Clan Sullivan

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If someone were to ask me what the most memorable project I ever started was, I would have to say it was my wooden ferris wheel, constructed around age 10. Now, I have probably started enough projects over the years to fill several good-sized battleships. Not that I have finished all of these projects, you understand; I prefer to let them reach maturity in their own individual way, which usually means without me. The ferris wheel, though, could be said to have not only grown to maturity, but to also to have become cranky and developed a strange attitude on life that ultimately gave it the reputation it bears today (or would bear, if it hadn't been dissasembled under orders from my parents.)

It all started one morning when the local town librarian, Pat, gave me a mostly-complete Popular Mechanics encyclopedia set. It had "CANCELLED" stamped conveniently on the inside of each volume, and the people pictured inside were dressed '60s style. Nevertheless, it not only made up the beginnings of my own personal library, but it also had lots of neat projects inside! The librarian had given the books to me, in fact, because I had checked them out so often.

One of the volumes showed something called the "Squaris Wheel", which was a miniature ferris wheel shaped like a large rotating square for ease of construction. It didn't have a motor, but as each kid riding in the wheel came down, he or she gave a kick against the ground. This continued kicking gave the wheel it's rotating motion, and if it was BALANCED PROPERLY, everybody got to ride around. Take note of this condition.

I decided that I was going to build a squaris wheel. Of course, I didn't have the resources to build the wheel out of new materials, but that was OK since we had a wooden picnic table that wasn't doing so well. I could just take all of the two by fours off of that, and use them. I started drawing up plans.

At lunch that day, I announced my plans over peanut butter sandwiches and chips. My next-younger brother, Kevin, was drafted as the construction crew.

We went outside and started building. First, there was the base. This was made out of old-fashioned two by eights, the ones that really were two inches by eight inches. They had come from our addition project, when we had to operate on the older section of our house. They were made to stand upright and attached to a base of 2x4s. A plywood box side was used for the base floor, where all the people having a wonderful time on my ride would kick as they went around.

Of course, the construction took a good amount of time; it wasn't nearly as fast as it sounds here. The time from drawing board (my notebook) to semi-completion (the backyard) was a couple of weeks, at least.

Two large wooden Xs were made out of the picnic table and other wood we had on hand, and I connected the ends of the Xs to form a square. A friend of ours gave us a heavy steel pipe to use for the axle, and we drilled holes in the hubs for the pipe to fit into.

The whole contraption was heaved into the backyard with much grunting, and assembled in front of our quince tree. The two large box-shaped sides of the ferris wheel spun on the axle like they were suppsed to. I nailed several boards between the sides to hold them together, and built a seat.

Now at this point, I was eager to "try out" the ferris wheel. Of course, it wasn't all the way finished yet, but there was a seat in place, and I wanted to have someone ride on it! But first I needed to find a passenger.

Due to the proportions of the seat, it was necessary to have someone relatively small. In fact, the non-removeable safety bar was so close to the back of the seat that it probably wouldn't accomodate anyone much over 90 pounds. Of course I couldn't go; I was needed to rotate the ferris wheel by hand and observe the performance, since it would be severely out of balance. Hmm... How about my brother Thomas? He was around six years old at the time, and seemed like a good choice.

"Thomas, wanna ride on my ferris wheel? We just put the seat on. I'll turn the ferris wheel, and you can ride around, OK?"

Thomas looked dubiously up at the ferris wheel. This looked like a good ride, but to be the first one around...? It might be kind of scary 'way up at the top, and Thomas didn't feel up to the idea. "Ah, Joey, how about not", he replied. "Please, Thomas?", I asked. "It'll be a lot of fun! You'll be the first one!"

Thomas appeared thoughtful. "Why don't you go?", he asked.

I replied that of course I couldn't go; after all, I was the designer and builder. It was apparent, though, that Thomas had a hard time grasping the significance of this fact. I went into our house and looked around.

Aha! My sister Bonnie! She was a little younger than Thomas. Perhaps she would go. "Hey, Bonnie", I said casually. "Would you like to ride my ferris wheel?"

Bonnie said that she might go, if I didn't go "Too fast". "OK", I said, "Come on!"

Without further trouble, we went through the garage and out into the back yard. It was still before lunch, and the sun was shining through a clear spring sky. Dad was at work, and Mom was busy somewhere; we could let them see later. I helped Bonnie squirm behind the permanent 2x4 wooden safety bar and into the plywood seat, which pivoted from two lag bolts that passed through the sides. In this way the seat could rotate, keeping the passenger from turning upside down as they went around. Note this point as well.

I went around to the back of the wheel, and grasped the wheel. "Are you ready, Bonnie?", I called out.

"I think so..."

I started turning the big wheel, and my sister rose gracefully into the air! Up higher and higher, until she was above the roof level of the garage. I stopped the wheel.

"How is it up there?", I called.

"Fine!", Bonnie replied. "I can see the top of the roof!"

"OK", I said. "I'm going to bring you back down!"

"Not too fast, Joey!"

"Right." I started turning again, and she came around the backside, descending. She passed the level of my head. So it worked! Great! It appeared that the wheel was a success. I let go.

Then disaster struck. When I let go, Bonnie wasn't quite all the way to the bottom of the ride, so naturally the wheel accelerated as soon as I took my hands off. I knew this would happen, but of course I wasn't worried. She would just swing down, and as the wheel kept turning, would go a small ways back up the other side until she stopped and reversed direction, right?

Unfortunately, I hadn't counted the ferris wheel's temperment into my calculations. Bonnie came down in a hurry and started to go back up the other side, but as she did so the seat locked up and stopped rotating! Consequently, as the wheel turned it swung her upside down. At the same instant, the safety bar came unnailed from the plywood and popped out. Bonnie was airborne! Her flight was short, and she landed unceremoniously onto the platform, upside down.

Bonnie ran into the house crying. It seems that she landed on her mouth instead of her feet, and lost two teeth! I had a stern talk with the wheel, but to no avail. We never figured out why it decided to lock up at just the wrong moment like that, and we never found the teeth, either. Soon thereafter -- probably that night, at dinner -- an edict holding force of law was issued by Dad, commanding that henceforth, no person shall ride Ferris Wheel unless said person also had a safety helmet.

That was not quite the end of the wheel. I fixed the breakage and installed a second seat. Late one night, Kevin and I (with helmets securely affixed to our heads) tensely rode the wheel around while Dad looked on.

Eventually, it was more or less abandoned by me until a command was issued by the authorities that I was not to begin any further projects until the wheel was dismantled. So ended another project. Semper vidis et mort.

Interestingly enough, the large steel bar used for the hub went on to further fame and glory in the short-lived Flying Ride project, but that's another story, and for that project I was able to find a test pilot that wasn't related to us. Bonnie (her real name is Siobhan, pronounced shivON) has grown a few years older, and also grown a couple of nice replacement teeth. But I suppose she might think twice before she rode on any ferris wheels of mine again.