- Invention of the ferris wheel. Completely freaked out , one day , January 5th, 2012
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bird's-Eye View of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893 . 1893. Retrieved July 17, 2013.
- ↑ http://bridgestunnels.com/bridges/ohio-river/central-bridge-us-27/
- ↑ http://www.historicbridges.org/kentucky/central/central.pdf
- ↑ U.S. Patent 489,283
- ↑ America's early wheels; in: Norman D. Anderson: Ferris Wheels: An Illustrated History ; P. 29
- ↑ http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-35D
- ↑ http://www.nndb.com/people/389/000159909/
- ^ Wheels on both sides
- ↑ Katja Iken and Philine Gebhardt: Invention of the ferris wheel. Totally crazy. In: one day , January 5, 2012
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ferris, George Washington Gale |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Inventor of the ferris wheel |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 14, 1859 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Galesburg , Knox County, Illinois |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 22, 1896 |
| Place of death | Pittsburgh |