Have you ever been to the Circus or to a theme park? How does it all work? Who thought of creating these fun inventions to entertain kids? Read below to find out the answers to your questions!

"If we built a ride everyone wanted to ride, that's called an elevator -
and that's not an amusement ride."
- Stan Checketts

The Ferris Wheel - George W. Ferris
The first ferris wheel was designed by George W. Ferris, a bridge-builder from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Ferris began his care er in the railroad industry and then pursued an interest in bridge building. He built the Ferris Wheel for the 1893 World's Fair, which was held in Chicago to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus's landing in America. The ride cost fifty cents and made $726,805.50 during the World's Fair. The original Ferris Wheel was destroyed in 1906, but there are other ferris wheels at theme parks and carnivals everywhere.

Roller Coasters - John A. Miller
John Miller was a prolific inventor who was granted over 100 patents, and invented many of the safety devices used in today's roller coasters, including the 'Safety Chain Dog' and 'Under Friction Wheels'. Miller designed toboggans before starting work at the Dayton Fun House and Riding Device Manufacturing Company, which later became the National Amusement Device Corporation. Together with partner Norman Bartlett, John Miller invented his first amusement ride (patented on October 14, 1926) called the Flying Turns ride. The Flying Turns was the prototype for the first roller coaster ride, however, it did not have tracks. Miller went on to invent several roller coasters with his new partner Harry Baker. Harry Baker built the famous Cyclone ride at Astroland Park, Coney Island. Miller has been called the "Thomas Edison" of roller coasters.

The Trampoline- George Nissen
The prototype was built by George Nissen, an American circus acrobat. He invented the trampoline in his garage in 1936 and subsequently patented the device. The sport debuted in the Sydney Olympics (2000) as an official medal sport with four events: individual, synchronized, double mini and tumbling. Athletes can now achieve up to two seconds of airtime for the performance of gymnastic feats.World’s First

The Carousel-
The carousel originated in Europe, but reached its greatest fame in America in the 1900's. The first carousels featured gondolas, carts, menagerie animals, and horses. The French developed many variations of the carousel. In one variation, the riders tried to spear gold rings with lances while the carousel rotated at full speed. This undoubtedly led to the phrase, "catching the brass ring" on later carousels.

Checketts's Hypersonic XLC.

Compressed Air Launched Roller Coaster-Stan Checketts
Stan Checketts is the inventor of more than 115 tower rides, 150 childrens rides and three coasters in 24 countries since 1994. He is the man who created the world's first compressed-air launched roller coaster. His adrenaline-fueled inspirations can be seen at many theme parks including Six Flags Great Adventure and the Las Vegas Casino. Checketts, was a carpenter and built kitchen cabinets and was inspired by bungee cord jumping. He holds a whole bunch of patents on his mechanical designs. He started a company S&S Power Supply which creates the amazing inventions he comes up with. One of his best coasters is Hypersonic XLC.

Bumper Cars -
It is unclear who really patented the first concept of Bumper Cars. However in 1919 they were invented by Max and Harold Stoehrer who named the cars dodgems. They were very popular but went out of business in the 1970’s. Joseph and Robert Lusse also spent many years improving on the negative aspects of the Dodgems. They called their invention the Auto Skooter. The Auto Skooter was an electrically powered front wheel drive bumper car.  It was fashioned after late model automobiles of the period with head and tail lights to look like a real car.