Slide 1: The original Ferris wheel, designed by the civil engineer George W. Ferris for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Even by modern standards, Ferris’s original was no slouch: for 50 cents apiece, nearly 1,500 passengers at a time could ascend to 264 feet.
Slide 2: Before the recent revival, Ferris wheels had fallen out of favor to more spectacular theme park rides like roller coasters. Above, a 1948 view of the boardwalk from the Ferris wheel on Coney Island.
Slide 3: A snow-covered amusement park in Yubari, Japan, where Ferris wheels have long been popular. “After World War II, they were a symbol of our economic recovery,” said Yuko Fukui, who wrote a book on the history of Ferris wheels.
Slide 4: Today’s Ferris wheels often travel at a leisurely pace, allowing passengers to board without stopping the wheel. The London Eye, for example, rotates at 0.6 miles an hour, and carries an average of 3.5 million passengers a year.
Slide 5: The success of the London Eye launched a construction boom in Ferris wheels. Above, a giant wheel in Paris's Place de la Concorde is seen at the end of the Champs Elysees.
Slide 6: Traffic streams past the giant Singapore Flyer. This mammoth observation wheel, with a height of 541 feet, will allow visitors in its 28 revolving capsules to see all of Singapore and into parts of neighboring Indonesia and Malaysia when it opens for business in early 2008.
Slide 7: The Singapore Flyer will be able to carry 27,000 passengers a day, with each ride costing about $20, or more for options like express boarding or Champagne.
Slide 8: The Southern Hemisphere's largest traveling Ferris wheel in Melbourne, Australia. Another, permanent, wheel is being built in Melbourne, where visitors will be able to meander though shops, restaurants and other entertainment as they wait for their “flight.”
Slide 9: A Ferris wheel in El Alto, Bolivia. Despite the construction boom in large-scale Ferris wheels, their smaller, mobile relatives remain popular around the world.
Slide 10: In this photograph from 2004, Iraqi children played with a broken Ferris wheel at a playground in Hilla, Iraq, south of Baghdad.
Slide 11: Children in Jakarta, Indonesia, enjoy a ride on a miniature Ferris wheel that costs 1000 rupiah (10.8 U.S. cents) per ride, a stark contrast to the $30 admission price at the London Eye.
Slide 12: A Ferris wheel at the Feast of San Gennaro Festival in Manhattan's Little Italy.