WEBVTT - Roller Coasters 0:00:01.280 --> 0:00:04.320 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:14.880 of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:18.880 Wilson and I'm Holly Frying. I've mentioned on the show 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:21.639 recently that I've been trying to improve my French on 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:27.000 Duelingo and for some languages. Duolingo has these stories where 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:31.520 the characters have this conversation in an at least hypothetically 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:35.840 real world kind of scenario. And there's this one where 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:39.640 two friends Lely and Zuri are having They're having a 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:44.360 conversation in line to ride a roller coaster, and every 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:48.200 time Duolingo has shown me this story, I have wound 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:51.760 up mostly focused on the fact that the French word 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:58.639 for roller coaster is montagnous or Russian mountains, and so 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:02.320 every time I'm like, what is the story there? And 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:04.839 that is how we got to this episode. So during 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:07.280 this episode, we're going to be touching a little bit 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:12.520 on amusement park history more and generally, because there becomes 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:15.720 a point where these two things are very tightly interconnected. 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:18.360 But one thing we're not really going to talk about 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:23.119 much is like roller coaster crashes and derailments and other 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:26.640 similar incidents because there have just been so many with 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:29.679 so many different causes. It felt sort of like trying 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:33.480 to mention all the car crashes in the building of 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:36.640 the interstate highway system, right. It just it felt like 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:42.120 a list of carnage that wasn't adding up to some 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:46.200 sort of greater understanding of anything. So that is not 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:48.000 really going to be a focus of this. And also, 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:52.800 I know there are a lot of roller coasterficionados out there, 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:56.480 and there are folks who have extremely strong opinions on 0:01:56.640 --> 0:02:00.520 specific roller coasters and types of roller coasters and roller 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:04.800 coaster records and particular designers. So I just want to 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:07.560 say upfront that this is not in any way an 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:11.600 exhaustive chronicle of every single thing about roller coasters. If 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:14.639 we did not mention your favorite thing. This is more 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:21.360 of like the trajectory of how these rides evolved over 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:25.760 the last centuries. That could be an entire podcast just 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:32.959 called coasting. And I maybe it is somewhere Montagna rous 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:36.560 got their start, as the name suggests, in Russia. Specifically 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:40.520 in Russia in the seventeenth century, as a winter pastime, 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:43.200 people built wooden ramps and covered them with water, and 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:46.400 that water then froze into a slick surface, and then 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:49.320 riders would climb stairs or a ladder to the top 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:52.440 of this frozen ramp, get into some kind of vehicle 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:54.880 like a sled or a hollowed out log, or even 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:58.000 an ice block with a straw seat, and slide down. 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:01.799 Often at night, water would be applied to the ramp 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:05.040 so that it could freeze back over into a new 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:09.880 and totally smooth, fresh surface by morning. These frozen hills 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:13.359 were nicknamed flying mountains. They could be up to six 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:16.320 hundred feet or one hundred and eighty three meters long, 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:19.960 and riders reached speeds that were reportedly up to fifty 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:24.760 miles an hour, which is about eighty kilometers an hour. Often, 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:27.040 at the end of the ride you would come out 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:29.480 at the base of a second tower, so you could 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:31.919 climb up that and just do it all over again. 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:35.000 The logs or the ice blocks were brought back up 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:37.720 along a track to one side of the hill, or 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:41.120 in some cases when people were using more lightweight sleds, 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:43.560 they would just be carried up the steps by the riders. 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:49.080 These were really popular public attractions, especially around Saint Petersburg, 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:52.480 and wealthy people also built smaller versions of them. On 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:57.160 their estates for their own enjoyment. Two different empresses have 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:01.800 been noted as having a particular love for the flying mountains, Elizabeth, 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:04.800 who reigned from seventeen forty one to seventeen sixty two, 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:07.920 and Katherine the Second also known as Katherine the Great, 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:11.400 who reigned from seventeen sixty two to seventeen ninety six. 