Table Of ContentCircles in the Sky
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Circles in the Sky
The Life and Times of George Ferris
Richard G. Weingardt, P.E.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Weingardt, Richard.
Circles in the sky the life and times of George Ferris / Richard G.
Weingardt.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7844-1010-3
1. Ferris, George Washington Gale, 1859–1896. 2. Structural engineers—United
States—Biography. 3. Ferris wheels—History. 4. World’s Columbian Exposition
(1893 : Chicago, Ill.) I. Title.
TA140.F455W45 2009
624.1092—dc22
[B]
2009007618
Published by American Society of Civil Engineers
1801 Alexander Bell Drive
Reston, Virginia 20191
www.pubs.asce.org
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To my wife Evie,
always supportive, encouraging
and in the highest of spirits
even during bleak times
THE FERRIS WHEEL
Contents
List of Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
by Norman D. Anderson
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Chapter One Legendary He Was . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter Two Westward to the Colonies . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Chapter Three Taming the Prairie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Chapter Four Carson Valley to Troy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Chapter Five Founding of a Firm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Chapter Six Building Big Bridges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Chapter Seven Piercing Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Chapter Eight Incredible Wheel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Chapter Nine Lawsuits and Ruin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Chapter Ten Aftermath—Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Appendix A Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Appendix B George Ferris Family Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
vii
viii CIRCLES IN THE SKY
Appendix C Details of the Ferris Wheel . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Appendix D Conclusions Section of Ferris’s RPI Thesis. . . . 139
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Other Research Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
About the Author. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
List of Illustrations
The Ferris Wheel at the Chicago World’s Exposition in 1893. . . . . . . vi
George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Silvanus Ferris, George’s grandfather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Rev. George Washington Gale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Old Main at Knox College . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Nathan Olmstead Ferris, George’s uncle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
George W. G. Ferris, Sr., George’s father . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Martha Hyde Ferris, George’s mother . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Ferris Ranch, Carson Valley, Nevada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Margaret (Ferris) Dangberg, George’s sister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Ranch house where Ferris lived as a boy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Cradlebaugh water wheel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Ferris Mansion, Carson City, Nevada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Oakland Military Academy, Oakland, California. . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Blue spruce at Carson City capitol building. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Gen. James H. Ledlie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Henderson Bridge over Ohio River between Indiana and Kentucky . . 53
Ninth Street Bridge, Pittsburgh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Central Bridge, Cincinnati . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Rookery Offi ce Building, Chicago . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Daniel H. Burnham. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
William F. Gronau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Ferris Wheel under construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Signed Ferris Wheel document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Luther V. Rice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Scaffolding for Ferris Wheel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Axle of Ferris Wheel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Power plant of Ferris Wheel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Ferris Wheel lighted at night . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
View through Wheel’s framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Passenger view from Ferris Wheel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Ferris Wheel in operation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Spider-web construction of Ferris Wheel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
ix
