Bill Text: PA HR995 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Honoring the life and historical achievements of George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., a local bridge builder who conceived of the idea for one of the single-most recognizable rides at any carnival or fair, the Ferris Wheel.

Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-10-07 - INTRODUCED AS NONCONTROVERSIAL RESOLUTION UNDER RULE 35 [HR995 Detail]

Download: Pennsylvania-2009-HR995-Introduced.html

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PRINTER'S NO. 4455
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE RESOLUTION
No. 995 Session of2010
INTRODUCED BY WHEATLEY, BELFANTI, BEYER, BRENNAN, CALTAGIRONE, DALEY, DiGIROLAMO, DONATUCCI, FAIRCHILD, FLECK, FRANKEL, GEORGE, GIBBONS, GINGRICH, GRUCELA, HENNESSEY, KIRKLAND, KORTZ, MAHONEY, MANN, MARSHALL, McGEEHAN, MILLARD, MIRABITO, MURT, PASHINSKI, PHILLIPS, READSHAW, REICHLEY, ROEBUCK, SAYLOR, SIPTROTH, STABACK, SWANGER, VULAKOVICH, HESS AND ROCK, OCTOBER 7, 2010
INTRODUCED AS NONCONTROVERSIAL RESOLUTION UNDER RULE 35, OCTOBER 7, 2010
A RESOLUTION
Honoring the life and historical achievements of George
Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., a local bridge builder who
conceived the idea for one of the single-most recognizable
rides at any carnival or fair, the Ferris Wheel.
WHEREAS, George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., conceived,
designed and built an engineering marvel which astonished the
world at its debut and became a mainstay of American recreation;
and
WHEREAS, Mr. Ferris was born in Galesburg, Illinois, in 1859
to George Washington Gale Ferris, Sr., and Martha Edgerton Hyde
Ferris and grew up with four sisters and two brothers; and
WHEREAS, After spending nine years on his father's ranch, Mr.
Ferris attended the California Military Academy in Oakland,
California, in 1873 before enrolling at Rensselaer Polytechnical
Institute in Troy, New York, where he graduated in 1881 with a
degree in engineering; and
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WHEREAS, After working for one year in New York under General
J.H. Ledlie, Mr. Ferris became a professional civil engineer and
then a general manager for the Queen City Mining Company in West
Virginia during 1882; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Ferris later found civil engineering work in
Pittsburgh, where he specialized in constructing steel
frameworks for bridges and tunnels; and
WHEREAS, When the World's Columbian Exhibition of 1893 was
being planned in Chicago, the 33-year-old Mr. Ferris had a dream
to help build a structure to outdo the Eiffel Tower, the
centerpiece of the Paris Exhibition of 1889; and
WHEREAS, The exhibition's planners wanted something original,
daring and unique; and
WHEREAS, Inspired, Mr. Ferris sketched a huge, revolving
observation wheel on scrap paper, in detail down to the ticket
price, and presented his idea to the committee the next day; and
WHEREAS, The committee had heard of the smaller, wooden
pleasure wheels that had begun to appear at various vacation
spots about 25 years before, but dismissed Mr. Ferris based upon
the sheer size of his wheel; and
WHEREAS, A few weeks later, Mr. Ferris returned to the
committee after having convinced fellow engineers to endorse his
structure as buildable and safe, and more importantly, he had
found local investors to cover the $400,000 construction cost,
and this time, his plan was approved; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Ferris' design was modeled on a bicycle wheel,
having heavy steel beams as spokes to maintain the wheel's shape
and balance and two steel girder pyramids as forks in which the
axle was set; and
WHEREAS, The wheel was 264 feet high, the supporting towers
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were 140 feet high and the axle, the largest piece of steel ever
forged in the United States at that time, weighed 46½ tons; and
WHEREAS, The wheel carried 36 elegantly outfitted passenger
cars, each of which could fit 40 people sitting or 60 people
standing, and the wheel was spun by either of two 1,000-
horsepower steam engines and stopped by an oversized air brake;
and
WHEREAS, Mr. Ferris' innovative design, a model of
efficiency, let the wheel withstand Chicago's infamous winds
while being able to hold about five times the 1,200 tons that it
did carry when fully loaded; and
WHEREAS, At its opening on June 21, 1893, the Ferris Wheel
became the irresistible centerpiece of the exhibition, and as
one reviewer put it, "You cannot advertise the wheel, anyway,
any more than you can advertise the fair or the Atlantic Ocean.
They are all too big."; and
WHEREAS, Operating without a hitch throughout the exhibition,
Mr. Ferris' wheel carried an estimated 1.5 million visitors who
each paid 50¢ for a 20-minute ride; and
WHEREAS, George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., the author of
this uniquely beautiful and modern amalgam of spirit, form and
function, spent the next two years in litigation and died
prematurely in late 1896, but his name lives on, in observation
wheels that can now be found in virtually every amusement park
in the world; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives pay homage and
appreciation for the life and achievements of George Washington
Gale Ferris, Jr.
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