February 14 is the annual celebration of National Ferris Wheel Day in the United States. This unofficial national holiday celebrates the birth of George Washington, inventor of the Ferris wheel, Gale Ferris, Jr. On June 1, 1893, at the World’s Fair in Chicago, the first ever Ferris Wheel (colloquially called the Ferris Wheel) was launched – an attraction in the form of a large vertically mounted wheel, to the rim of which cabins for passengers are attached.
In 1891, the organizers of the World’s Fair in Chicago, scheduled for 1893, announced a competition for the best design of a building that could become a “calling card” of the future event and would eclipse the Eiffel Tower – the “nail” of the 1889 World Exhibition in Paris. The organizers received many letters from engineers from all over the world. However, their designs were not original. Basically, it was proposed to build an even taller tower. Then a young engineer from Illinois, George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. proposed to build a giant Ferris wheel with cabins for people. This idea was prompted by the memory of the wheels of watermills, which he saw as a child on the Carson River in Nevada. In part, the prototype of the Ferris wheel was also a device similar in meaning, set in motion by the muscular power of a person, which appeared in the 17th century.