In 1898, Edwin Prescott, a roller coaster designer from Massachusetts, was granted a patent for an improvement to roller coasters that ride enthusiasts have come to take for granted-the vertical loop. While the roller coaster depicted in the patent’s illustration wasn’t the first to invert riders in a loop, it did usher in the safer, more comfortable and now prevailing elliptical-shaped loop.
Hinkle Coasters
In 1884, Phillip Hinkle patented a powered chain lift to pull the cars up that first incline before letting gravity do the rest of the work.
- Because of this, Hinkle coasters-like Coney Island’s Gravity Pleasure Road-could be built on elliptical paths, rather than from point A to point B.
Mauch Chunk and Summit Hill Switchback Railroad, 1846-47
It was a railway that served dual purposes: a coal carrier in the morning and a joy ride in the afternoon
- At its peak, it carried 30,478 adrenaline-rushed passengers-each for just 75 cents.
Leap-the-Dips
A wooden roller coaster still in operation that was built in 1902 that goes ten miles an hour and doesn’t have seatbelts, lapbars or headrests.
- It is what’s called a side friction coaster, meaning it has weight-bearing road wheels underneath the cars to guide it and side-friction wheels off to the side that employ friction to keep cars on the track.
The tallest roller coaster in the world is Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey
It goes from zero to 128 miles per hour in only 3.5 seconds, accelerating you 45 stories high at a 90-degree angle.
- The rest of the ride is a spiraling 50.6 second blur.
The longest roller coaster is Steel Dragon 2000 at Nagashima Spa Land in Japan.
At 1.5 miles long, you’ll be on this coaster for four minutes.
- After the chain lift hill is an initial drop of 306.8 foot and a 252 foot camelback hill. The train subsequently rises up and into the figure-eight shaped helix.
The American roller coaster was invented to save America from Satan
In 1884, LaMarcus Adna Thompson invented the Switchback Gravity Railway, a patented coaster that visitors to Brooklyn’s Coney Island could ride for just five cents
- These were gravity-powered, slow-moving cars that faced outward, rather than forward, so one could enjoy a constructed scene as the car coasted at less than six miles per hour
“Russian mountains” predated roller coasters-and Catherine the Great improved them
In the 15th century, Russians built giant, wooden slides covered in ice that could reach speeds up to 50 mph.
- Catherine II of Russia installed one on her property, and it had wheels that fit into grooved wooden rails, putting the “roller” in roller coaster and allowing the thrill to continue into summer months.
Riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disney World could help dislodge kidney stones
Researchers rode the coaster 20 times wearing a transparent, 3D-printed kidney with a fake stone inside to study how the stone would move
- About two-thirds of the time, the kidney stone passed-as long as the rider was seated at the back of the coaster
Fabio may have killed a goose with his face on a roller coaster
In 1999, Fabio Lanzoni-a dashing Italian-American actor and model known to grace many covers of romance novels in the ’80s and ’90s-was allegedly struck in the face by a goose when debuting the Apollo’s Chariot at Busch Gardens Williamsburg.
The chemical makeup of your brain might be the reason for your preference
Higher levels of dopamine, which are neurotransmitters associated with reward-motivated behavior, are linked to sensation-seeking activities
- Another study found that higher levels of endorphins led to increased feelings of euphoria, which would explain why some people dig the thrill so much
The fastest roller coaster is Formula Rossa at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi.
The coaster goes from zero to 149 miles per hour in just 4.9 seconds, giving you an adrenaline rush worth 4.8Gs, according to their website. It’ll leave you feeling like a real race car driver.
The future of roller coasters promises cars that rotate and roller coaster-water slide mashups
In just one day, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published five patent applications from Universal for amusement park technologies
- Two of the patents laid out ways for coaster cars to change direction while the coaster was moving, turning sideways as well as forward while the ride was in motion.
- Disney similarly applied for a patent that would allow a car’s seat to move while the roller coaster is cruising.
Ron Toomer
One of the most famous roller coaster designers had a “bad motion sickness problem.”
- Toomer designed the Runaway Mine Ride at Six Flags Over Texas in 1966, known for its “tubular track” and the “inverted helix-shaped” Corkscrew, which sprung up at number of parks, in 1975.
Roller coaster loops are never circular
Centripetal force is what holds keeps you from falling out of roller coaster while it’s upside down.
- When roller coasters are designed, the engineers’ first job is to establish how fast they want you to go. Taking centripettal force into consideration will dictate the shape and size of the loop.