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:16.520 So super quick Russian history refresher. Catherine the Great did 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:21.360 not directly follow Elizabeth. Elizabeth's successor was her nephew Peter 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:24.239 the Third, who ruled as emperor for about six months 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:29.280 before being overthrown and assassinated. Katherine definitely played a part 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:32.960 in his overthrow. There is still some debate over her 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:35.880 role in his death. If you watch the show The Great, 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:42.200 that is a version not entirely historically accurate, but I 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:46.839 love it. Yeah. So. Some sources say that Catherine the 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:49.640 Great was the first person to have one of these 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:53.800 mountains fitted with grooves that could accommodate carriage wheels so 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:56.920 that they could be used in the summer. But English 0:04:57.000 --> 0:05:00.920 clergyman John glen King, who was chaplain to Saint Petersburg, 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:03.840 wrote a letter in seventeen seventy eight in which he 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:08.240 credited Elizabeth, saying that Elizabeth had a flying mountain built 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:12.360 at the Imperial Palace at Zarskicello that was usable during 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:15.719 the summer and the winter. Catherine does seem to have 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:18.960 built more than one of them as well, including one 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:23.840 at or Niniba Park in Saint Petersburg. King described the 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:27.040 flying mountain this way, quote, you will observe that there 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:30.640 are five mounts of unequal heights. The first and highest 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:35.240 is full thirty feet perpendicular altitude the momentum with which 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:38.240 they descend. This carries them over the second, which is 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:41.760 about five or six feet lower, just sufficient to allow 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:45.040 for the friction and resistance, and so on to the last, 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:48.480 from which they are conveyed by a gentle descent with 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:51.920 nearly the same velocity over a piece of water into 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:56.440 a little island. He went on to say, quote these slides, 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:59.080 which are about a furlong and a half in length, 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:01.560 are made of wood that they may be used in 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:05.280 summer as well as in winter. The processes two or 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:09.200 four persons fit in a little carriage, and one stands behind. 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:11.640 For the more there are in it, the greater the 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:15.359 swiftness with which it goes. That runs on casters and 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:18.080 in grooves to keep it in its right direction, and 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:22.200 it descends with a wonderful rapidity. Under the hills is 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:25.360 a machine worked by horses for drawing the carriages back 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:28.479 again with the company in them. Such a work as 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:31.400 this would have been enormous in most countries for the 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:34.960 labor and expense at cost, as well as the vast 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:38.960 quantity of wood used in it. There's a little bit 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:42.240 of conjecture around how the Russian flying mountains made their 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:46.400 way to France and evolved into Montaigne Rouse. One likely 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:49.400 scenario is that French soldiers saw them in eighteen twelve 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:53.320 when Napoleon invaded the Russian Empire, although some of the 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:56.080 sources used in this episode say the first one in 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:59.880 France was actually built before that. Most of France really 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:02.680 did not get cold enough in the winter to maintain 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:06.600 a frozen sliding surface, so like the Russian empresses did 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:09.920 during the summer, builders in France turned to vehicles that 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:14.080 could roll down the hills on wheels. They had no 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:19.200 safety equipment. People just had to hang on. Yeah, this 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:24.040 episode just had a particularly large amount of sources saying 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:30.080 totally contradictory things with absolute authorities. So I found some 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:32.240 sources that said the very first of these were built 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:35.000 in eighteen twelve, and then others that very confidently said 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:36.760 that the first one was in like eighteen oh four, 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:41.280 And which is right, I don't know. And in eighteen 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:46.680 sixteen journal entry though armand Marie Antoinette Duplaci Marquise de 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:50.960 Montcalm Gozon describes a French Montagne rouse this way quote. 