Carousel

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This article is about the amusement ride. For other uses, see Carousel (disambiguation).

"Merry-go-round" redirects here. For other uses, see Merry-go-round (disambiguation).

Carousel in Bobbejaanland, Belgium (Bobbejaan Schoepen Archive)

A carousel (or carrousel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating platform with seats for passengers. The "seats" are traditionally in the form of wooden horses or animals, which are often moved mechanically up and down to simulate galloping. This leads to one of the machine's alternative names, the galloper. Other popular names are merry-go-round, roundabout and flying horses. Usually, circus music is looped while the ride spins.

Although modern carousels in America are mainly populated with horses, carousels in Europe, and in America from earlier periods, frequently include diverse varieties of mounts, including dogs, cats, rabbits, pigs, and deer, to name a few. And sometimes, regular chairlike seats are used as well.

Any rotating platform may also be called a carousel. In a playground, a merry-go-round is usually a simple, child-powered rotating platform with bars or handles to which children can cling while riding. At an airport, rotating conveyors in the baggage claim area are often called carousels.

1 History
2 Notable carousels
3 Media references
4 Direction
5 Gallery
6 References
7 External links

[edit] History

The earliest carousel is known from a Byzantine Empire bas-relief dating to around 500 A.D., which depicts riders in baskets suspended from a central pole. The word carousel originates from the Italian garosello and Spanish carosella ("little war"), used by crusaders to describe a combat preparation exercise and game played by Turkish and Arabian horsemen in the 1100s. In a sense this early device could be considered a cavalry training mechanism; it prepared and strengthened the riders for actual combat as they wielded their swords at the mock enemies. European Crusaders discovered this contraption and brought the idea back to their own lands, primarily the ruling lords and kings. There the carousel was kept secret within the castle walls, to be used for training by horsemen; no carousel was allowed out in the public. Eventually some small carousel rides were made and installed for royalty in their private gardens. Soon after that, with the pomp of France and circumstance of Paris a grand game was devised and played in Le Place du Carrousel. Along with a pageantry-filled jousting tournament it also consisted of "combatants" throwing clay balls filled with perfumed water at each other, thus those being hit would smell for days. A highlight of the carrousel was the ring-tilt, in which knights would attempt to spear suspended rings at full gallop.

As for the Turkish and Arabian horseman, a carousel was built around 1680 as a training device for the ring-tilt, consisting of wooden horses suspended from arms branching from a center pole. Riders aimed to spear rings situated around the circumference as the carousel was moved by a man, horse, or mule. With the development of craft guilds and the relative freeing up of the trades in Europe, by the early nineteenth century carousels were being built and operated at various fairs and gatherings in central Europe and England. For example, by 1745 AD, wagonmaker Michael Dentzel had converted his wagonmaking business in what is now southern Germany to a carousel-making enterprise. Animals and mechanisms would be crafted during the winter months and the family and workers would go touring in their wagon train through the region, operating their large menagerie carousel at various venues. Other makers such as Heyn in Germany and Bayol in France were also beginning to make carousels at this time. In its own unique style, England was also rapidly developing a carousel-making tradition.

A roundabout at a fair in London, with traditional animal mounts, barley twist poles and fairy lights.

Early carousels had no platforms: the animals would hang on poles or chains and fly out from the centrifugal force of the spinning mechanism; these are called "flying horses" carousels. They were often powered by animals walking in a circle or people pulling a rope or cranking. By the mid-1800s the platform carousel was developed where the animals and chariots would travel around in a circle sitting on a suspended circular floor which was hanging from the centerpole; these machines were then steam-powered. Eventually, with the technological advances of the industrial revolution, bevel gears and offset cranks were installed on these platform carousels, thus giving the animals their well-known up and down motion as they traveled around the center pole. The platform served as a position guide for the bottom of the pole and as a place for people to walk or other stationary animals or chariots to be placed. Fairground organs (band organs) were often present (if not built in) when these machines operated. Eventually electric motors were installed and electric lights added, giving the carousel its classic look.

