Welcome aboard Pink Monorail. I'm your pilot, Michelle Viadolid, and next to me is my co-pilot, Noah Viadolid.

Hey, everybody.

Last time on Pink Monorail's Manufacturing the Magic series, we talked about how a berry farm became a world-class theme park.

On this episode, we're going to

take a step back and look at the mechanics of magic, or the origins and how-do-they-do-its of some popular theme park attractions.

The first amusement ride written about is the up and downs. A large vertical wheel had one, then later two or three

chairs loosely fastened to its flat side. On the other side was sometimes a crank, sometimes not,

and the wheel had to be spun by hand. People sat in the chairs and went up and down, hence the name.

So we're talking ancient history, and in case people are having difficulty imagining these types of rides,

think of the reflectors on the side of a bicycle.

So you would replace a reflector with a seat so that they would, as they spun, the chair would stay vertical or horizontal,

so the person didn't fall over over and they'd be able to complete

this circuit on the wheel. Exactly. In Turkey, this grew to a crosshatch design of poles,

holding eight chairs that hung from the poles. Pleasure wheels may have come from Bulgaria.

Passengers rode in chairs suspended in wooden rings, turned by several strong men.

In May of 1620, Peter Mandi, a fomeless traveler, wrote,

Like a crane, wheel, all custom-house key, and turned in that manner,

whereon children sit on little seats hung round about in several parts thereof, and though it turn right

up and down, and that the children are sometimes on the upper part of the wheel and sometimes on

the lower, yet they always sit upright. Lots of extra T's and P's and E's and E's and there. In 1615,

traveler Pietro de la Valle attended a Ramadan festival in Constantinople.

He says, I was delighted to find myself swept upwards and downwards at such speed,

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