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:54.520 It is an inclined plane made of planks of sixty 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:56.760 feet more or less, at the top of which is 0:07:56.800 --> 0:08:00.520 placed a sled on which one sits, and which brings 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:04.040 you to the bottom with an extreme rapidity. This pleasure, 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:07.040 which is not without danger, may be compared, according to 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:10.400 the opinion of several people, to the impression that one 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:13.560 would feel if one fell from a fourth floor window, 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:17.960 which does not seem very seductive. These mountains are made 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:20.840 of ice in Russia, and one hopes, in spite of 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:24.200 the difference in climate, to imitate them in winter. A 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:26.920 man said, in speaking of them, that he was surprised 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:30.920 that this fashion does not elicit complaint against the influence 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:34.880 of Russia, which is very common today to render responsible 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:40.800 for everything. These amusements were extremely popular in France, and 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:44.640 they were also known as promenade rienne or aerial walks. 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:48.000 There were songs and plays about them, and people could 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:52.680 buy all kinds of mountains souvenirs. Intense rivalries also developed 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:56.920 between competing mountains, and in eighteen seventeen, these rivalries even 0:08:56.960 --> 0:09:00.480 inspired a satirical play called the Battle of the Mountains 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:07.280 or bougeu faull. This popularity was somewhat ironic. Number one. 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:11.040 These attractions seemed to have been most popular and most 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:14.640 widespread in France in eighteen sixteen. In eighteen seventeen, in 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:18.000 other words, during the year without a summer, which was 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:21.560 much chillier and much rainier than normal, you can look 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:24.439 out for an upcoming Saturday classic on the year without 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:28.080 a summer. Number two. This was just after the end 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:31.800 of the Napoleonic Wars. France had been defeated in eighteen 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:36.240 fifteen and Napoleon had abdicated for the second time under 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:39.640 the Treaty of Paris of eighteen fifteen, which officially ended 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:42.920 the war. France was occupied by the nations that had 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:48.360 fought against and those occupiers included Russia. It's possible that 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:52.040 the number of montagner Rouse, built in France during the Eighteenteens, 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:55.720 was made possible by Russian occupiers who already knew how 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:58.160 to do it. But it's also a little odd that 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:01.640 French citizens seemed to have really fl and celebrated something 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:05.160 that was so closely associated with Russia, something that the 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:09.439 Marquis alluded to in her journal entry. Montagna Rouss also 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:12.600 became a metaphor in France during this period, both in 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:16.600 literature and in casual conversation. A lot like roller coaster 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:19.520 can be used today to describe the various up and 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:23.719 downs of life, among other things. Most of these attractions 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:27.360 closed by the end of eighteen eighteen. Sending a wheeled 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:30.480 vehicle down a wooden track at high speeds naturally caused 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:33.640 a lot of wear, and these tracks weren't maintained very well, 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:37.760 so they eventually broke down. The popularity of the Montagne 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:41.679 Rousse also plummeted that year after two riders were killed 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:45.280 when the car that they were in stopped suddenly. The 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:49.319 post war occupation of France also ended in eighteen eighteen, 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:52.040 and it's possible that after that point people did kind 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:54.439 of want to get away from all the foreign influences. 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:57.320 We should also take a moment here to note that 0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:00.480 French is not the only language to call roller coasters 0:11:00.960 --> 0:11:05.400 some variation on Russian or Russian mountains. A lot of 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:10.720 other languages in Western Europe do, including Spanish, Portuguese, Basque, Catalan, 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:15.920 and Italian, among others. The next stretch of roller coaster history, 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:19.160 kind of like this one was, is a little contradictory 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:21.679 and sometimes vague, and we will get to it after 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:34.880 a sponsor break. If you pull up five different articles 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:38.319 about roller coasters, you may find at least that many 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:43.720 completely different and yet totally authoritative declarations of which thing 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:48.120 was the first roller coaster. Some of them also either 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:51.360 named the Russian Flying Mountains or the French Montaigne Rouse 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:54.360 that we already talked about, And to be fair, these 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:57.520 do seem pretty similar to roller coasters, especially the ones 0:11:57.559 --> 0:12:03.920 that like specifically described going down this progressively smaller series 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:06.920 of hills. We are going to talk about some of 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:11.720 the other various contenders. In the eighteen thirties and forties, 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:15.600 a number of centrifugal railways were built in various cities 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:19.120 in Europe. There's some speculation that these were inspired by 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:21.560 children's toys in which you would keep a marble or 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:24.880 a ball rolling around on the inside of a wire track. 