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Coaster History
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I originally wrote this as a paper for college about a year ago. I know many people that come to this site are interested in coaster, so I figured I would put it up on my site. If you are interested in coaster history please visit the sites in my work cited, fount at the bottom of the page.
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Roller Coasters The Ultimate Thrill Ride Whether you like to ride roller coasters or not, we all know what they are and they have become a major attraction, for the amusement park industry. So, how have these high-tech thrill machines come to be? Truly there is no simple answer. Roller coaster development is always advancing and since the 1990’s, there has been a massive boom in roller coaster technology. The origin of roller coasters can be traced back to 17th century Russia, predominately around the city of St. Petersburg. The Russian ice slides were quite different than what we consider a coaster today. The ice slides were made out of wood, that had several inches of frozen ice, which acted as the track. Riders would ride small mates down a twisted layout out, which usually started between seventy to eighty feet off the ground. (Sandy) The next step in coaster design was the introduction of the wheel. Who used the wheel first on a coaster is a debatable issue; some say it was the Russians, others say it was the French. (Sandy) The individuals, who credit the Russians, state that Catherine The Great enjoyed the ice slides such a great deal, that she also wanted to be able to enjoy them in the summer. So, she commissioned workers to invent a version she could ride all year long. ("The History of ") The individuals who credit the French state that (Sandy) by 1817 two coasters were built in France called the Les Montagues Russes a Belleville (roughly translated: the Russian Mountains of Belleville) and Promenades Aeriennes (The Aerial Walk), both of which featured cars that were locked to the track in some manner. (Sandy) These were the first coasters, which had cars that were attached to a steel track by using wheels that fit, into the groves of the track. ("The History of ") It is believed that, in 1846, the first looping coaster opened in Frascati Gardens, in Paris, France. The ride had a maximum height of 43 feet and featured a loop that was 13 feet high. (Sandy) The next major stride in roller coaster development took place in 1873, in the mountains of Pennsylvania, U.S.A., when the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway was opened to the public. Originally the railway was for hauling coal, down the mountain. However, in 1872 when the Hauto Tunnel was completed, it provided an easy way to transport the coal. The Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway was no longer needed. In its first year of operation, an average of 35,000 people took a ride, on the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway. It offered “spectacular views of the Lehigh River and the Blue Ridge Mountains” (Sandy) Technically the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway could still be considered the tallest and longest coaster, although it is not a coaster by today’s standards; it was 1,269 feet high and 18 miles long. ("The History of ") It cost a dollar for this one hour and twenty minute ride it became the United State's second most visited attraction, right behind Niagara Falls ("The History of ")Unfortunately, as a result of The Depression and decreased rider ship, service on the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway was closed in 1929 and never to reopen. (Sandy) La Marcus Thompson provided the next major design, in roller coaster development. Often Thompson is “referred to as "The Father of the Roller Coaster" by roller coaster enthusiasts.” ("The History of ") He was born on March 8, in 1848 and was a successful inventor. Thompson liked to travel and said that after he road the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway, he decided he wanted to build his own. ("The History of ") In 1884, Thompson opened his first roller coaster called the Switchback Railway, at Coney Island, in Brooklyn, New York. (Sandy) The coaster was 50 feet high and at five cents a ride, it would make over $600 a day. ("The History of ") Within a year, two more coasters opened, in the United States, from different manufacturers. One was designed to be a scenic railway, which give its riders a leisurely ride to enjoy their surroundings. The other was built, in the San Francisco Bay area, and was designed to thrill its riders. Thompson went on to form a company that received more than thirty coaster- related patents. ("The History of ") In the early part of the 1900s a lot of parks at the time were called trolley parks. These were parks created by, or in conjunction with, trolley companies. Streetcars and trolleys were the main mode of mass transportation during this time, but they earned little revenue on the weekends because people did not have any reason to travel farther than the city park at the street's end. So, the companies created new amusement parks that gave city dwellers and their families a reason to hop aboard the trolley and head to the countryside for a day of fun. (Sandy) The twenties were a time of great change for America and also for the coaster industry. During the twenties, there were approximately 1,500 to 