SERVICE CENTER - HISTORY

Kermis, fair and funfair

Kermis, fair or funfair, three terms with a different origin, are however nowadays equivalent for many of entertainment, fun and good times.

The word kermis comes originally from “Kirchmess” and/or “Kirchweihfest” and was the day on which one remembered of the inauguration of the respective christian village church (and/or its saint). There have been kermises from the Middle Ages on. Often there are more than one kermis in a city. This is thereby justified that it is also more than one church in the city, and that each church has “its” kermis.

The markets were economically for the traders as well as for the local resident population of big importance because the many traders came from far and offered their goods only for a short notice. But themselves also spend some of the gained money in food or overnight accommodation.

The Luxemburgish Schueberfouer is such a market, it is originally thus no kermis in the original sense of the word.

Beside of kermis and fair(markets) there exists also the designation funfair. Funfairs are regional-typical celebrations that look back on a long tradition. Some developed in the course of the time from fairs. At these funfairs still today exists a shopkeeper market at the edge of the fairground. Funfairs today actually differ from simple road celebrations thereby that here it has large roundabouts and ride attractions. Also the showmen must offer “entertainment” to the visitors, otherwise the meeting does not count as funfair. They are opened often by the respective mayor by the pass of a Bierfass or by cutting through a ribbon.

At that time the kermis was often the single possibility to dance, and to get to know other people, there was no supermarket and no discotheque yet. The kermis or the fair was from big social meaning. Also news from removed areas were exchanged here, there was still no radio or television. Before the mechanical attractions flooded the fairgrounds in the 19th century many so named "sideshows" presented animals, jugglers, artists, and musicians. Variété, striptease and theater performances were also presented. Till the 60s of the 20th century boxing matches were also very popular.

In the course of the time fairgrounds became the places where the newest technical innovations were presented to a wider public.

The Autoscooters began only about 1926 their triumphant progress in Europe. Originally the " bumper cars " come from America.

The artists and jugglers of early times have become showmen nowadays, pursuing their attractions mostly as a family business from spring till autumn. During the last years the Christmas markets accept also funfair rides so that the season often lasts 9 to 10 months. Today the original businesses like steep face, vaudeville theater or flea circus have almost completely disappeared. The roller coasters have developed rapidly and the big wheels will get higher and higher … Only the old wooden horses roundabout is still to be found on almost all squares. In Luxembourg this belongs also to the family inventory of the Schueberfouer, just like the states of the market people in the Allée Scheffer. Today here one can see (with a little imagination however) what the Fouer was about earlier.

In Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany or the Netherlands fairgrounds are put together mostly by a place master. In other countries or in North America many places are often equipped by a single exhibitor.

  Economically the kermises and funfairs have a big importance. The entrance is –as opposite to theme parks- free of charge, it is paid at the respective attractions. Normally the prices are fixed for all the rides, there are reductions on family-days or as at the Schueberfouer on the last day. As big rush is, the trips last accordingly less long with same price. On the Tiburgse Kermis in the Netherlands, a higher price is required on the other hand with big rush. Unthinkably in Germany and Luxembourg! Here, the price for beer or bratwurst is fixed by rules. So-called menus or collective-cards then arose in the last years, to the joy of many visitors. With these, one then can use a ride as often one wants during the day, or at 3 bought trips, one gets the fourth for free.

The kermis, the fair and the funfair economically also have still today, or exactly today, an important status. In a hedonist society and with millions of visitors, the funfair business has also its importances for the cities. According to a study of the German showman-association, approximately 178 million visits were recorded in Germany at funfairs in the year 2002. Every visitor statistically spent 22 Euro on that occasion.

SERVICE CENTER - HISTORY

How a knight's game became a funfair ride

The notion carrousel comes originally from the French “Carrousel”. It is derived from Italian garosello and Spanish carosella which literally mean " small war ". Here the origin of the current construction "carrousel" also shows itself. Turkish and Arab knights trained so in the 10th century by means of a special construction for war. Also the knights in the Middle Ages used such a carrousel to train. Here the knights took place and had to try to pick rings which were fixed around a roundabout, with a lance. For strategic reasons these constructions remained hidden behind the thick castle walls.

