Lost Legends: Aeroscope |
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| When the Panama Canal opened in 1914, many expositions were held to commemorate the achivement. In 1915, California had two of these; the Panama California Exposition in San Diego, and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, or PPIE, which was held in San Francisco. The hilight of the PPIE's 625-acre site was an amusement area called "The Zone". The Zone included shows, rides, and even a working model of the Canal itself. The Zone was an amusement park nearly a mile long, and containing many classic amusement rides of the era. The Zone alse featured a dual-track wood roller coaster, built for the exposition by L.A. Thomson himself. But the hilight of the exposition was a ride called the Aeroscope. | ||||||||||||||||||
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The Aeroscope combined the benefits of an observation tower, with the thrill and motion of a Ferris wheel, and the result was spectacular. Passengers boarded a two-storey enclosure. Thr floors were connected by stairs, and passengers were free to move about during the ride. The car could hold 118 people, plus operators, with each floor measuring 5.7m (19') by 11.5m (38'). The sides were open, but protected by glass. After passengers boarded, the car was raised into the air on the end of a giant arm. Once the arm was high enough to clear the nearby roller coaster, the entire assemble would rotate, giving passengers an incredible view of the entire exposition, San Francisco bay, Alcatraz, and in the distance, the pacific ocean. | |||||||||||||||||
| The Aeroscope, like many great rides, dominated it's park completely. It's towering structure was visible from anywhere in the park, and there were always long lines to get on it. The rides's dominance was even greater at night, when the ride would be outlined by hundreds of lights, and a powerful searchlight mounted on the roof of the car was visible for miles. | ||||||||||||||||||
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The Aeroscope was designed by J. B. Strauss, a bridge engineer from Chicago. He had actually patented his ride concept several years earlier in 1912, but the ride had not been built until the PPIE in 1915. The ride's construction and mechanical systems are nothing short of ingenious. The base of the tower was 15m (48') tall, and sat on a circular track, 20m (65') in diameter, which it could revolve around on. The arm itself was mounted on the base, and extended 61m (200') past it to the car. It was also counterweighted by a 345 tonne (380 ton) mass on it's lower end. The counterweight system was most ingenious. Two water tanks were attached to the bottom of the car, and the weight of the car was measured by how far they sunk into a resovoir below the station. Then, water was pumped into or out of the tanks in order to balance the car with the counterweight. The use of this system meant that the arm could be raised and lowered using only two 11-horspower engines. Strauss also included two propellers, driven by smaller, 3-horsepower motors, near the top of the arm. These were used to stabilize the arm. |
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| Although the exposition was only open for a little over nine months - Febuary 20th to December 4th, 1915 - , the Aeroscope carried over 300000 passengers. Though Strauss went on to build smaller models for other parks, he is still best known for his bridges. Most notably, Strauss is known for designing the Golden Gate Bridge, which opened for traffic in 1937. In fact, the Golden Gate Bridge would have been clearly visible from the Aeroscope, had they existed at the same time. Strauss died the year after the Golden Gate opened, on May 16, 1938. | ||||||||||||||||||
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After the exhibition, the Aeroscope was taken down, and was, unfortunately, never rebuilt. The Zone's roller coaster was relocated to Seal Beach after the exposition, where it was known as the "Roller Racing Coaster". Like the Ferris Wheel at the Columbian Exposition, the Aeroscope created a great intrest in large-scale rides all over the world. Perhaps more importantly, though, the Aeroscope established that a large scale ride, visible from far away, can be tremendously useful in drawing customers to the park, and also helps to bring a sense of uniqueness, and importance to a park. The Aeroscope proved that any great amusement park should have a "landmark" ride, large enough to be visible for miles around, to set it apart from other parks, and provide a major attraction to draw the public; a trend clearly visible in the modern-day amusement park. |  |
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Written by James Kay
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