Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories - The Sleepy History of Roller Coasters

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Starting point is 00:00:42 Add your teen to your Uber account today. and highly rated drivers. Add your team to your Uber account today. Welcome to Get Sleepy, where we listen, we relax, and we get sleepy. I'm your host, Thomas. Thanks so much for tuning in. Tonight we'll be exploring the origins of one of the world's favourite forms of entertainment, roller coasters. It's a bit of a crossover or follow up to a Sleepy History episode we did a few weeks back about amusement parks. For our premium supporters, on

Starting point is 00:01:47 Tuesday of next week you'll be able to hear the two stories stitched together into one of our bonus long-length episodes. Now although the story will make some reference to the speed and thrill of roller coasters. We have of course adapted it to suit a bedtime rhythm. As you listen, you'll feel more like you're on the lazy river ride rather than any daring roller coasters. It was written by Layla and I'll be reading it to you. If this show is helping you get better sleep, why not try the very best listening experience

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Starting point is 00:03:25 possibly need. Visit getsleepy.com slash support or follow the link in the show notes to learn more. Thank you so much my friends. Now, before we take you on a slow and steady journey through the history of roller coasters, let's take a moment to wind down. Much like the frantic and all-action nature of a roller coaster ride. Our daily lives can feel busy and hectic as we try to manage work, study, or just getting things done. And of course, there are ups and downs throughout every day. throughout every day. However, this time here and now is when we can slow down and sense that energetic experience of the daytime ride coming to an end. So take a nice deep breath in, and slowly, gently let it back out. Allow your mind some space and time to acknowledge any thoughts or worries or to scan back through the day

Starting point is 00:05:09 and process anything it needs to. But remind yourself that as you lie in your cozy bed or wherever you're listening from, you have every right to feel relaxed and peaceful. You can leave the frantic nature of the day behind, giving yourself every opportunity to rest and recharge. And smoothly exhale, letting it all go. You're free to drift off to sleep whenever you feel its satisfying pull carrying you across the threshold between wakefulness and pleasant dreams. Gradually, you might become less aware of my every word and simply hear my voice as nothing more than a calming backdrop to your peaceful night of rest. Now, let's travel back in time to

Starting point is 00:06:54 understand how the mighty roller coaster came to be. This is where our story begins. Anyone who's ever been to an amusement park, theme park, or even a country fair has almost certainly seen a roller coaster, and likely ridden on one at least once. Some of them are futuristic affairs of sleek metal, suggestive of spaceships or race cars, while others are nostalgic wooden rides that recall times gone by. Whatever the form, these rolling, looping rides are ubiquitous in our modern world. But did you ever stop to wonder how this quirky form of entertainment came into existence. When and how did people first begin creating these thrill rides? Now, roller coasters tend to glide around on rails that look a good deal like train tracks. So it would be easy to assume that the rides got their start with the advent of the railways, but that would be missing a big part of the story, for as it turns out, train travel is an important element of the roller coaster story, but it's not the origin point. That came long before, back in the dimly recollected playtimes of long, long ago.

Starting point is 00:09:29 For the true beginnings of roller coasters, we'll have to look far back into history. So, let's turn back the clock to a time long before photography could capture images of the world for us to examine. In fact, to understand the origins of the rides, we must look at the history of several forms of vehicles created by humans which converged over time to influence the modern roller coaster. Sometimes the various vehicles were used for transportation and sometimes they were used for entertainment. But what they all have in common is that they contributed to the evolution of the most popular thrill ride of our time. So, let's examine the innovations and inventions that contributed their part to this story. We'll begin with the timeless entertainment of sledding, also known as tobogganing or coasting.

Starting point is 00:11:06 Hmm, coasting. Does that name shed any light on the probable origins of the name roller coaster? At any rate, coasters or sleds of various kinds have been in use since humanity's earliest days. In fact, some experts believe sleds were one of the first vehicles invented by humans. At least, sledges. Similarly, Native Americans used a form of sledge for transportation. After the invention of wheels though, sledges were mostly only needed for traveling over snowy and icy ground. Necessity wasn't the only use for sledges though.

