Carousels

This article is about the amusement ride. For the stage musical, see Carousel.

A carousel in a summer festival in London, with traditional animal mounts, barley twist poles and fairy lights.

A carousel is an amusement flat ride consisting of a rotating platform with seats for passengers. The "seats" are traditionally in the form of wooden horses or animals, which are moved mechanically up and down to simulate galloping. This leads to the machine's alternative name, the galloper. Other popular names are merry-go-round, roundabout and flying horses.

Every carousel is designed to rotate in one direction only. The direction may derive from the rules of the road of the country of origin. In the US, traffic as seen from the sidewalk appears to travel from left to right. Hence American carousels rotate counter-clockwise so that the view from outside is the same as that from the sidewalk. In Britain, it's the reverse in both cases. Another reason may be that the British felt in necessary to mount the wooden steeds in the "proper" fashion...inserting the left foot in the stirrup and swinging the right leg over and up onto the animal. The Americans on the other hand were more concerned with people being able to "grab the brass ring" while spinning round and round. Any rotating platform may also be called a carousel. In a playground, a merry-go-round is usually a simple, child-powered rotating platform with bars or handles to which children can cling while riding.Since many are right-handed, the machine would have to travel in a counter-clockwise direction so that our right hand would be free to reach for the ring.

History

Records of early carousels are known from the Byzantine Empire. The first steam-powered carousels began to appear in Europe in 1860, and then in England and the USA in 1870. The first carousel at Coney Island was built in 1876 by Charles I. D. Looff, a Danish woodcarver. The oldest functional carousel in Europe is in Prague (Letna Park).

The carousel met its artistic zenith in early 1900s America - the industry's carvers, mostly immigrants from Europe, took the traditions of their home countries, and let their imaginations loose in their new creations. Whereas most European carousel figures are relatively static in posture, American figures are more representative of active beasts - tossed manes, expressive eyes and postures of movement are their hallmarks. American companies fell into three distinct carving styles: The Philadelphia Style (including the William Dentzel, Daniel Carl Muller, and Philadelphia Toboggan Companies), The Coney Island Style (including the Charles Carmel, Marcus Charles Illions, Solomon Stein & Harry Goldstein, and Charles I. D. Looff companies), and The County Fair Style (including the Armitage Herschell, Allan Herschell, Edward Spillman, and Charles Parker companies).

Trivia

There is only one carousel in the world that rides in a waving motion. It is "Over the Jumps: The Arkansas Carousel" in Little Rock, Arkansas. It is also the only remaining wooden track carousel built by the Herschell & Spillman Company.

A homemade merry-go-round

French old-fashioned style carousel with stairs

Old carousel in Bruxelles

References

• CAROUSEL BUYER'S GUIDE! web site, 2005-12-26
• A Brief Carousel History, Carousel Magic! web site, 2003-07-30
• Airport carousels

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Carousel