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A Ferris wheel, named after George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., (sometimes called a big wheel, observation wheel, or, in the case of the very tallest examples, giant wheel) is a nonbuilding structure consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, capsules, gondolas, or pods) attached to the rim in such a way that as the wheel turns, they are kept upright, usually by gravity. Some of the largest modern Ferris wheels have cars mounted on the outside of the rim, with electric motors to independently rotate each car to keep it upright. These wheels are sometimes referred to as observation wheels, and their cars referred to as capsules, however these alternative names are also sometimes used for wheels with conventional gravity-oriented cars. The original Ferris Wheel was designed and constructed by George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. as a landmark for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The term Ferris wheel is used generically for all such structures, which are now the most common type of amusement ride at state fairs in the United States.〔(Still turning – Jacksonville built the world's first portable Ferris Wheel )〕 Since the original 1893 Chicago Ferris Wheel, there have been nine world's tallest-ever Ferris wheels. The current record holder is the High Roller in Las Vegas, US, which opened to the public in March 2014. ==Early history== "Pleasure wheels", whose passengers rode in chairs suspended from large wooden rings turned by strong men, may have originated in 17th-century Bulgaria.〔〔(Eyes in the sky )〕 ''The travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia, 1608–1667''〔(The travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia, 1608–1667 )〕 describes and illustrates "severall Sorts of Swinginge used in their Publique rejoyceings att their Feast of Biram" on 17 May 1620 at Philippopolis in the Ottoman Balkans.〔 Among means "lesse dangerous and troublesome" was one: Five years earlier, in 1615, Pietro Della Valle, a Roman traveller who sent letters from Constantinople, Persia, and India, attended a Ramadan festival in Constantinople. He describes the fireworks, floats, and great swings, then comments on riding the Great Wheel:〔(Wilfrid Blount, ''Pietro's pilgrimage'': a journey to India and back at the beginning of the seventeenth century, Volume 1 )〕 Similar wheels also appeared in England in the 17th century, and subsequently elsewhere around the world, including India, Romania, and Siberia.〔 A Frenchman, Antonio Manguino, introduced the idea to America in 1848, when he constructed a wooden pleasure wheel to attract visitors to his start-up fair in Walton Spring, Georgia. A much earlier description of a Ferris-type wheel can be seen in ''The Death of Arthur'', a volume of the ''Vulgate Cycle'' dating from around 1220. The text describes King Arthur in a dream being approached by Fortuna and placed upon the Wheel of Fortune. Although the description is fictional, it is likely to be based upon real observations of a Ferris-type wheel: 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ferris wheel」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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