Starting point is 00:12:37 Of course, they were also used for fun, then as now. used for fun, then as now. Sledding, slaying, tobogganing, bobsledding, loosing. Coasting in all its forms has been a popular entertainment and sport for as long as anyone can remember. Many hundreds of years ago, and no doubt far before that in times long forgotten, people coasted down snowy or icy slopes for the fun and thrill of the ride, just as they still do today. And sometimes they didn't want to make do with the snowy or icy slopes that Mother Nature provided. Mother Nature provided. So it was that likely by the 1400s, people in Russia were constructing artificial hills covered in ice for the purpose of coasting down them. They would then slide down these human-made hills on wooden sledges made from tree trunks or lumber.

Starting point is 00:14:16 These artificial hills were nicknamed Flying Mountains. lying mountains. They reportedly allowed the sledders to go much faster than in ordinary conditions, speeding down the slopes at as much as 50 miles per hour. By the end of the 1600s, some 300 plus years ago, Russians were creating huge slices of ice held up by wooden poles. By then, riders were using wooden sledges with iron runners to speed down these icy sides. The famed city of St. Petersburg in the snowy far north of Russia became a center for this wintery amusement. amusement. And then in 1784, a ride opened in St. Petersburg that took the ice slides to a new level. This ride had carriages that traveled along grooved tracks, and it didn't just go down like other ice slides. Instead, the carriages went down and then traveled back up over smaller hills,

Starting point is 00:16:01 carried along by the motion from the first speedy descent. Not too long after the opening of this ice-side carriage ride, a similar ride debuted in Paris. It was called the Russian Mountains. As the name implied, the Paris Ride was modeled on the Russian ones, but it had a clever innovation, wheels attached to the sledges. The Russian Mountains ride drew passengers and attention in Paris, and soon other Russian Mountain rides further developed the concept. Additional improvements were added to subsequent rides, such as continuous tracks and cables that could pull carriages to the top of the hills. By the 1840s, a ride with an upside-down loop-de-loop had opened in Paris, reputedly imported from England. It was said to have been inspired by the loop-de-loops of toy marble runs. Certainly both the toy and the ride exploited centrifugal force to

Starting point is 00:17:51 keep marbles or riders pinned to a track as they flipped around upside down. down. Centrifugal force is what pushes merry-go-round riders outwards or makes car passengers lean towards the opposite side during a sharp turn. The creators of the ride exploited this force to design their upside down loop, and indeed the ride's French name could be translated as the Centrifuge Track or the Centrifuge Railway. railway. This upside-down ride was a major innovation, but it wasn't really well enough designed to inspire imitation. Loop-to-loop designs were still in their infancy, and it would be years before anyone designed one that was financially and otherwise viable enough for the attractions to become widespread. In the meantime, remember that I said multiple types of vehicles influenced the evolution

Starting point is 00:19:27 of roller coasters? Well, another kind of vehicle in use during those olden days was the gravity car. This involved a cart that travelled downhill along a track, pulled by gravity, just as the name implies. Gravity cars were used in mining, not for entertainment, unlike the surges and ice sides we've been describing. But the story of gravity cars converges with our story around this time. In the early part of the 1800s, a mining company in the United States had constructed a so-called Gravity Road in Pennsylvania. Its purpose was to carry coal from a mountain mine out of the mountains so it could be distributed to customers. Small carts or cars were linked together to form a train and loaded up with coal. These would then be sent hurtling nine miles down Gravity

Starting point is 00:20:59 Road. A single operator used a lever brake to slow or control the train of cars on the way down, and then mules pulled them back up the mountain afterwards. After a while, the company expanded Gravity Road to meet get coal down the mountain through a tunnel. But by the time it did, Gravity Road had begun to attract thrill riders eager to experience its wild ride, which had become known as the Mockchunk Switchback Railway. So even when it was no longer needed for coal transport, Gravity Road and its gravity stayed open as an entertainment attraction. By the early 1870s, the ride had grown to travel 18 miles up and down the mountainous terrain. The trip lasted for an impressive 80 minutes.

