Observation Towers Are Out, It's Now The Turn Of The Wheel

In the year 1615 Roman traveller Pietro delle Valle wrote one of the world's first travel reviews when he gave an account of a ride on a pleasure wheel, or 'ups and downs' as it was known then, whilst visiting the city of Constantinople (present day Istanbul) during that year's festival of Ramadam. 

This pleasure wheel consisted of chairs suspended from a wooden ring which was hand cranked by several men on the ground.

Since that first review several other accounts of large wheels used as pleasure rides have been found, particularly ones located in and around Turkey and the Balkan states.

Those first Ups and Downs were replaced by the Ferris Wheel, the first of which was designed and constructed by American engineer George Washington Gale Ferris Jnr (1859 - 1896) for the main landmark of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.

His wheel stood 264 foot high and carried thirty six cars each measuring twenty eight feet long, that could carry sixty people at any one time.

At that time the wheel was a feat of engineering technology which became a world renowned spectacle that would be visited by thousands of people leading to a whole new souvenir business grew around this wheel, with books, postcards and models sold all across the world.

Since then the pleasure ride has become the world's biggest attraction at fairgrounds and in recent years has hailed the beginnings of the observation wheel seen now in almost every large city around the world.

The world's oldest continually used ferris wheel is the Wiener Riesenrad, shown below, situated in the city of  Vienna in Austria.

This antique wheel,  which stands 212 feet high and carries fifteen cars, was built to commemorate the golden jubilee of Franz Josef in 1897 and is still in use to this day.  

The world's tallest Ferris Wheel is situated at the Marine Centre in Singapore.

Designed by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa this giant wheel stands 541 feet high, has a diameter of 492 feet and carries twenty eight capsules which can each accommodate twenty eight people each.

Built in 2008 the now famous city landmark, which completely dominates the Singapore coastline, takes thirty seven minutes to complete a full rotation. 

The world's most famous observation wheel is the London Eye, and at 443 foot high, is also the tallest in the Western hemisphere.

Completed in 1999 in time for the city's millenium festivities, and originally only intended as a year long feature in the city, the wheel has become one of London's most visited attractions and one of the world's most photographed landmarks.

Another wheel phenomena in recent years is the advent of the eccentric wheel, designed with cars or gondolas that ride on interior rails that slide in and out independently of the main wheel's rotations, giving the rider a more intense experience. 

One such eccentric wheel is the 160 foot high Mickeys Fun Wheel in Anaheim, California.

This brightly coloured wheel, with a huge face of Mickey Mouse at it's centre, comes complete with twenty four gondolas, sixteen of which are the swinging type that take a motion sickness inducing nine minutes to complete a single ride.

The 353 feet high Cosmo Clock 21 Ferris wheel, situated along the Kishamichi Promenade at Minato Mirai - 21 in Yokohama in Japan, was the world's tallest Ferris wheel from it's completion in 1989 until 1997.

Re - erected in 1999 to a further 369 foot high, the wheel is no longer the world's tallest, but it does claim to sport the world's largest clock, although there is no actual evidence of the clock's size in order to verify this.

The wheel holds sixty cars which can each carry eight people which takes fifteen minutes to complete a single rotation.

More recently the transportable wheel has become popular. These types of wheel are now big business as they save city authorities the bother of building their own wheel and can also be loaned for various exhibitions or events.

The world's largest supplier of these wheels is the Swiss company Ronald Bussink who manufactured the 217 foot high wheel in Belfast city centre amongst others.

This wheel carries forty two capsules that takes thirteen minutes to complete one rotation.