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:29.320 A centrifugal railway was basically a downward slope leading into 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:32.560 a circular vertical loop with an upward slope on the 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:35.679 other side. Riders would get in the car on one 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:38.000 end of the slope and ride through the vertical loop 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:43.120 to the other side. Accounts of these centrifugal railways suggests 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:46.120 that it was as much about the terrifying thrill of 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:49.560 the experience as it was about watching other people do 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:53.760 it and maybe not coming out unscathed. This was just 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:57.199 not a smooth ride. It was full of jolts and bumps, 0:12:57.240 --> 0:13:00.320 and because the loop was shaped like a circle, the 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:05.160 gravitational forces involved could be really intense. There also wasn't 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:08.840 really any safety equipment, reportedly not even like seat belts. 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:11.560 Centrifugal force was what was supposed to keep people in 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:16.199 their seats, and that worked as long as nothing happened 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:19.920 to cause the car to either slow down or stop suddenly. 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:24.320 Builders tested these railways by sending a variety of inanimate 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:28.120 objects through the loop like eggs or sandbags, as well 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:32.640 as animals, including monkeys. In the eighteen sixties, a coal 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:37.160 transport near what's now jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, became an amusement ride. 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:40.680 Starting in eighteen twenty eight, the mock Chunk Switched Back 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:44.760 Railway had carried coal about nine miles, mostly downhill, from 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:48.319 the mines to the Lehigh Canal. A brakeman controlled the 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:51.240 speed of the descent, and once enough cars had reached 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:53.680 the bottom, a mule team would haul them back to 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:57.240 the top. A return track with a steam powered hauler 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:00.960 was added in eighteen forty four. This return track was 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:04.080 ratcheted to keep the cars from sliding back down as 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:08.280 the hauler stopped for some reason. Ratchet systems are still 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:12.080 used on anti rollback devices on roller coasters today. That's 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:14.800 what makes that repetitive clacking noise that you hear when 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:17.880 a roller coaster is being pulled up a hill. In 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:21.320 about eighteen sixty five, the Mock Chunks Switched Back Railway 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:25.520 started carrying human tourists as passengers and the evenings when 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:29.160 the mines weren't running. Then in the eighteen seventies, construction 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:33.119 of a tunnel made the railway unnecessary for coal transport, 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:36.400 and this railway became a tourist attraction full time. It 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:39.840 ran as a tourist attraction until closing in nineteen thirty three. 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:43.440 At around the same time that the mock Chunk Switchback 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:47.520 Railway became a dedicated tourist attraction, other inventors in the 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:51.760 United States were working on inclined railways. This term could 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:54.760 have a few different meanings. Railways meant to pull loads 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:59.200 up a hill, Funicular railways with two counterbalanced carriages connected 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:03.480 by a cable, and roller coaster like amusement rides were 0:15:03.520 --> 0:15:08.240 all called inclined railways. John G. Taylor was granted a 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:12.840 patent called Improvement of Inclined Railways in eighteen seventy two. 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.840 His patent shows two parallel tracks, each of them with 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:20.400 hills of various sizes, and the car would roll from 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:24.440 the highest point down to the other end. His description 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:28.560 makes it clear that there were already inclined railways being built, 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:31.440 but that his was better because it had a switch 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:33.840 that would move the car from one track to the 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:36.640 other so that people could continue the journey in the 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:41.160 other direction. Once passengers had disembarked, the car would be 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:44.480 manually moved up a short hill before being switched back 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:48.120 to the other track at the starting point. While Taylor's 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:52.000 patent describes what he calls an improvement, it doesn't have 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:54.720 all the details of a working device, like it doesn't 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:56.720 say how the car would be stopped at the end 0:15:56.760 --> 0:16:00.240 of the line. While the illustration has a little set 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:03.680 of steps suggesting where a passenger would disembark, the steps 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:06.160 connect directly to one of the rails, and there's no 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:10.560 corresponding platform for people to get on the railway, So 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:13.680 older sources often described this as a patent that was 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:17.640 issued for an idea, not an invention that Taylor ever 