Starting point is 00:22:52 Passengers could enjoy the Gravity Road Railway for one dollar a piece, and some 35,000 or so tourists did so each year. By that time period, the late 1800s, the world was well and truly in the railway era, which began with the advent of steam locomotives earlier that century. And not long after Gravity Road had transformed into an 18-mile thrill ride, another railroad-based entertainment ride opened in 1884. This new ride was called the Switchback Gravity Pleasure Railway. It was a gravity-powered ride that glided along railway-like tracks, and it is widely seen as the first true roller coaster. Still, it was a far cry from the exhilarating coasters we know today. The switchback ride topped out at a relaxing 6 miles per hour. However, its relatively low speed apparently did nothing to dampen its popularity.

Starting point is 00:24:31 In fact, it was such a hit that it took just three weeks for the inventor to recover his investment of $1,600, the equivalent of something like $50,000 today. The switchback was located at Coney Island, a rapidly growing seaside resort near New York City, where it glided along the beach, allowing riders to enjoy the view. Soon, more of these early roller coasters sprang up at Coney Island. The spot was quickly becoming the American continent's leading entertainment destination. At the time, these early coasters were generally known by the name, Scenic Railways, and each And each new one built offered some kind of innovation. First, one new scenic railway track was built in a continuous loop so that passengers got off the ride at the same place they'd boarded. Next, an inventor built a scenic railway that powered the cars up the first hill. This allowed them to go downhill faster, making for a more thrilling ride than the six mile an hour switchback. Then came an upside down looping ride at Coney Island, the first upside down ride on record

Starting point is 00:26:39 since the one that had opened in Paris roughly half a century before. The Coney Island Loop-the-Loop was more advanced than the Paris Ride, but it was still a far cry from the modern designs we enjoy today. Engineers were still struggling to develop truly successful and financially viable designs for upside-down rides. Nonetheless, an iteration of the loop-de-loop, or loop-de-loop Loop won the popularity contest among scenic railways for several years, as the 1800s slid into the 1900s. But then, the first truly high-speed rollercoaster, The first truly high-speed roller coaster, called Drop the Dip, displaced the loop-de-loop in popularity early in the 20th century. Meanwhile, as all these innovations were taking place, the number of scenic railways, as they were still called, was rapidly growing. Rides were being constructed across the United States.

Starting point is 00:28:16 Some, like one in Atlantic City, New Jersey, rolled through elaborate stage settings. New Jersey rolled through elaborate stage settings. These depicted famous scenes from biblical stories and other sources. By the 1920s, more than 1,500 railway rides were operating around the United States. This is why the 1920s is referred to among roller coaster enthusiasts as the Golden Age. Roller coaster engineers were inventing ever better rides in rapid succession. One leading engineer came up with so many innovations that he owned more than a hundred ride-related patents. One of these patents was for an invention called the under-friction roller coaster wheel. It was a new way of keeping cars on the tracks.

Starting point is 00:29:37 The method made it possible to achieve faster speeds and steeper drops, some of the hallmarks of modern coasters. During the roaring twenties, Coney Island continued to lead the roller coaster pack, but other new amusement parks increasingly nipped at its heels. One of these was called Riverview Park in Chicago, and it was soon a close second to Coney Island. Riverview Park had an impressive 11 roller coasters operating at times, and one of them was advertised as the fastest coaster ever built. That ride was called the Fireball. The park claimed it reached 100 miles per hour, although historians say this speed must have been vastly exaggerated. Nevertheless, there's no doubt that Riverview Park was challenging records and pushing the limits to draw more thrill-seekers to its rides. For example, the city of Chicago didn't allow developers to build tracks

Starting point is 00:31:19 higher than 72 feet, but Riverview managed to evade this limit with a creative workaround. The park built a ditch that allowed the fireball ride to drop below the ground level, thus making it possible for the track to exceed the 72-foot limit. Still, the fireball was soon outstripped by yet another wilder ride as the frenzied pace of roller coaster innovation continued. This new coaster was called the Bobs and it sped around no fewer than 16 hills and 12 curves, traveling an impressive 3,253 feet. Record-breaking rides continued to proliferate throughout the 1920s. They had colorful names like the Lightning at Revere Beach in Massachusetts, at Revere Beach in Massachusetts, the Wildcat at Rocky Springs in Pennsylvania, and the Cyclone at New York City's Coney Island. Many of these Golden Age coasters have since been demolished. But Coney Island's cyclone is still standing, an