2,000 coasters, in America. (Sandy) Currently there are 640 coasters in America and the US has more coasters than any other country, in the world. (Roller Coaster) Many feel that Frederick Ingersoll and his family were responsible for the rapid growth of amusement parks, in the United States. When he opened Luna Park in Pittsburgh, it became the first park to duplicate the Coney Island amusement park. It had the same name and the same general lay out. Later that year Ingersoll opened Luna Park in Cleveland, Ohio and Within a decade there were Luna Parks, White Cities and Electric Parks all over the United States, many with a trademark Shoot-the-Chutes and figure-eight coaster. (Sandy) This created an increase in popularity for the amusement parks. (Sandy) It was John A. Miller who increased the fame of the coaster. He started his career, under the guidance of La Marcus Thompson, and also worked with Josiah and Fred Pearce, Frederick Ingersoll and Harry Baker. Miller created some of the most successful roller coaters and had over one hundred roller coaster patents to his name. The anti-rollback device (the clank as you go up the lift hill which prevents the cars from rolling backwards), the under friction wheels (the wheels under the track which allow the track to suddenly drop out from under the car), brakes for the station and many other items (Sandy) These helped pave the way for the next generation of coaster designs. Miller designed the flying turn coaster, while working with Norman Bartlett. This coaster featured cars that traveled down a U shaped tube track. The first coaster built, in this style, opened at Lakeside Park in Dayton, Ohio. (Sandy) The flying turn coaster style appeared to be extinct, but currently a park called Knobbles, located in Pennsylvania, is making a modern day version, which is planned to open in 2008. (Roller Coaster) Some say that the twenties were a time, “riders were treated like guinea pigs” This is partly true and partly false. Designers, in the twenties, did not have all the high-tech computer equipment designers have today, to help ensure riders’ safety. However, the accident level was still rather low for the number of rides in existence. Many of the coasters, from that time period, are still in existence today and have very good safety records. (Sandy) Coney Island was the first major American amusement park and is one of the most famous amusement parks in the U.S. It is located in Brooklyn, NY and was the model that all other parks followed. In 1897, Captain Paul Boyton opened Sea Lion Park, in Coney Island. It was the first amusement park, meaning all its rides were contained by a border. At the time, most parks were just a group of rides. George C. Tilyou opened Steeplechase Park in 1897, with its feature attraction the Steeplechase Horse Race. It had eight wooden horses that raced around a steel track. In 1901, Frederick Thompson and Elmer "Skip" Dundy bought Sea Lion Park and opened Luna Park, in Coney Island. Luna Park’s main draw was its 250,000 electric lights. William H. Reynolds, in 1904, opened Dreamland Park, in Coney Island, which had a million lights, but closed after 11 years. Coney Island was also a ride testing ground and had many first The first economically successful roller coaster, the first full-circuit coaster and the first lift-hill were all pioneered here (Sandy) Another famous attraction that Coney Island featured was the Loop-the-Loop, which was one of the first looping coasters, when it opened in 1901. It had many advanced safety features, to provide customers with a much safer ride than previous looping coasters. In addition, Coney Island is home to the Coney Island Cyclone, which is one of the most famous coasters in the world. It was opened in 1927 and was built by Harry C. Baker. (Sandy) Over the years, Coney Island has become run down. However, new owners have purchased the land that Coney Island is built on. The new owners and the city of New York have renovation plans to try and bring Coney Island back up, to the standards it once had. (Coaster) When The Great Depression occurred, the American amusement park industry also suffered. In 1930, there were about 1,800 to 2,000 parks in the US and by 1939, there were only 245 parks remaining. (Sandy) The depression, along with other causes such as a shift in what people enjoyed as a forum of entertainment, caused the amusement park industry to decline for many years. ("The History of ") During WWII, people started to revisit parks once again, to escape their problems. After WWII, coasters were again being built, in small numbers. One of the rides that become popular, in the fifties, was Kiddy Coaster; it was a coaster the whole family could ride together. (Sandy) In the 1960’s, many amusement parks tried to duplicate Disney’s creation of a theme park and failed. Some examples were, Pacific Ocean Park also known as POP, Pleasure Island, and Freedom Land. During a time when most parks were failing, one of the biggest theme park chains was founded, Six Flags. Angus Wynne started Six Flags in 1961, with their first park named Six Flags Over Texas located in Dallas, Texas. In the 1960’s, many famous amusement parks met their demise, including Steeplechase Park at Coney Island. This caused the destruction of many famous rides, from this era. (Sandy) Although the 60’s were not a booming time for the coaster industry, new rides were built. One of the biggest designers of the time was John Allen, of the Philadelphia