Coasters that Revolutionized the Industry

There was a smaller version of the Flying Turns at Dayton's Lakeside Park that opened in 1929. Euclid Beach's 'Turns was the first large version that Norman Bartlett built that is credited as being the first commercially successful version of the ride. It lasted the longest too, at 39 years.

Why hasn't anyone mentioned all the great past designers like John Miller who REVOLUTIONIZED the roller coaster with all his safety patents that made all your coasters today possible? Christ...is it always about the metal coasters anymore and corporate bullcrap that dominates our society on every level?!! Without the "T" track, upstop wheels, and chain/safety dogs....where would coasters be today??

And what about LaMarcus Thompson who invented the roller coaster? Doesn't he get any credit too?? You can't do a research paper and leave these people or their contributions out. You can talk about metal, but your paper is incomplete if you leave out the history of how the concept developed.

Wood Coaster Fan Club...Coming to a park near you

well I know that the Kennywood's Pippin was the first wooden coaster to be taken apart and turned into another coaster

Harry Traver and John Miller would disagree with that.

(edit: formatting) *** Edited 4/10/2004 2:20:38 PM UTC by bit0mike***

Why hasn't anyone talked about Coney Island's Cyclone?! That was considered the first modern coaster. That was huge!

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Mamoosh said:
The Bat was NOT the first suspended coaster to operate. Schwarzkopf has one before the Bat, however like The Bat it was also not successful. In fact Big Bad Wolf was supposed to be a Schwarzkopf Suspended before Arrow took over the project.

*** Edited 4/10/2004 3:54:25 AM UTC by Mamoosh***

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Yes, it was not officially the first but does a coaster have to be first to be revolutionary? The Bat's impact is certainly more measurable as a revolutionary coaster than the German attempt.

Where did I claim that either The Bat or Alpenflug was revolutionary? I was simply correcting the statement that The Bat was the first suspended coaster. Alpenflug, which I thought Schwarzkopf has some involvement with, came before it. However upon further research I've come across at least one other suspended coaster that came long before Alpenflug.

Why is that people always want to imagine that more coasters are revolutionary than the few that really are?

I mean, seriously, the purpose of the roller coaster hasn't changed in hundreds of years. The way it accomplishes that has changed, but its purposes in the same and thus, there hasn't been very much to revolutionize that.

Revolutionary developments in the evolution of achieving the purpose of the roller coaster are greater in number, but not in any way people seem to be imagining. PLCs, anti-rollbacks, lap restraints, computer-aided and computer-controlled drafting and manufacturing, and things like that are where the real revolutions took place -- not in Wicked Twister or Magnum XL-200 or The Bat.

Orient Express with it's Kamikaze/Boomerang element.

Yeah...you can't go anywhere now without seeing a Kamikaze ;)

what was the first roller coaster to feature red paint?

I apologize in advance for this one:

Magnum: first coaster to have a sinking problem.

"Why hasn't anyone talked about Coney Island's Cyclone?! That was considered the first modern coaster. That was huge!"

Not really. Cartmell and a lot of coaster historians point to Chris Feucht's Drop the Dips at Coney as the "missing link" between the older style of Thompson, Alcoke, etc., and today's modern wooden coaster.

Adam

What was it you were saying about BTMR? Was it about the 3 lifts? Doesn't it have duel loading?

None of those features of BTMR are firsts, nor where they revolutionary in terms of changing the industry.

Yep...the answer was already given. A very interesting first in the coaster world, but nothing revolutionary.

How about this one? Skyliner at the old Roseland in upstate NY. Revolutionized me by being my first coaster. ;)

ShaneDenmark-

First Coaster with...
4 Inversions- Carolina Cyclone at Paramount's Carowinds (1980)
5 Inversions- Viper at Six Flags Darien Lake (1982)
6 Inversions- Vortex at Paramount's Kings Island (1987)
7 Inversions- Shockwave at Six Flags Great America (1988)
8 Inversions- Dragon Kahn at Port Adventura (1995)
10 Inversions- Colossus at Thorpe Park (2002)

And the first coaster to reach over 200 feet in height was Moonsault Scramble (not Magnum). Same with Superman: The Escape being the first to 300 (not MF)... and 400 feet (not TTD). But CP's coasters were the first full-circuit coasters to reach those heights. Steel Phantom was the first coaster to drop over 200 feet though AFAIK.

+Danny

And each one of those revolutionized the industry, right Danny?

Actually, my vote goes to the Galaxi out here on a pier at the east coast....it was the first coaster within 20 yards of a churro cart, truely a revolution! ;)

IMO, none of those revolutionized the industry for the inversion and height pieces listed. I was just responding to some of the comments above not contributing to the "revolution" topic. ;)

+Danny

I know...I was just kidding :)

Wow...near the bottom of page 2 and no one has mentioned MTR yet....