Millennium Force
Millennium Force is a steel roller coaster located at Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. Manufactured by Intamin, it was the park's fourteenth roller coaster dating back to the opening of Blue Streak in 1964. Upon completion in 2000, Millennium Force broke six world records and was the world's first giga coaster, a term coined by Intamin and Cedar Point to represent roller coasters that exceed 300 feet in height and complete a full circuit, it was the tallest and fastest in the world until Steel Dragon 2000 opened the same year. The ride is the third-longest roller coaster in North America following The Beast at Kings Island and Fury 325 at Carowinds. Millennium Force features a 310-foot-tall cable lift hill with a 300-foot drop, two tunnels, three overbanked turns, four hills; the coaster has a top speed of 93 mph. Since its debut, Millennium Force has been voted the number one steel roller coaster ten times in Amusement Today's annual Golden Ticket Awards. Although Millennium Force has been surpassed in height and speed, it remains one of the tallest and fastest in the world.
The planning and development phases of Millennium Force took place over five years. The first rumors that a new record-breaking roller coaster would be built at Cedar Point, which included speculation about a ten inversion roller coaster from Bolliger & Mabillard and an Arrow Dynamics MegaLooper, began circulating in early 1998. A roller coaster from D. H. Morgan Manufacturing was rumored. On July 2, 1999, Cedar Fair Entertainment Company filed a trademark for the name Millennium Force, which raised more speculation about what the ride would be like. About a week the first track pieces were seen at the park, which confirmed that the ride would be manufactured by Intamin. Cedar Point officials confirmed that it would not have inversions. Millennium Force was announced on July 22, 1999, as the tallest roller coaster in the world, taking the record from Fujiyama at Fuji-Q Highland in Japan. Don Miears, General Manager of Cedar Point said, "Millennium Force introduces the world to a whole new level of roller coaster riding."
The ride cost $25 million to build. Millennium Force was built in the Frontier Trail section of the park and the Giant Wheel was relocated to make room for it. Cedar Point and Werner Stengel designed the layout of the ride. After the ride was announced, several disputes about whether Millennium Force or Superman: The Escape was the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world arose between Cedar Point and Six Flags Magic Mountain. Superman: The Escape is 415 feet high and its speed is 100 miles per hour. Construction started in August 1999; the removal and relocation of the Giant Wheel began in October on closing day. Two hundred twenty-six footers, each about 5 feet deep were dug; the concrete construction was done by Mosser Construction. The lift hill was topped off in early January 2000; the ride's construction took seven months, 120 construction workers and project managers participated. Testing took two months; the park conducted a "pull-through" by pulling a train along the course to ensure proper clearance.
The ride was tested with water-dummies on the trains. The first media event was held on May 11, 2000, the ride opened to the public two days on May 13; when it opened, it broke six world records. It was the first Giga Coaster and was the world's fastest complete-circuit roller coaster, but was overtaken by other rides. About a month after Millennium's debut, Cedar Point introduced a new queuing system called "Ticket to Ride" to reduce the waiting times, which allowed visitors to buy a ticket return and wait in a shorter line. In August, Cedar Point engaged John Hancock and Associates and Stalker Radar of Indianapolis to measure the height and speed of Millennium Force; the height was measured at 310 feet 11 inches, the speed was measured at 93 miles per hour faster than what the park had been advertising. Before the start of the 2004 season, Millennium Force's seat belts were modified because of an incident that occurred on Superman the Ride, a similar roller coaster at Six Flags New England.
The new seat belts were shorter and some riders had difficulties with them. The roller coaster's layout was repainted over a three-year period, before the 2011, 2012 and 2013 seasons. In 2012, the park added a new LED lighting system. Millennium Force's entrance is located behind the Cedar Point & Lake Erie Railroad's Celebration Plaza station; the queue is situated between the station. A DJ booth is provided to entertain waiting visitors, it was replaced by Cedar Point's FUNtv, which plays music videos of popular songs, the Gatekeeper/Maverick shuffle, park trivia, sports news, park advertisements, weather forecasts, popular news headlines. About a month after Millennium's debut, Cedar Point introduced a new queue system known as "Ticket to Ride" to reduce the wait time. Visitors could buy tickets return and wait in a shorter line; this system was discontinued in 2004 after several people complained it was unfair that others were going ahead of them in line. In 2012, Cedar Point introduced its Fast Lane queue system on the ride.