Toboggan Company. Unfortunately, many of his coasters no longer exist. (Sandy) In the 1970’s, there was a trend of family parks closing and corporate parks growing. Some of these chains included the expansion of Six Flags, Bush, and Taft Broadcasting known as Paramount. (Sandy) In 2006, Cedar Fair bought the Paramount Park chain (Coaster) Paramount’s King Island, in Ohio, was unique in that it was the first park to open, with a coaster as one of their main attractions. (Sandy) In 1959, the first steel tube coaster called the Matterhorn opened at Disneyland, in Anaheim, California. Disney built the coaster with help from Arrow Dynamics. (“Roller Coaster Inventing”) It was not until the 1970’s that the steel coaster market really exploded. “The years 1974-1980 saw the most roller coasters built in the United States since the 1920's.” (Sandy) In 1975, Arrow Dynamics at Knott’s Berry Farm built the first modern inverting roller coaster. This coaster featured an inversion called the corkscrew, which revolutionized coaster design. In 1976, Schwarzkopf, at Six Flags Magic Mountain, built the first modern day looping coaster called Revolution. As the vertical loop took off in popularity, both Schwarzkopf and Arrows Dynamics went on to make their own style of the shuttle loop coaster. Both designers used some type of launch to have their coasters go forwards and backwards through the same loop. (Sandy) In 1979, the Beast was born. It was built at Paramount’s Kings Island and was 141 feet tall, 7,400 feet long, and took four minutes to ride. The Beast still has the record for being the longest wooden coaster, in the world. (Sandy) The 1980’s continued the coaster boom, with even more break through ideas. One major new ride style that was created was the suspended coaster, by Arrow Dynamics. The suspended coaster had its track above the car and swung freely, on the turns. The first suspended coaster built was The Bat, at Paramount’s King Islands, which opened in April 1981. Unfortunately, due to some unforeseen mechanical wear, which made maintenance extremely costly, the Bat was dismantled, in 1984. That was not the end of the suspended coasters. Arrow Dynamics went on to make future versions, which fixed the problems that existed in the Bat. (Sandy) The Vekoma boomerang has become one of the most know coaster styles. With its low coast and small footprint makes it perfect for small parks. Another unique part of the boomerang is it’s a shuttle so it travels through it course both backwards and forwards. (Sandy) The stranded boomerang is 116 feet high reaches 45 mph and goes through three inversions both backwards and forward. The boomerang is one of the most cloned coasters and there have been around 45 boomerang coasters in the world. (Roller coaster) In the early 1980’s, Arrow Dynamics experimented with putting stand up coaster trains, on two of their rides, allowing people to ride them standing up. Both these rides were relatively unsuccessful for different reasons and were converted back to sit-down coasters. In 1984, the first truly successful stand up coaster, King Cobra, was built at Paramount’s Kings Island. It was designed by Togo and was 95 feet high and 2,201 feet long, featuring a vertical loop. (Sandy) Eventually, Intamin AG and Bolliger & Mabillard would build more successful and advanced stand up coasters. (Roller Coaster)Schwarzkopf built many unique rides. His rides generally pushed the limits of technology and were very intense. Many consider Schwarzkopf to be one of the best coaster designers. One concept that made his rides very unique is that many of them were compact and mobile, so that they could be moved around easily, especially on the fair circuit. (Sandy) The Arrow Dynamics’ mega-loopers made Arrow a major player, in the coaster business, towards the end of the 1980’s. The mega-loopers mixed heights and inversions to make for a new experience, which started the race for the sky. In 1987, the first mega-looper called Vortex opened at Paramount’s Kings Island, as a replacement for the Bat. (Sandy) It was 148 feet high, reached 65 mph and featured six inversions. (Roller Coaster) Magnum XL 200 was another Arrow coaster that revolutionized the amusement park industry. In 1989, Magnum XL 200 opened at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio breaking the 200ft barrier, making it the tallest coaster in the world, at that time. (Sandy) It stands 205 ft high, reaches speeds of 72 mph and is 5,106 feet long. (Roller Coaster) Magnum is more like a wooden coaster than a steel coaster. It features airtime, drops, and turns, instead of inversions. (Sandy) Magnum started a new style of coaster that eventually became known as a hyper coaster. (Roller Coaster) The 1990’s experienced the biggest growth, in the coaster industry, since the 1920’s. Some of the major players in the industry were Arrow Dynamic, Intamin AG, Vekoma, and new comers to the industry Bolliger & Mabillard, Morgan & Premier. Arrow made a name for itself, with their hyper coasters. Morgan also took over a large portion of the hyper coaster industry. Intamin AG also took off with their own version of the hyper coaster, along with other coaster styles they designed. Premier started a new trend in coasters, the LIM launched coaster. These coasters used LIMs motors, which worked like electric magnets to launch rides. Premier opened the world’s first LIM launched coasters called Outer Limits: Flight of Fear, in 1996, at Paramount’s Kings Islands