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:22.840 actually made. However, there are multiple newspaper articles mentioning Taylor's 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:27.440 patented inclined railway carrying actual passengers, and there is even 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:31.280 at least one photo. As one example, the August fifteenth, 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:35.360 eighteen seventy four, edition of the Middletown, Connecticut Daily Constitution 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:38.840 claims that Taylor's railway carried two hundred and fifty thousand 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:43.600 passengers the year before with no injuries. Richard Nudson was 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:48.040 also issued a different patent for improvement and inclined plane 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:51.760 railways in eighteen seventy eight. This one featured a lift 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:54.160 at each end of the track for raising the car 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:57.520 back up to the top. It's possible that Nudson built 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:00.480 one of these, maybe even at Coney Island, which wasn't 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:02.920 far away from where he lived, but if he did, 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:07.119 no documentation has been found of that yet. We don't 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:10.720 really know who coined the term roller coaster, but according 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:13.919 to the Oxford English Dictionary, its first written usage in 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:17.320 English was in the Chicago Tribune in eighteen eighty three. 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:21.159 There were some earlier uses than that, though, including in 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:24.760 the Steuben Republican of Angola, Indiana, and the Saint Louis 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:28.639 Post Dispatch. The Steuben Republican describes a roller coaster as 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:31.879 the chief attraction at the tri State Fair, calling it 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:35.639 quote a small improvement on the old time sport of 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:38.840 riding downhill and trudging up the best way you can. 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:43.600 The roller coaster described in this article is on an inclined, 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:47.240 circular track about six hundred feet long, with fifteen or 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:50.520 twenty people riding on a long bench like car for 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:54.440 a ride that lasted about twelve seconds. The ride described 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:57.520 in the Chicago Tribune a few days later was also circular, 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:00.600 with a circumference of about four hundred thirty feet and 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:04.280 a drop of about twenty two feet. The Saint Louis 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:07.719 Post dispatch mention of roller coasters that came out around 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:10.520 this time isn't a pair of ads. One of them 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:14.440 is quote roller coaster sliding downhill on wheels, Lucas Place 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:18.919 in twentieth Street, and the other is quote roller coaster 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:22.000 the old fashioned sleigh ride. Don't fail to take a 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:26.560 ride Lucas Place in twentieth And also, to further complicate 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:30.160 this whole Oxford English Dictionary citation of the Chicago Tribune 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:33.480 is the first mention. A few days before, the Tribune 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:36.600 published an article about a roller coaster being built, which 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:39.840 is what the OEED cites as the word's first use. 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:45.359 It also published an ad. This ad specified that ec 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:48.439 Hudson wanted to hire a man to act as the 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:52.040 roller coasters manager, had a salary of twenty dollars a week, 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:55.760 so before the building of the roller coaster was reported on, 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:58.439 he was trying to hire somebody to run it. And 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:01.560 now nearly two to the way through this episode, we 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:05.359 are finally getting to someone who is very frequently described 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:08.400 as the inventor of the roller coaster or the inventor 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:11.399 of the first modern roller coaster or the inventor of 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:17.000 the first commercially successful roller coaster. LaMarcus A. Thompson, who 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:20.199 built the Switchback Gravity pleasure railway at Coney Island, New 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:24.160 York in eighteen eighty four. Some accounts say he modeled 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:27.600 it after Richard Knudsen's patent, and others after the mock 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:32.760 chunk Switchback Railway. Thompson had invented other things, including a 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:36.679 car coupler and a knitting machine, and some accounts he 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:40.520 had worked himself to exhaustion on the knitting machine business 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:42.879 and that had led his doctor to advise him to 0:19:42.920 --> 0:19:45.439 spend more time outside and that's what led him to 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:48.560 build a roller coaster. In other accounts, he was a 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:52.280 devout Christian and was concerned about the temptations of beer 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:55.879 gardens and other vice ridden pastimes on young people, and 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:59.240 he wanted to offer an alternative. It may have been both. 