The syste
Goliath (Walibi Holland)
Goliath is a steel roller coaster located at the Walibi Holland theme park in Biddinghuizen, Dronten in the Netherlands. It is described as "the fastest and longest coaster in the Benelux", it was mainland Europe's second Intamin "Mini Hyper Rollercoaster", so named as the ride is styled on the larger ride, but with a lower maximum height of 47 metres. The train travels at speeds of up to 107 kilometres per hour along 1,214 metres of track; the roller coaster is another collaboration of Swiss manufacturer Intamin and German engineer Werner Stengel. It employs the same technology as Expedition GeForce with a cable lift hill set up trains and is set beside a lake; the ride premiered in the 2002 season. After climbing out of the station, the train is released from the catch car at the top of the lift hill and accelerates down the 152-foot first drop and runs over a large hill. After dropping for the second time, it ascends a hill called a Stengel Dive, the top being overbanked to around 100° to the right, before dropping down into a 270° downward helix.
After medium-sized curved hill, it negotiates a 380° upwards helix and a bend to take the track parallel to the lift hill. Before entering the brake run, riders experience. Goliath has two trains with eight cars each; each car seats two across in two rows. The trains have stadium-style seating. Restraints are hydraulic lap-bars. Walibi Holland website Attraction webpage
Electric motor
An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate force in the form of rotation of a shaft. Electric motors can be powered by direct current sources, such as from batteries, motor vehicles or rectifiers, or by alternating current sources, such as a power grid, inverters or electrical generators. An electric generator is mechanically identical to an electric motor, but operates in the reverse direction, converting mechanical energy into electrical energy. Electric motors may be classified by considerations such as power source type, internal construction and type of motion output. In addition to AC versus DC types, motors may be brushed or brushless, may be of various phase, may be either air-cooled or liquid-cooled. General-purpose motors with standard dimensions and characteristics provide convenient mechanical power for industrial use.
The largest electric motors are used for ship propulsion, pipeline compression and pumped-storage applications with ratings reaching 100 megawatts. Electric motors are found in industrial fans and pumps, machine tools, household appliances, power tools and disk drives. Small motors may be found in electric watches. In certain applications, such as in regenerative braking with traction motors, electric motors can be used in reverse as generators to recover energy that might otherwise be lost as heat and friction. Electric motors produce linear or rotary force and can be distinguished from devices such as magnetic solenoids and loudspeakers that convert electricity into motion but do not generate usable mechanical force, which are referred to as actuators and transducers; the first electric motors were simple electrostatic devices described in experiments by Scottish monk Andrew Gordon and American experimenter Benjamin Franklin in the 1740s. The theoretical principle behind them, Coulomb's law, was discovered but not published, by Henry Cavendish in 1771.
This law was discovered independently by Charles-Augustin de Coulomb in 1785, who published it so that it is now known with his name. The invention of the electrochemical battery by Alessandro Volta in 1799 made possible the production of persistent electric currents. After the discovery of the interaction between such a current and a magnetic field, namely the electromagnetic interaction by Hans Christian Ørsted in 1820 much progress was soon made, it only took a few weeks for André-Marie Ampère to develop the first formulation of the electromagnetic interaction and present the Ampère's force law, that described the production of mechanical force by the interaction of an electric current and a magnetic field. The first demonstration of the effect with a rotary motion was given by Michael Faraday in 1821. A free-hanging wire was dipped into a pool of mercury; when a current was passed through the wire, the wire rotated around the magnet, showing that the current gave rise to a close circular magnetic field around the wire.
This motor is demonstrated in physics experiments, substituting brine for mercury. Barlow's wheel was an early refinement to this Faraday demonstration, although these and similar homopolar motors remained unsuited to practical application until late in the century. In 1827, Hungarian physicist Ányos Jedlik started experimenting with electromagnetic coils. After Jedlik solved the technical problems of continuous rotation with the invention of the commutator, he called his early devices "electromagnetic self-rotors". Although they were used only for teaching, in 1828 Jedlik demonstrated the first device to contain the three main components of practical DC motors: the stator and commutator; the device employed no permanent magnets, as the magnetic fields of both the stationary and revolving components were produced by the currents flowing through their windings. After many other more or less successful attempts with weak rotating and reciprocating apparatus Prussian Moritz von Jacobi created the first real rotating electric motor in May 1834.
It developed remarkable mechanical output power. His motor set a world record, which Jacobi improved four years in September 1838, his second motor was powerful enough to drive a boat with 14 people across a wide river. It was in 1839/40 that other developers managed to build motors with similar and higher performance; the first commutator DC electric motor capable of turning machinery was invented by British scientist William Sturgeon in 1832. Following Sturgeon's work, a commutator-type direct-current electric motor was built by American inventor Thomas Davenport, which he patented in 1837; the motors ran at up to 600 revolutions per minute, powered machine tools and a printing press. Due to the high cost of primary battery power, the motors were commercially unsuccessful and bankrupted Davenport. Several inventors followed Sturgeon in the development of DC motors, but all encountered the same battery cost issues; as no electricity distribution system was available at the time, no practical commercial market emerged for these motors.
