Popular Mechanics/Volume 49/Issue 1/There's Money in it, But
The Prince of Wales and Lady Mountbatten, in the Front Seat, Getting Ready to Emit Shrill Squeals, Just Like Any Other Customers at One of Coney Island's Rides
By HOMER CROY
Inventors of amusement-park devices gamble on human nature. And human nature is a queer fish. No one knows when it is going to bite. Consider the case of William F. Mangels. He has been the inventor of amusement-park devices ever since he was a boy and has more than fifty patents to his credit. He built the "Razzle-Dazzle," the "Tickler" and the "Whip." The latter is a device of cars, fastened on a drive, which travel comfortably along a flat track until they get to the end of a straight run, when they whip around the corner with a sharp snap, from which it takes its name. It was tried out in Luna park, Coney island, in 1914, and has since traveled all over the world. The royalties on it have amounted to $300,000.
But last year Mangels got the biggest idea of all. It was much better than the "Whip" and had a novelty which the public had never seen. He drew up his blueprints, got in his best builders and mechanies and set to work It was to be the biggest and finest achievement of his life. At last the device was done and it fell as flat as a porous plaster.
"Why did it fail?" I asked him.
"Because it was paced too slowly. I was ten years late."
The public wants speed, he explained. The automobile has completely revolutionized riding devices. People used to be willing to poke along, but now when they go out for a good time they want it quick and fast.
Returning to the "Whip," the idea back of it has intrigued many an inventor. The favorite plan has been to add to the thrills and give the public an extra motion. One is to make the car, when it whips around the corner, turn completely around. One inventor added an up-and-down motion. The funeral was impressive. The reason was that a person out for pleasure can't stand two motions at the same time. Instead of thrilling people, as the inventor had hoped, it made them seasick.
What will go and what will not, what will succeed and what will be a headstone, cannot be predicted. Before the World's Fair opened in Chicago, in 1893, an inventor came to the board of managers and asked for a concession to put up an amusement device. The management looked his blueprints over: they didn't think much of them, as the blueprints called for some sort of wheel extending up into the air, with seats arranged across it. He was advised against it.
"People aren't going to risk their necks on a thing like that," they told him.
But he posted the advance money and went ahead with the idea. The man's name was Ferris and he called his riding invention the "Ferris Wheel." To the astonishment of the board of managers, people rushed to risk their necks on it and the device became almost instantly world-famous. The day the fair closed, the "fool" who had invented it counted up his money and he had taken in just $726,000. It was new, it caught the public fancy, but it was an exotic flower that, financially, bloomed only once. The wheel was taken to St. Louis with the expectation of making a million, but it took in only $450,000. At each succeeding exhibition its returns grew less. Ferris put out other inventions but none of them pleased the ever-fickle public, and he died on the fringe of want. The wheel, however, still appears in small size in the suburban parks, but the mastodon which amazed Chicago has joined the silent dodo.
Noah's Ark, One of the Successful "Walk Through" Entertainments Which Lets the Customer Do Most of the Work of Amusing Himself, While He Pays for the Privilege
In the world of outdoor-amusement inventions, you never know which way the "cat is going to jump." Some years ago there was a young boy working in an architect's office in Nashville, Tenn., at ten dollars a week. A fair was going up at Nashville and a prize was offered for the best architect's design for one of the buildings, and the young man entered his drawings under another name. When the award of $2,500 was announced it was found that a lad, still in his teens, by the name of Frederic Thompson. had won it. He took his wealth and went into partnership with an amusement man and put up an attraction at the exhibition. He made money, and then went to other fairs and exhibitions. Sometimes he won, and sometimes...
Once he rented an old coal mine at the edge of a fair grounds, lined it with red cotton flannel, put in some weird lights, called it the "Cafe de la Mort," and heard the pleasant tinkle of money coming his way. Next he went to Buffalo, where he put on "A Trip to the Moon," which made the Ferris wheel look like a peanut stand. And then, with banners flying, he marched to Coney island, the Mecca of amusement men. He put on "A Trip to the Moon" again and money still continued to roll in. And while the world was still dazzled by his brilliance, he conceived and built Luna park. He made money with both hands and spent it with a shovel. Money meant nothing to him and he died a comparatively poor man.