Incidentally most roundabouts turn to this day counterclockwise. This has its reason with the functional way of the original knight's construction: because most knights were right-hander they carried their lance on the right, so that it was only logically that the carrousel turned against the clock. Only today the living horses of that time have been by wooden horses.

Today the first carrousel as roundabout, that’s to say as a pleasure construction, appeared likely in the 17th century in the city Philippopolis (the current Plowdiw in Bulgaria). There children placed seats on a horizontally placed wheel which weas turned around by human force around its vertical axis.

So the carrousel of a knight's game developed itself slowly into a pleasure construction. In the 18th century the two carrousels, the knights' game and the mechanic carrousel were known and existed.

 In the early 19th century, about 1837 the vehicle constructor Michael Dentzel built his first roundabout. Also Heyn in Germany and Bayol in France began at this time with the roundabout building. But also in England a roundabout building tradition developed itself.

With these first roundabouts the animal figures hung on bars or chains and were swung outwardly by the centrifugal force with the turning. They were driven by animals but also human force.

Then at the middle of the 19th century the first merry-go-rounds with a ground platform arose. On these constructions the figures and seats were fastened on a platform close to the ground. The platform itself was fastened to the central axis. However, these merry-go-rounds were driven mostly by engines. With these first roundabouts music was played as an accompanying.

Gradually also other European roundabout builders came to America, together with craftsmen which laid the foundation-stone for the hand-carved and handpainted decoration elements typical today.

So in America, different schools developed themselves. So there was Philadelphia School, the Coney Iceland Design or also the Country fair Design.

The classic wood horses with their typical up-and-down movement exist since 1880. The impulse was invented, actually, by the country engine factory Savage.

The oldest functioning roundabout of Europe is located in Prague in the Letna park, the smallest in the Tivoli in Copenhagen. In California there exist meanwhile even roundabouts driven by solar energy. By the way, this was built by the descendants Michael Dentzel.

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The ferris wheel

Shortly after the Ferris' wheel another wheel (85 meters height, 40 gondolas)was built at London’s Earls Court in 1895 by the engineers Gaddelin and Watson. This stood there till 1906. Also in Vienna a big wheel ("only" 65 meters) was established in 1897 in the Prater (originary there were 30 gondolas, nowadays there are only 15 left), and at the world exhibition in Paris in 1900 there also was a big wheel with 100! meters of diameter and 40 gondolas (however, this big wheel was unfortunately dismantled in 1937). The foundations of this construction were 25 meters deep!

Here the competition in which  the big cities became involved around the turn of the century appears cleary. By erecting bigger and higher big wheels the technical superiority is pointed. The role of ferris wheels as a technical building is not to be denied. The first transportable wheels were also developed at this time. So, Emil Bruch travelled from 1896 with one of the first transportable ferris wheels, from funfair to funfair and aroused enthusiasm from young and old. The  first Bruch wheel was 12 meters high and the 10 gondolas were driven by manual operation. From 1900 on an evaporate diesel engine was applied, then later it was moved on electricity.   right: transportable wheel owned by the Bruch family in 1896 (photo: archive family Bruch)

However, the principle "big wheel" was invented before. Probably it should  have given a big wheel in the 17th century in Bulgaria in the city Phillipopolis (today Plovdiv). Children had fastened a few small seats to a wheel placed horizontally and brought the construction to turn. But wheels like this might even have existed before...

These "little" ferris wheels came from Russia to Europe. For example a little ferris wheel existed in the Vienna Prater even in1873. The first ferris wheel in form of a closed wheels appears in 1830. It had 8 gondolas for 4 passengers each.

These ferris wheels become rise up to 60 meters. The largest transportable ferris wheel is the Steiger Riesenrad built in 1980 by Kocks for the firm Steiger of Bad Oeyenhausen with 60 meters and 42 gondolas. 

Transportable big wheels on transportation supporters can become 50 meters high. Here the supports are mounted directly on the supporters. The supporters are set up side by side and are connected one to the other and the supports are raised hydraulically.

