LaMarcus Adna Thompson

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Thompson's Gravity Pleasure Switch Back Railway 1884

LaMarcus Adna Thompson (born March 8, 1848 in Jersey , Ohio ; † May 8, 1919 in Glen Cove , New York ) is known for his pioneering work in the construction of roller coasters and is sometimes called the "Father of Gravity" Called gravity ). His life's work includes almost 30 patents for roller coaster technology and dozens of rides, mainly in the USA . Sometimes Thompson is also wrongly attributed its first patent for a roller coaster, but John G. Taylor patented in 1872 a "Inclined Railway" (literally. Oblique Railway ).

His Switchback Railway was inaugurated on Coney Island in 1884 as the first gravity-powered roller coaster in the United States. The model for this system was the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway , a coal mine railway in what is now Jim Thorpe ( Pennsylvania ), which Thompson had operated a few years earlier.

The journey of the Orient Scenic Railway , which opened in 1887, was rather leisurely at 10 km / h, but the railway was equipped with light effects and an artificial scenery. This later became the model for other Scenic Railways and modern railways.

In 1895, Thompson founded the LA Thompson Scenic Railway Company .

In Europe, at least four railways come from Thompson: Hochschaubahn and Luna-Bahn in Wiener Wurstelprater , Scenic Railway in Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Rutschebanen in Tivoli Copenhagen .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ American Physical Society Weekly: January 1884: First US Patent for a Roller Coaster (PDF, 2 MB, page 2), January 2004
  2. ↑ LA Thompson dead ( Memento of the original from June 22, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , New York Times, March 9, 1919 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.toledosattic.org
  3. ^ LaMarcus Thompson and LA Thompson Scenic Railway Company trains in the Rollercoaster Database
  4. ^ Matt Crowther: The Scenic Railway: A Vanishing Breed. In: American Coaster Enthusiats (Ed.): Rollercoaster! Volume XXII, Issue 3, No. 77, Mission (Kansas) Spring 2001, ISSN  0896-7261 , p. 16
personal data
SURNAME Thompson, LaMarcus Adna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Father of Gravity
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American roller coaster designer
DATE OF BIRTH March 8, 1848
PLACE OF BIRTH Jersey , Ohio
DATE OF DEATH May 8, 1919
Place of death Glen Cove , New York