Engineering Education “Today in History” Blog: Loop-the-loop roller coaster ride patented
by Alice Agogino
closeAuthor: Alice Agogino
Name: Alice Agogino
Email: agogino@berkeley.edu
Site: http://www.me.berkeley.edu/faculty/agogino/
About: Alice M. Agogino is the Roscoe and Elizabeth Hughes Professor of Mechanical Engineering and is affiliated faculty at the Haas School of Business in their Operations and Information Technology Management Group. Her research interests include: community-based design; sustainable engineering; intelligent learning systems; information retrieval and data mining; multiobjective and strategic product design; nonlinear optimization; probabilistic modeling; intelligent control and manufacturing; sensor validation, fusion and diagnostics; wireless sensor networks; multimedia and computer-aided design; design databases; design theory and methods; MEMS/NEMS synthesis and computer-aided design; artificial intelligence and decision and expert systems; and gender/ethnic equity.
She has served in a number of administrative positions at UC Berkeley, including Chair of the Faculty Senate, Associate Dean of Engineering and Faculty Assistant to the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost in Educational Development and Technology. Prof. Agogino also served as Director for Synthesis, an NSF-sponsored coalition of eight universities with the goal of reforming undergraduate engineering education, and continues as PI for the NEEDS (www.needs.org) and SMETE.ORG digital libraries of courseware in science, mathematics, engineering and technology.
Prof. Agogino received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of New Mexico (1975), M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering (1978) from the University of California at Berkeley and Ph.D. from the Department of Engineering-Economic Systems at Stanford University (1984). Prior to joining the faculty at UC Berkeley, she worked in industry for Dow Chemical, General Electric and SRI International. She has authored over 150 scholarly publications; has won numerous teaching, best paper and research awards; and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). At NAE she served on the Committee on Engineering Education, working on the Technologically Speaking and the Engineer 2020 projects. She is currently a member of the National Research Council's Board on Education and the Women in Academic Science Engineering Committee. She has supervised 66 MS projects/theses, 26 doctoral dissertations and numerous undergraduate researchers.See Authors Posts (863) · February 5th, 2013 · Add a Comment
Today in History – February 5, 1901 -the loop-the-loop roller coaster ride was patented. Building on concepts from earlier vertical loop roller coasters (1850′s) this design relied on centripetal forces to hold the car in the loop while traveling at high speeds. Edward Prescot patented and build the Loop-the-Loop of steel in Coney Island (upper left photo). Ironically, Coney Island’s original gravity switchback railroad (see next paragraph) burned down in 1901, making way for the loop-the-loop. At the time, more people watched than dared to actually ride the looping roller coaster. They made more money charging to be in the viewing area than on the actual ride fees.
On December 22, 1885, LaMarcus Thompson patented the first Gravity Switchback Railway roller coaster (center photo above). It was also built at Coney Island and became the precursor to the modern roller coaster. At the top of one platform, riders climbed into cars and then rode them down a 600 foot track and up to another tower, where they were switched to another track. Thompson’s installation at Coney Island was also a business innovation a it was one of the first “pay per ride”, offering people a short escape from the real world to enjoy themselves for a short thrill. This started a tradition and business model that forms the basis for today’s theme and amusement parks.
Loved working with M.S. student Tim Jacobi who did his thesis on his idea for a roller coaster ride; a version of which was tested and built. Read more about Tim and the “Thrill Ride”.
See the Engineering Pathway’s resources on theme parks and roller coaster design. For curricular resources, visit the Mechanical Engineering Education, the Engineering Mechanics Education or the Engineering Management Education community sites.
Tags: Engineering Mechanics · General Engineering, Engineering Science · Mechanical Engineering
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