Sliding Down a Hill Has Just as Much Allurement for Grown-Ups as It Holds for the Children
Where do the invention ideas come from that make the money—sometimes—at the amusement parks? Where do the fairies come from?—from the sky, from the clouds, from the flowers. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? But there is history to fall back on. During the years of the Queen's jubilee, a tired inventor went over to England to get a rest. On the way back he came up on deck one day and lay gazing idly into the sky and letting his mind wander pleasantly among the clouds. Overhead, seagulls floated.
"If I could give people the idea they were flying, they would like it," he thought.
The circling of the seagulls gave him the idea of working out a device which would fly in a circle. How? With some sort of a center pole supporting the cars. He took the idea to R. S. Uzzell, an old hand in the game; there were discussions, blueprints, promotions and the airplane swing, to be found in almost every amusement park, was born. There are now about 1,500 of them in the world.
A man in Portland, Oreg., sat on the floor one evening watching his son spin a top: The lad wound it up, pushed it out of the holder and set it going. The man pondered on the fun the boy was having.
"If I could invent a top that grown-ups could play with, I'd make a fortune," he thought.
The idea was alluring. "People are only children grown tall," he reasoned. and began to turn the idea over in his mind. At last, he worked out a principle by which a huge top could be constructed with cars on which people could ride, while the top spun merrily. But there was nobody in Portland familiar with the amusement game; getting on the train he went to New York. The men old in the business looked it over; it was a fine idea: passengers would be pleasantly pleased, but—its cost would be prohibitive. He was told it would require about $18,000 to build, and he raised the money himself. It is the way fortunes are made—and lost.
When the first top was completed it had cost $37,000. It was put up at Coney island—the "Giant Top," it was called. The inevitable happened. The people liked the sensations, it had the psychological appeal that amusement devices must have, but too much weight was concentrated in one place. Crash! The point broke, and a woman and child were injured, and two damage suits followed. It cost $3,500 to raise the top again and to start it going once more, to say nothing of the money that went out in the lawsuits. The man with the idea failed; his home was lost and he retired from the amusement field. Seemingly the idea was as good as the seagull idea, but... And that is something the amusement field is full of—buts.
A Baby-Size Whip in the Children's Park at Coney: Trying to Improve on This Device Has Wrecked the Fortunes of No Less Than Eight Different Inventors in Recent Years
Recently there was a storm in Florida and when the storm was over and the first people ventured out, a house was found balanced on the edge of a cliff. Chains and ropes were placed to secure it and curious people starts walking through it to see what whimsies the storm had played. As they walked through the tilting house they had a curious sensation: they complained of being dizzy and when they came out they talked about how creepy it felt. The house became quite a local attraction.
One day an amusement-park man walked through it, and as he walked he wondered. Here was an idea: people liked it; people would pay money to see it. And so he had a house built using the same idea as that of the dislodged dwelling. He had the floors slanting and the windows set so that when a person walked in, the house seemed normal in every way; but after he had walked a few steps he thought that it must be a terrible night at sea. His feet had the curious feeling of stepping on nothing and they stumbled around like children who had been too long at ring around the rosy. The explanation was simple. Everything was set at such an angle that the person going through the house had nothing to orient himself by, and he had the strange and creepy feeling of a world gone mad. The house was given various names. from the "Mysterious Knockout" to "Damfino." Under such names it is operating.
URGE WRECKING OF OLD SHIPS TO IMPROVE FISHING
A plan for converting useless old ships into assets is under consideration by the New Jersey fish and game commission. It has been found that fish are attracted to wrecks. So it is the idea of the commission to sink worthless craft off the coast where they will not be a menace to shipping and so draw the fish that feed on the marine animal and vegetable life that accumulates on the old hulls.
HOW THE EYES REVEAL DISEASE IS SHOWN BY CAMERA
Examining Patient with the Eye Camera Which Is Said to Enable Physician to Detect Disease
Instead of tapping you on the chest and making you say "ah," doctors may peer intently into your eyes and take pictures of what they see with a special camera, if an instrument recently introduced becomes widely adopted. It is the product of Swedish experts, and, with it, physicians have traced the symptoms of various diseases in thousands of persons. The nerves, the blood vessels and the "seeing layer" of the eye are affected by maladies in such a way, the scholars say, that the changes are registered on a photographic plate and can be interpreted by a skilled doctor. A concentrated beam of light that is said to reveal minute blood vessels and nerves in the eye with the clearness of an X-ray, is utilized in connection with the camera in making the pictures.