Although the carousel developed gradually in European countries such as Germany, France, England, and Italy, it did not reach its full scale development until it went into its American phase. This began with several makers, primarily Gustav Dentzel, Michael Dentzel's son, of Germany, and Dare from England. Michael Dentzel sent all four of his sons over to America in the 1850s, one of them, Gustav, with a full and complete large carousel packed away on the steamship. In early 1860 Gustav set up his family's carousel in Philadelphia to test the American market. It met with great success. At the same time he opened up a carousel and cabinet workshop in Germantown. This eventually became the headquarters for one of America's greatest carousel-making families. Shortly after this beginning other carousel makers from Europe began to arrive on American shores. Many fine woodcarvers and painters, classically trained in their European homeland, worked for these early American companies. The Dentzels, being of German origin, also employed other Germans such as the Muller brothers and also many Italians, such as Salvador Chernigliaro.

Several centers and styles for the construction of carousels emerged in the United States, Philadelphia style, with Dentzel and the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, Coney Island style with Charles Carmel, Charles I. D. Looff, Marcus Charles Illions, Soloman Stein and Harry Goldstein and Mangles, Country Fair style with Allen Herschell and Edward Spillman of Upstate New York, and C.W. Parker of Kansas. Early on the Dentzels became known for their beautiful horses and lavish use of menagerie animals on their carousels. Their mechanisms were also considered among the very best for durability and reliability. Gustav's sons, William and Edward operated the company until William's death in 1927 at which time the company was auctioned off. By this time many carousel companies had gone out of business or diversified into other rides due to the hardships of the depression. Young Edward Dentzel, who was operating carousels in Southern California at the time decided to stay there and become a luxury housing contractor in Beverly Hills; he eventually became the Mayor of that city in the early 1950s.

Detail of carousel horse, Edinburgh

Many carousel connoisseurs consider the golden age of the carousel to be early 20th century America. Very large machines were being built, elaborate animals, chariots, and decorations were superbly made by skilled old-world craftsmen taking advantage of their new freedoms in America. Large amounts of excellent and cheap carving wood were available such as Appalachian white pine, basswood, and yellow poplar. Whereas most European carousel figures are relatively static in posture, American figures are more representative of active beasts - tossed manes, expressive eyes and postures of movement are their hallmarks. The first carousel at Coney Island was built in 1876 by Charles I. D. Looff, a Danish woodcarver. The oldest functional carousel in Europe is in Prague (Letná Park). Another style is a double-decker, where there is a huge carousel stacked on top of another. An example is the Columbia Carousel.

William H. Dentzel of Port Townsend, Washington is the only descendant from a founding American carousel family of the United States still making wooden carousels. His carousels are similar to the oldest operating carousel in the United States in Watch Hill, R.I. (1893) built by the Dare company, a "flying horses" machine. The power sources for Dentzel’s contemporary carousels range from rope-pull to hand-crank to foot-pedal to AC 110 volt electric to DC solar power.

In the USSR in the 1970s and 1980s the carousel was not just a ride of amusement parks, but also an integral part of the urban culture. Many playgrounds, which existed in every yard, were equipped with a standard flower-shaped carousel, made of metallic bars with six wooden seats attached to them.