In 1855, Jedlik built a device using similar principles to those used in his electromagnetic self-rotors, capable of useful work. He built a model electric vehicle that same year. A major turning point came in 1864; this featured symmetrically-grouped coils closed upon themselves and connected to the bars of a commutator, the brushes of which delivered non-fluctuating current. The first c
Ferrari World Abu Dhabi
Ferrari World Abu Dhabi is a indoors amusement park on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It is the first Ferrari-branded theme park and has the record for the largest space frame structure built. Formula Rossa, the world's fastest roller coaster, is located here; the foundation stone for the park was laid on 3 November 2007. It took three years to develop the park and it opened to the public on 4 November 2010. Ferrari World Abu Dhabi covers an area of 86,000 square metres. Ferrari World Abu Dhabi was named the "Middle East's Leading Tourist Attraction" at the World Travel Awards 2015 & 2016. In 2017 and 2018, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi was named as the "Middle East's Leading Theme Park" at the World Travel Awards, as well as the Middle East's Best Theme Park by the Middle East and North Africa Leisure and Attraction Council for 2018, in addition to receiving the Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence in 2017. Best Commercial, Retail Future Development, Cityscape Abu Dhabi, 2010. Best International Leisure Development, International Property Award and Bloomberg, 2010.
CIAT Open Award for Technical Excellence in Architectural Technology, The Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists, 2010. Overall GCC Project of the Year 2010, MEP Middle East Awards, 2010. 2011 Brass Ring, IAAPA, 2011. Excellence in Live Design Award, Live Design Magazine, 2011. Gold Winner designation for Best Permanent Exhibition, Event Design Award by Event Design Magazine, 2011. Hospitality & Leisure Project of the Year, Middle East Architect Awards 2011, 2011. Most Innovative Retail & Leisure Concept of the Year Award, Global Retail and Leisure International Awards, 2011. PALME award - Best A/V solution in a commercial development, PALME Middle East, 2011. PALME award - Best 3D projection of the year, PALME Middle East, 2011. Project Excellence Award, IPMA – NL, 2011. Best Theme Park in the UAE, Hospitality India, 2013. Best Sports Show Performance Act, Brass Ring Live Entertainment Excellence, Mission Ferrari Show, IAAPA, 2015. Middle East's Leading Tourist Attraction 2015, World Travel Awards, 2015.
Favourite Italian Restaurant Under 400 Dhs, Mamma Rossella, What's On Awards Abu Dhabi, 2015. Middle East's Leading Tourist Attraction 2016, World Travel Awards, 2016. Favourite Italian Restaurant Under 400 Dhs, Mamma Rossella, What's On Awards Abu Dhabi, 2016. Middle East's Leading Theme Park 2017, World Travel Awards, 2017. Middle East's Leading Theme Park 2018, World Travel Awards, 2018. 2018 Middle East's Best Theme Park, Middle East and North Africa Leisure and Attraction Council Official website
Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway
The Mauch Chunk and Summit Railroad was a coal-hauling railroad in the mountains of Pennsylvania that operated between 1828 and 1932. It was the first operational US railway of any substantial length to carry paying passengers. A private line which moved coal for the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company on 3 ft 6 in gauge track, it was not a common carrier which linked with other railroads; the rail line was laid on top of the company's earlier 9 miles -constant-descent-graded wagon road. The railroad operated for over a hundred years until the middle of the Great Depression. Pennsylvania's first railroad and first anthracite carrier opened on Saturday, May 5th, 1827, when seven cars of coal passed from the Summit Hill mines of the L. C.&N. Company to their canal at Mauch Chunk, descending 936 feet in the nine-mile trip; the Maunch Chunk was the first over five miles long. Like its rival the B&O Railroad, the Mauch Chunk at first used animal power. Mules were sent down in the last batch of cars; the road would send down groups of 6–8 coal cars under control of a brakeman, once 40–42 cars were down, send down the special "mule cars" with the draft animals, thus having just enough animals to return all cars back to the top.
The railway used two inclines. A powered double-incline led up to the top of two separate summits along Pisgah Ridge on the return leg and each summit had "a new down track" returning the cars several miles farther west in each case; this saw-tooth elevation profile gave the new return track a swooping characteristic ride deliberately designed into roller coasters. About the same time, when other mine heads were opened in lower elevations of the Panther Creek Valley LC&N added several descending switchback sections and other shorter cable railway climbing inclines to bring the coal up from the new Lansford and Coaldale mines to the Summit Hill loading area for the gravity railway trip down to Mauch Chunk, thence to the Lehigh Canal and their customers; the railroad became an early American tourist attraction and is considered the world's first roller coaster, a role it would keep and satisfy with tourists for over five decades after it was abandoned as a primary freight railroad. By 1845 the increasing demand for coal and the poor logistics of a single-track route meant the company needed to improve its railroad.