GEARLESS MOTOR CAR IS RUN ON TURBINE PRINCIPLE
Adapting a Principle of Steamer Propulsion to the Automobile; the Car with Turbine Drive
Instead of a system of gears an automobile devised by a Scotch inventor operates on the turbine principle. Power from the engine is transmitted to the drive by means of sets of revolving blades through the medium of a liquid.
FIND GOLD THAT TURNS BLACK IN AUSTRALIAN MINES
All gold is not alike. The Australian gold is redder than that found in California, while that from the Ural mountains is of a still deeper shade of red. Recently "black" gold was found in the famous "nuggety reef" in Australia. It assumes a silvery-white appearance when first taken from the ground, but turns black after exposure to the air. The metal is a natural alloy of gold and bismuth and, when properly refined, yields a gold equal to the nugget and sand varieties found elsewhere.
GRASSHOPPER WEATHER VANE HONORS BUSINESS MAN
Cleaning One of London's Unique Weather Vanes; the Grasshopper on Top of the Royal Exchange
At the tip of the staff on the Royal Exchange in London, is a huge grasshopper figure which serves as a weather vane and honors Sir Thomas Gresham, who founded the institution during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Once a year, the vane is given a thorough cleaning by a steeplejack.
LOW-COST PARQUETRY FLOOR IS EASILY LAID
Parquetry flooring can be installed at about the same cost as strips, it is said, with specially prepared units, joined together with tongues and grooves on all sides. The blocks are made in two sizes, one eighteen inches and the other thirteen and one-half inches square. They are composed of carefully matched smaller pieces ready for laying, and it is claimed no special requirements are needed for the subfloor, which may be the same as that prepared for the strip flooring.
FAST MOVIES OF AIR CURRENTS TO HELP AVIATION
With a camera that can take 20,000 pictures a second, movies of air currents have been prepared for reference study in aviation. Details of breezes moving at fifty miles an hour, are revealed so clearly that the eye can easily follow the movements around various obstacles. The flight of a pistol bullet through an electric-light bulb looked like the slow bending and final disintegration of the glass. Currents of air from a windmill and the passage of the air around an airplane wing were also shown. The film was recently exhibited in New York, after being prepared in Japan with the "super slow-motion" picture camera developed there. The instrument is the outgrowth of research by German scholars and craftsmen. It has two parallel disks, one with a large number of small mirrors which reflect the image obtained through the lens of the other disk, which holds the films.
FLEXIBLE-CABLE LANDING LIGHT PREVENTS DAMAGING PLANE
By anchoring the landing lights on his aviation field to flexible cable supports that bend over without breaking when struck, a Texas manager has found a way to preserve the lamps and prevent damage to airplanes. The plan was adopted after several accidents had occurred, when ships struck the rigid standards.
Planes May Strike but Are Not So Likely to Break This Light, as It Is Attached to Flexible Cable
POLLEN COLLECTORS HELPING HAY FEVER VICTIMS
The old saying that it is an ill ind that blows no one good is well illustrated in the case of two enterprising former students of the University of California, who conduct a profitable business in collecting pollen to be studied by the hay-fever experts. The tiny grains are bottled and sold for $1 to $6 per gram, depending upon the variety. The pollen is analyzed in laboratories to determine if it is, of a kind that contributes to hay fever troubles and, if found "guilty," efforts are made to eradicate the weeds that produce it, or serums and other substances are prepared to combat it.
Weighing Pollen, and Some of the Plants Collected for the Dust: the Pollen Is Believed to Spread Hay Fever and a Curb Is Sought by Destroying Plants That Produce the Harmful Kinds
WHEN A SHIP IS ARRESTED
According to maritime law, ships, like men, can be arrested for failure of the owners to pay just claims against them. Some large ports have a special dock which is used as a sort of marine lockup. In case of an arrest, a sheriff's officer usually comes aboard, shows a warrant of arrest to the captain and nails the document to the mast. The ship is then legally a prisoner. According to British maritime law, anyone who has done any service for the ship, such as towing, repairing, lending money or even laboring as a seaman, can demand payment from the owners and, if this is not forthcoming, arrest proceedings are authorized. Sails, gear or other instruments can be taken to the amount of the claim. When a ship rams another, or fouls it and then steams off without making good the damage, it may be arrested within three miles of any British port.