Starting point is 00:33:08 iconic remnant of the heady early days of roller coaster development. The roller coaster and amusement park boom finally slowed down after the 1920s came to a close. This slowdown continued until 1955 when a major development jump-started the amusement industry. That was when an entertainment entrepreneur called Walt Disney opened a new amusement park in Anaheim, California. Well, we all know how that turned out. Disneyland was a huge success, and it soon debuted the next advance in roller coaster technology, a steel coaster in place of the old wooden kind. The new steel roller coaster was the Matterhorn Ride, a bobsled-like experience named for the Matterhorn Mountain in the Alps Mountain Range on the border between Switzerland and Italy. The new steel construction made the ride smoother for passengers, and it also allowed engineers more latitude in designing roller coaster tracks. Soon, Disneyland's popularity sparked a new boom of theme parks,

Starting point is 00:35:08 and along with it, a boom in roller coaster construction. By the 1960s, new types of coasters were proliferating once again. types of coasters were proliferating once again. A new water ride launched, as well as a runaway mine ride at Six Flags Over Texas. The same designer who made those new rides also worked on a corkscrew roller coaster with 360 degree rolls at Knott's Berry Farm in California. This new period of coaster innovation ushered in advances in upside-down rides, which were poised to finally become commonplace. The Great American Revolution Ride opened during the U.S. Bicentennial Year, 1976, at Six Flags Magic Mountain in California. Thanks to the loop-to-loop pioneers from the 1800s through to the Revolution Ride and beyond, looping roller coasters are now a standard standard feature in amusement parks around the world. Now, some of these rides, like Dragon Khan in Spain and Monte Macaia in Brazil, flip around a whopping eight times. But alongside the innovation and ultra-modern rides, nostalgia was creeping into the world

Starting point is 00:37:12 of roller coaster design by the 1970s. Even as steel coasters pushed the limits with ever more advanced designs, wooden coasters made a comeback too. Kings Island Amusement Park in Ohio, which opened in 1972, built a wooden coaster called the Racer. The ride plugged into the public's nostalgic enthusiasm for the more old-fashioned style of coaster. Nostalgia notwithstanding, however, designers continued to build bigger, better, and more fanciful roller coasters throughout the following decades. The King Cobra let passengers ride standing up. The Boomerang ran both forwards and backwards. Batman the Ride featured cars suspended underneath

Starting point is 00:38:34 the main structure of the track. And the Magnum XL 200 broke records by dropping more than 200 feet. Modern science and engineering powered new and better rides. Designers began to use electromagnetic waves to send coasters on their way, leaps and bounds from the just gravity-powered rides of old. Linear induction motors used powerful magnets to speed coasters up to 70 miles per hour in less than four seconds. And eventually, a new innovation called the Linear Synchronous Motor propelled Superman the Escape up a 415-foot tower. This allowed the Superman ride to genuinely reach 100 miles per hour, the competition was fierce. So fierce, in fact, that in the year 2000, the record for the tallest roller coaster

Starting point is 00:40:19 was broken no less than three times. First, the Goliath ride at Six Flags Magic Mountain broke the record, coming in at 255 feet tall. Then, the Millennium Force ride was built at Cedar Point, Ohio, and stole the record at 310 feet tall. Finally, the Steel Dragon roller coaster opened in the late summer of 2000 in Japan, capturing the record again for its height of 318 feet. And in the years since, the still dragon too has been deposed by newer and still taller rides. newer and still taller rides. By that time, at the start of this century, about 120 roller coasters were opening up

Starting point is 00:41:35 around the world each year, with China now among the fastest growing markets. Some of the roller coasters opening each year have been brand new rides. Others have been renovations of old rides, modernized with the latest technology. For example, Six Flags Over Texas converted its Texas Giant into a steel-tracked coaster several years ago, which it descriptively rechristened the new Texas Giant. That successful overhaul led to the modernization of many other older rides. But whether they're brand new, classic, or recently updated, all of the many rides operating across the world today are a testament to the enduring popularity of the roller coaster.

Starting point is 00:43:09 This odd form of entertainment that began so long ago on the sides of snow-covered hills when people then, as now, were thrilled by the timeless enjoyment of succumbing to gravity and coasting downhill. You You You You You You You You You You You You The You You You You You You You You You You You you

Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories - The Sleepy History of Roller Coasters

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