Civil Engineer. He was the inventor of the Ferris wheel, which has become an American amusement park mainstay. Born in Galesburg, Illinois, where as a child he always displayed an aptitude toward mechanics. The family moved to Carson City, Nevada, where his father, George Sr. started a landscaping business (much of the landscaping still remains in that city with the most notable being on the state capitol grounds). George Jr. left home in 1875 to attend a military academy in Oakland, California, and then went on to Troy, New York, where he received a degree in Civil Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1881. He was a charter member of the RPI chapter of Chi Phi Fraternity, a member of the Rensselaer Society of Engineers, and now is a member of the RPI Alumni Hall of Fame. Ferris began his career in the railroad industry and was interested in bridge building. He founded a company, G.W.G. Ferris & Co. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to test and inspect metals for railroads and bridge builders. Here the Monster Wheel was developed, and it was constructed on the grounds of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The wheel, measuring 250 feet in diameter, had 36 cars that could hold 60 passengers each. It was 30 feet broad, and weighed an enormous 7,400 tons, winning him the declaration of "genius." After the closing of the fair, he was obsessed with the wheel, investing his dwindling cash reserves in schemes to build and sell bigger and better wheels across the country. Completely bankrupt, he moved into a hotel in Pittsburgh, spending his remaining days friendless and alone. He refused to seek medical attention and was finally checked into Mercy Hospital where he died of typhoid fever at the young age of 37. He was cremated by a Pittsburgh crematorium which held his unclaimed ashes for fifteen months pending payment of the bill. They were finally given to his brother and the disposition is unknown. Ferris' Pittsburgh home, at 1318 Arch St., in Central Northside, was added to the city's Designated Historic Structures on June 28, 2001.
Civil Engineer. He was the inventor of the Ferris wheel, which has become an American amusement park mainstay. Born in Galesburg, Illinois, where as a child he always displayed an aptitude toward mechanics. The family moved to Carson City, Nevada, where his father, George Sr. started a landscaping business (much of the landscaping still remains in that city with the most notable being on the state capitol grounds). George Jr. left home in 1875 to attend a military academy in Oakland, California, and then went on to Troy, New York, where he received a degree in Civil Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1881. He was a charter member of the RPI chapter of Chi Phi Fraternity, a member of the Rensselaer Society of Engineers, and now is a member of the RPI Alumni Hall of Fame. Ferris began his career in the railroad industry and was interested in bridge building. He founded a company, G.W.G. Ferris & Co. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to test and inspect metals for railroads and bridge builders. Here the Monster Wheel was developed, and it was constructed on the grounds of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The wheel, measuring 250 feet in diameter, had 36 cars that could hold 60 passengers each. It was 30 feet broad, and weighed an enormous 7,400 tons, winning him the declaration of "genius." After the closing of the fair, he was obsessed with the wheel, investing his dwindling cash reserves in schemes to build and sell bigger and better wheels across the country. Completely bankrupt, he moved into a hotel in Pittsburgh, spending his remaining days friendless and alone. He refused to seek medical attention and was finally checked into Mercy Hospital where he died of typhoid fever at the young age of 37. He was cremated by a Pittsburgh crematorium which held his unclaimed ashes for fifteen months pending payment of the bill. They were finally given to his brother and the disposition is unknown. Ferris' Pittsburgh home, at 1318 Arch St., in Central Northside, was added to the city's Designated Historic Structures on June 28, 2001.
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