In 1846, they built a new uphill line using two steam-powered, Josiah White engineered 120 horsepower funicular systems to replace move cars uphill. These inclines used two telescoping wheeled Barney pusher cars attached to the cables by steel tow-bands running between two large diameter winch wheels located in the Barney tunnels; when a car was ready to ascend, it was drifted down the slight incline from above and behind the Barney tunnel to wait at a latch. The barneys coupled behind to push the cars uphill. One of the inclines rose 664 feet up Mount Pisgah, the other crossed Mount Jefferson; the downhill trip continued to be powered by gravity. The up track was equipped with a ratchet which would prevent a car that detached from the cable from running away down hill; this invention evolved into the anti-rollback device used on roller coasters. The railroad changed its name to Summit Hill and Switchback Railroad; the modernization of the railroad reduced a passenger round-trip from 4.5 hours to just 80 minutes.
In 1872, the Panther Creek Railroad opened as a replacement for the switchback line. The Lehigh Coal and Railroad is considered the first American company to use vertical integration—providing raw materials, shipping and final goods; some famous personalities who visited the railroad include Prince Maximilian of Wied, President Ulysses S. Grant, William Astor, Thomas Edison; the Central Railroad of New Jersey purchased it in 1874 and leased it to brothers Theodore and H. L. Mumford who operated the line as a tourist attraction. On May 24, 1929, the CNJ sold the line to the new Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway Company, which operated until 1932, when the line fell victim to the Great Depression; the mortgage on the property foreclosed and it was sold to scrapper Isaac Weiner for $18,000. In 1976, a 47-acre section of the former right-of-way, from Ludlow St. in Summit Hill to F. A. P. 209 in Jim Thorpe, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as "Mauch Chunk and Summit Hill Switchback Railroad".
The listed area included four contributing sites. The right-of-way is now the Switchback Railroad Trail. "Switchback Gravity Railroad Historic Landscape Preservation Planning Study". University of Pennsylvania. 2007. Retrieved 16 July 2012. Heydinger, Earl J.. "Railroads of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company: GROUP IX". Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin. Railway and Locomotive Historical Society. 110: 59–62. JSTOR 43518101. Frederick C. Gamst in QUESTIONS & COMMENTS, FAQ's. "America's First, First Railroad, in 1795". Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum. Frederick C. Gamst; the Transfer of Pioneering British Railroad Technology to North America. Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum. Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company Records in Beyond Steel: An Archive of Lehigh Valley Industry and Culture. Early Mining Pictures – Anthracite Mining pictorial: Mines & Structures operated by the L. C.& N. Summit Hill and Coaldale, Pennsylvania. Switch-Back Gravity Railroad: Proprietary photos touring the LC&N built Summit Hill & Mauch Chunk Railroad, the 2nd railway in North America www.summit-hill.com - local histo
Vekoma
Vekoma Rides Manufacturing is a Dutch amusement ride manufacturer. Vekoma is an abbreviation of Veld Koning Machinefabriek and was established in 1926 by Hendrik op het Veld, they manufactured farm equipment and made steel constructions for the coal mining industry in the 1950s, After the closure of Dutch mines in 1965, they manufactured steel pipes for the petrochemical industry. Since the 1970s, they have manufactured amusement rides; as of May 2018, there are over 349 roller coasters around the world from Vekoma, some of which are either under construction or have been removed. Other Vekoma coaster models include Swinging Turns, Hurricane, Family Boomerang, Tilt Coaster, powered coasters. In 2013, Vekoma signed a deal with Idaho-based Rocky Mountain Construction; the agreement allows Vekoma to sell Rocky Mountain Construction's roller coasters outside the North American market. In 2008, Vekoma Rides Manufacturing acquired the Wheels of Excellence range of Ferris wheels from Ronald Bussink, to be handled by a new Vekoma division, Dutch Wheels BV.
The Dutch Wheels product range includes the R40, R50, R60 models, each available in three different types. A madhouse is a flat ride that gives the impression that the rider is upside-down, when in reality the room they are in rotates around them. Official website Vekoma at the Roller Coaster DataBase
Lihpao Land
Lihpao Land is a theme park located in Houli District, Taiwan. It has two roller coasters, including Gravity Max, the world's first coaster to feature a true 90-degree drop and the world's only tilt coaster. Besides Gravity Max, Lihpao Land has several themed areas with varied attractions, such as the Mine Express roller coaster, the Hook, the Wild Flume Adventure, a reversing log flume attraction; the theme park was established on July 1998 as Yamay Recreation World or Yamay Discovery World. It was renamed to Lihpao Land in 2012. Discovery Walk D Street Enchanted Forest Fairy Tale Village Palace of Dreams Yamay Island Sky Dream - Taiwan's tallest ferris wheel, at 394 feet; the theme park is accessible by bus from Fengyuan Station of Taiwan Railways Administration. List of tourist attractions in Taiwan Lihpao Land on Facebook