PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS
Page 48 – THE FERRIS WHEEL
THE FERRIS WHEEL.—What the Eiffel Tower was to the Paris Exposition the Ferris Wheel was to the Columbian. Like the Eiffel Tower, it was a triumph of engineering and an example of metal construction on a gigantic scale, but it had the additional feature of activity. It was in motion, a monster plaything, a device for furnishing a novel experience to the multitude. The story is told and seems to be authenticated that the idea of the wheel was conceived by Mr. Ferris while at dinner, and that the design and dimensions as he jotted them down on paper at the time were never changed, the wheel being constructed in the manner then determined upon. A remarkable object, one visible miles away, was the great structure and it lost none of its curious or attractive features upon a closer approach. The height of the wheel was two hundred and fifty feet, the steel towers on which it rested were one hundred and forty feet in height and sunk in the ground thirty-five feet, and the steel axle was forty-five feet long, thirty-two inches in diameter and weighing seventy tons. It was the largest piece of steel ever forged. The total cost of the wheel was $380,000, and it had, out of the receipts from carrying passengers, earned the entire sum by the first of September. Its erection proved an excellent speculation, daring as was thought the venture. Passengers were carried in thirty-six cars suspended between the double tires of the wheel.