and Paramount’s Kings Dominion. (Sandy) Bolliger and Mabillard changed the coaster industry forever. Originally they worked for Intamin AG and left to open their own company. Their revolutionary stand up coasters put them on the map. Their first stand up coaster, Iron Wolf, at Six Flags Great America opened, in 1990. Then in 1992, Bolliger and Mabillard revolutionized the coaster industry, once again, with their inverted roller coaster. Like the Arrow’s suspended coaster, the trains were below the track, but they did not swing, which allowed for much more versatility. Bolliger and Mabillard opened their first inverted coaster, Batman the Ride, at Six Flags Great America, in 1992. (Sandy) In 1998, Bolliger and Mabillard made the world’s first dive machine coaster. It was called Oblivion and opened at Alton Park, in England. This coaster featured 8 across seating and a vertical drop. In 1999, Bolliger and Mabillard made the world’s first floorless coaster, Medusa, which opened at Six Flags Great Adventure, New Jersey. The cars are like a sit down coaster, except that there are just the seats and no sides or floors, on the train. (Roller Coaster) During the 1990’s Vekoma also made some strides, in the coaster industry. In 1994, they opened their first version of the inverted coaster called the suspended looping coaster, at Wabili Flevo Park. (Sandy) In addition, Vekoma introduced an inverted version of their boomerang coaster, in 1997, called Invertigo. The first one named Hangover, opened at Liseberg. Intamin AG made their version of the suspended coaster and combined it with LIM technology, to make the world’s first launched inverted coaster. It was called Volcano The Blast Coaster, which opened at Paramount’s Kings Dominion, in 1998. (Roller Coaster) The 2000’s have remained similar to the 1990’s, in the coaster industry. One major change was Arrow Dynamics went bankrupt and was taken over by S&S Power, in 2001. (Roller Coaster Gallery) Another major change was the start up of smaller companies that are slowly starting to make a name for themselves and might someday be the industry leaders in coasters. (Roller Coaster) Before Arrow Dynamics went bankrupt, they left us with one more revolutionary coaster type called the 4D coaster. This coaster features seats that are on the outside of the track and rotate, allowing for never before seen maneuvers. The first 4D coaster, X, was built at Six Flags Magic Mountain, California, in 2000. In 2006, S&S Power improved on Arrow’s design and opened Eejanaika, at Fuji-Q Highland. (Roller Coaster)Vekoma made the worlds first lay down / flying coaster, in 2000, called Stealth, which opened at California's Great America. In 2001, they engineered yet another version of their boomerang coaster called a giant inverted boomerang. The ride Déjà vu, opened at Six Flags Great America, Six Flags Over Georgia and Six Flags Magic Mountain. (Roller Coaster) Bolliger and Mabillard continued to advance, in the 2000’s. Two of their most notable accomplishments were the creation of their own version of the flying coaster and their many improvements to the dive machine coaster. Their first flying coaster was Air, at Alton Park, which opened in 2002. Bolliger and Mabillard greatly improved the dive machine, in 2005, with SheiKra at Bush Gardens, Africa. The trains were expanded from 2 to 3 cars; the layout was extended and includes an inversion. In 2007, the dive machine was expanded again for Griffon, at Bush Gardens Europe. This time the trains were expanded to 10 wide and were made floorless. (Roller Coaster) Intamin AG created some of the most famous and revolutionary coasters, in the 2000’s. They opened up the year 2000, with Millennium Force at Cedar Point, Ohio, being the first coaster to break the 300ft mark. Intamin AG then went on to design the hydraulic launch coaster. Their first one was named Xcelerator and opened at Knott's Berry Farm, in 2002. Then in 2003, they reached for the sky with Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point, Ohio, which stands 420 feet high and goes 120 mph. In 2005, Intamin AG went even bigger with Kingda Ka, at Six Flags Great Adventure reaching 456 feet high and 128 mph. (Roller Coaster) During this period, wooden coasters were still popular; however, only one major development occurred and that was from Intamin AG, the prefabricated track. The first wooden coaster built, with prefabricated track, was the Colossos, which opened at Heide-Park, Soltau, in 2001 (Roller Coaster) Where coasters will go from here, no one knows for sure. Following the current trends, one thing is for sure; engineers will continue to push the limits to provide new and more extreme rides, in the future. Now, next time you go to an amusement park you will know how these ultimate thrill rides have come to be. So, buckle up and get ready for some of the most thrilling experiences of your life. Coaster Net. 5 Dec. 2007 " The History of Roller Coasters." bobholland.com. 5 Dec. 2007 < http://www.bobholland.com/amusementparks/coasterhistory.html>. Roller Coaster Database. 5 Dec. 2007 < http://www.rcdb.com/>. Roller Coaster Gallery. 5 Dec. 2007 < http://www.coastergallery.com/>. " Roller Coaster Inventing the Scream Machine." Britannica Online. 5 Dec. 2007 < http://www.britannica.com/coasters/1970.html>. Sandy, Adam. " Roller Coaster History." Ultimate Rollercoaster. 5 Dec. 2007 < http://www.ultimaterollercoaster.com/coasters/history/>.
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