[edit] Notable carousels

The world's only two-row stationary carousel built from an original Dentzel blueprint left in existence^[1], the Highland Park Dentzel Carousel and Shelter Building, is located in Highland Park in Meridian, Mississippi.
Recently, William Henry Dentzel III, built the world's first solar-powered Carousel. The carousel is in operation in the Solar Living Institute in Hopland, California.
There is only one carousel in the world that rides in a waving motion - "Over the Jumps: The Arkansas Carousel" in Little Rock, Arkansas. It is also the only remaining wooden track carousel built by the Herschell & Spillman Company, and one of only four track carousels still in existence.
The carousel at Hersheypark in Hershey, PA is purposely misspelled as "Carrousel".
The carousel at Eldridge Park is one of the fastest in the world. http://www.eldridgepark.us/
The carousel at Conneaut Lake Park in Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania is the last T.M. Harton Carousel that is still in operation and its Artizan band organ is one of two known of the same model in the world.
Binghamton, New York is considered the "Carousel Capital of the World" due to the six original carousels in the Triple Cities area, donated by George F. Johnson, owner of the Endicott-Johnson Company early in the 20th century. These Carousels were donated with the express stipulation that they would never charge admission for anyone to ride them. Apparently when Mr. Johnson was a child he was frequently too poor to ride the local carousel and he vowed this would never happen to another child in the area. The carousel at the Ross park zoo in Binghamton, NY does charge admission, in a way, as it requires the child to drop one piece of litter found in the park into a trash barrel in order to ride. This is all written on a plaque at the entrance to the carousel.
Himmelskibet in Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen is the world's tallest carousel.
The oldest existing carousel made in 1779 to 1780 stands in Germany at the Wilhelmsbad Park in Hanau.
The carousel in Riverfront Park in Spokane, Washington is an original Looff carousel built in 1909 and installed at the Natatorium Park in Spokane. http://spokanecarrousel.org/
The Richland Carrousel Park in Mansfield, Ohio is an indoor carousel in the downtown Historic Carrousel District that was completed in 1991. It is the first hand-carved indoor wooden carousel to be built and operated in the United States since the early 1930s built by Carousel Works Inc. http://www.richlandcarrousel.com
Sydney's Darling Harbour Carousel is a New South Wales Heritage listed attraction. It is an example of an old Edwardian Carousel which are very rare nowadays. It is operated by a classic steam motor which has been retained. The Carousel dates back to the 'Golden Age' of Carousels between the 1890s to the 1920s.

[edit] Media references

According to Holly Marie Combs in an episode of Charmed called Forget me...not, "A merry-go-round has lots of animals. A carousel only has horses." This is not actually true; carousel and merry-go-round are synonyms.
A carousel in Venice, Italy, contains and releases magic and is the focal point of The Thief Lord (Both the book and the movie) by Cornelia Funke.
In Something Wicked This Way Comes (novel) by Ray Bradbury, there is a carousel in the carnival that can cause riders to become younger or older depending on the direction in which they ride.
At the end of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield watches his little sister riding on a carousel.
The musical Carousel (1945) was a broadway musical featuring hit songs such as "If I Loved You" and "You'll Never Walk Alone". The protagonist Billy Bigelow is a carousel barker.
In the Namco Bandai's Soul Calibur IV game, a stage of a medieval Eastern European carrousel is present in the game.
In the movie Jeux d'Enfants or Love Me If You Dare (in the translated American title) a tin carousel box is used as a trade-off for a game of truth or dare that gets out of hand.

[edit] Direction

Roundabouts, the term used in the UK, usually travel clockwise (see photograph at top), while carousels, the term used in the rest of the world, go anti-clockwise. In real life, one gets on a horse by lifing one's right leg over the animal's back as it stands with its head towards your left (the horse's left side is called its "near" side). Likewise for a carousel that turns counter-clockwise: you stand on the near side of the horse to mount (towards the center of the carousel, not on teetering on its outer edge). One reason for the carousel turning counter-clockwise may be so the rider can use their right hand to catch the brass ring.

[edit] Gallery

Dentzel Carousel, a National Historic Landmark in Meridian, MS, United States.	French old-fashioned style carousel with stairs	Modern carousel in Brussels	Columbia is a Double Decker and the World's Tallest Traditional Carousel
Standard Soviet carousel, 1970s-1980s	James Noyce & Sons' traditional "gallopers" at Nottingham Goose Fair in 1983	A 1920s C.W. Parker merry-go-round in Tucson, Arizona	The Town Square Carrousel at Adventureland in Altoona, Iowa
The Mangels-Illions Carousel, after its 2000 restoration, on the grounds of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Columbus, Ohio.	The Richland Carrousel Park in downtown Mansfield, Ohio is the first hand-carved indoor wooden carousel to be built and operated in the United States since the early 1930s.	A traditional Merry-go-round in Covent Garden, London, August 2007	William F. Mangels Kiddie Galloping Horse Carrousel circa 1935