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:04.479 I found zero primary sources confirming any of that, and 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:07.400 every time I read some detail, I was like, where 0:20:07.440 --> 0:20:11.119 are you getting this? In addition to the fact that 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:13.439 we've already talked about a whole lot of things that 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:17.800 could be called the first roller coaster, Thompson's roller Coasting 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:22.080 structure patented in eighteen eighty five, doesn't seem all that 0:20:22.280 --> 0:20:24.720 roller coaster e in a lot of ways. There were 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:27.439 two parallel tracks, with the ends of the tracks at 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:30.120 the same height, and riders would go out on one 0:20:30.160 --> 0:20:32.359 track and back on the other through a series of 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:36.800 slopes that looked pretty gentle in the patent illustration. Since 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:39.840 friction and air resistance and other factors meant that the 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:41.880 car wouldn't be able to get to the top at 0:20:41.880 --> 0:20:44.360 the far end of the track by itself, it did 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:48.040 so by quote means being provided to continue the car 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:50.800 to the top. That meant that somebody pushed it the 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:54.119 rest of the way. Passengers road sideways on what was 0:20:54.200 --> 0:20:56.879 basically a bench, and they traveled at about six miles 0:20:56.920 --> 0:20:59.560 an hour, So this was more about getting a view 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:03.520 of Coney Islands than about any kind of extreme thrill seeking. 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:06.000 Maybe riding a bench at six miles an hour would 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:09.000 have felt really thrilling at the time. A lot of 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:15.760 people run that fast found that a little amusing for 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:20.960 that reason. Sometimes Thompson's rides are called scenic railways rather 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:26.040 than roller coasters, but slower not Thompson's first ride at 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:30.159 Coney Island was extremely popular. People paid five cents to 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:32.680 ride it, and he recouped all the money he'd spent 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:35.800 to build it in about three weeks. He also kept 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:38.760 working on developments for his invention, and by eighteen eighty 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:42.480 seven he held about thirty patents related to roller coasters. 0:21:43.040 --> 0:21:46.400 He also founded a company to build scenic railways, which 0:21:46.400 --> 0:21:50.800 often took riders past dioramas, scenery, and other theatrical and 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:55.919 visual elements. There are a lot of comparisons to the 0:21:56.160 --> 0:21:59.879 It's a Small World ride at Disney, but on a 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:05.199 railroad instead of well, it makes me think of the 0:22:05.760 --> 0:22:10.080 Disneyland Railway, which is like train ride that goes past 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:14.520 dioramas and you're like, oh, dinosaurs. I've never been to Disneyland, 0:22:14.680 --> 0:22:18.119 so I don't know that one. It got reworked, and 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:20.240 I don't I don't want to make any promises. I 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:23.520 don't remember what all, if anything got added or subtracted there. 0:22:23.560 --> 0:22:26.199 But that's how it's worked for a long time. We 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:28.399 call it rolling bench. It makes us so happy to 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:31.320 just sit there and watch beautiful things. I'm gonna say 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:33.240 on a couple of times that I have been to 0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:37.040 Disney in Florida, not in California. As an adult, I 0:22:37.119 --> 0:22:39.880 have delighted in the rides where you just sit down 0:22:39.920 --> 0:22:42.760 in a cool space and ride and look at things. 0:22:43.040 --> 0:22:48.120 Give me The people move all day long. So we're 0:22:48.119 --> 0:22:50.680 gonna move on to the spread of rides like these 0:22:51.040 --> 0:22:55.000 or faster versions of rides like these, after quick sponsor break. 0:23:04.520 --> 0:23:08.320 Before we talk about how roller coasters proliferated, especially in 0:23:08.359 --> 0:23:10.560 the United States, we should talk a little bit about 0:23:10.600 --> 0:23:14.840 the development of amusement parks, because, especially from this point on, 0:23:15.480 --> 0:23:19.960 roller coasters and amusement parks are very tightly linked. So 0:23:20.000 --> 0:23:24.000 there's not really one linear family tree of amusement parks. 0:23:24.040 --> 0:23:27.600 It's more like multiple possible influences going all the way 0:23:27.640 --> 0:23:31.400 back to the medieval period. Some of their earliest precursors 0:23:31.440 --> 0:23:34.960 were probably European trade fairs, such as Saint Bartholomew's Fair, 0:23:35.240 --> 0:23:39.080 which started in England in eleven thirty three. This was 0:23:39.119 --> 0:23:42.840 an annual event that incorporated both trade and entertainment, and 0:23:42.920 --> 0:23:46.639 through the centuries, Saint Bartholomew's and other fairs gradually became 0:23:46.960 --> 0:23:51.320 more and more focused on food, drink, and amusements, including rides. 0:23:51.920 --> 0:23:54.800 For example, there were early versions of ferris wheels at 0:23:54.840 --> 0:23:59.879 Saint Bartholomew's Fair in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Overlap 0:24:00.160 --> 0:24:04.200 with trade fairs were pleasure gardens, which operated during most 0:24:04.359 --> 0:24:06.879 or all of the year, rather than just for a 0:24:06.920 --> 0:24:10.080 few days or weeks at a time. Also had a 0:24:10.080 --> 0:24:13.400 lot of food and entertainments and rides. Sometimes these were 0:24:13.400 --> 0:24:16.680 built by the owners of inns or taverns who were 0:24:16.720 --> 0:24:19.480 looking for ways to bring in more clientele during their 0:24:19.520 --> 0:24:24.240 slower periods. Then, the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw 0:24:24.280 --> 0:24:29.160 the rise of large international exhibitions or World's fairs, where 0:24:29.160 --> 0:24:31.640 the nations exhibiting at the fair showed off their new 0:24:31.680 --> 0:24:37.120 developments and accomplishments. Many of these fairs featured ethnological expositions 0:24:37.160 --> 0:24:41.280 that were essentially human zoos. The World's Colombian Exposition of 0:24:41.320 --> 0:24:45.000 eighteen ninety three also had an entertainment area that was 0:24:45.080 --> 0:24:48.200 separate from all the exhibitions, which it called the Midway, 0:24:48.520 --> 0:24:51.080 and it was like a carnival with side shows, food, 0:24:51.200 --> 0:24:56.119 and rides. This intersects with the rise of trolley parks 0:24:56.200 --> 0:24:59.560 toward the end of the nineteenth century, and many areas 0:25:00.000 --> 0:25:04.400