LaMarcus Adna Thompson

LaMarcus Adna Thompson was an American inventor and businessman who built Coney Island’s Switchback Railway in 1884, helping establish the modern amusement-park ride.

Switchback Railway: An early gravity-powered amusement ride built by LaMarcus Adna Thompson at Coney Island in 1884. Thompson’s best-known creation launched his career as a designer of amusement rides.
Gravity-powered railway: A railway ride whose cars gain motion by descending under gravity rather than continuous propulsion. Gravity supplied the Switchback Railway’s forward motion.
Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway: A Pennsylvania coal railway that became a tourist ride by carrying passengers on gravity-powered descents. Its recreational use helped inspire Thompson’s commercial ride concept.
Sea Lion Park: An amusement park opened at Coney Island in 1895 by Captain Paul Boyton. Its opening marked the rise of full-scale amusement parks after Thompson’s early ride.
Gravity railroad: A railway in which cars descend under gravity, often using a cable or other means to return uphill. The Switchback Railway adapted gravity-railway principles for leisure.
Inclined plane: A flat surface set at an angle that reduces the force needed to raise or lower an object. The Switchback Railway used elevated track sections to create its descent.
Coney Island in the nineteenth century: A rapidly developing New York seaside resort that drew large crowds in the late nineteenth century. Thompson opened his ride amid the island’s expanding leisure economy.
George Tilyou: An American amusement-park entrepreneur who founded Steeplechase Park at Coney Island. Tilyou built on the commercial amusement culture Thompson helped establish.
Coney Island: A peninsula and seaside resort neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, known for its amusement parks and beaches. Its crowds and entertainment venues gave Thompson a setting for his first Switchback Railway.
Cable railway: A railway in which cars are pulled by a continuously moving cable or hauled by a cable system. Cable haulage could return ride cars to an elevated starting point.

Linked from 1 page