In the USA there also exist so named Double and Triple Wheels with "slipping" gondolas. One of these wheels (150 feet, 45 meters high) was built in 1920 on Coney Island and stands to this day in the Deno's Wonder Wheel park in Brooklyn. A copy of this wheel stands incidentally in the Disney California Adventure park in Anaheim/California.

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From the "russian mountains" to today's hightech coasters

The origin of today’s rollercoasters lies in the 16th century in Russia (mainly around Saint Petersburg). Here one poured water over sloves which froze with minus temperatures so that one could slip the slopes doen with blankets or sleighs. Napoleon saw these „installations“ on his campaigns and brought this leisure activity back to France as „russian hills“.

The first rollercoasters to be named as such, were wooden constructions where the cars were moved up the first hill (lift hill) with a chains elevator and went through the rest of the distance only with the help of gravity drove, basing on the physical principle that the potential energy will be transformed in kinetic force as the vehicles roll down. With the next hill the kinetic energy becomes potential energy again which is of course smaller than the first because some of the mechanic energy gets lost due to friction. So the cars roll through the whole circuit with their own energy.

Until the black friday in 1929 the rollercoasters developed rapidly, first of all, in the USA. Steel joined the wood later as construction material for building rollercoasters. This new material did make possible many new figures which weren’t possible to built with wood. 

So one distinguishes two main groups which can be wooden coasters which are almost only stationarily, and the steel coasters which can be stationnary as well as transportable. Steel rollercoasters have the smoothest running and make possible many different driving elements. The „Woodies" rattle more on the track and are rougher. Nowadays, however, wooden rollercoasters have still a quite special attraction.

By the many possibilities steel offers nowadays there is an enormous number of different rollercoaster types. Near the traditional steel sit-down coaster (with classic vehicles where one sits in like in a car), there are also rollercoasters where one hangs under the tracks (the so named inverted- or suspended coasters), stands in the car (stand up coaster), or lies (flying coaster).

One can also distinguish rollercoasters by the different impulses, there are the tracks with an elevator (chains elevator, cable elevator or vertical elevator), pulled up and doing the circuit by gravity, shot coasters (launched coaster), or powered coasters which are equiped with engines that makes them pursue their distance.

The mistake the early looping builders did, was that they built a circle. In the 60s the german rollercoaster genius Werner Stengel found out that with loopings the radius of the incoming and ourgoing track has to be greater than the radius at the summit of the looping. The first so built looping track of the manufacturer Anton Schwarzkopf in 1976 was the Revolution at Six Flags Magic Mountain Park in the USA.

The security with roller coasters has always improved in the course of the years. Because most coasters function by the gravity, it can happen that a train does not pack an upward gradient and rolls back. With coasters like the Boomerang or the Shuttle Coasters this is strictly wished and part of the program, but on other coasters this can happen due to too low speed or wear of the cars. Most coasters are equiped for this case with extra brake swords which will drive out while the cars would roll back and block the train. However, it also already happened that trains rolled back and had to be removed by welding. To prevent a rollback on the lifthill there exists the so-named safety dog. You recognize him by the characteristic "rattling" of the cars on the elevator as the device engages in the chain.

Because most roller coasters function with more than one train, it has to be prevented that they collide. So the whole track is divided in several sectors and only one train may be in one sector at one time. The trains are registered by sensors and the computer of the coaster regulates the traffic. Therefore, at the end of every sector there is the possibility to stop a train, either by braking, or preventing removing a train from the railway station. In case of an abnormality the computer intends one of the presented safety precautions. Therefore, with coasters with more than one trains one often waits with the departure of train two until train one is ready to enter the railway station again.

Today the biggest and most spectacular rollercoasters can be naturally found mainly in parks (first of all in the USA). For the funfair rollercoasters, the economic viability is to be considered naturally so that these can be built-up, broken-down and transported in a reasonable period of time and that not to much space is consumed because space is rare on the funfair grounds.

The highest and fastest rollercoaster is the Kingsda Ka (139 meters high, 206 km/h) in the Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey (built2005). The highest coaster of Europe is the Silver Star (with 73 meters) in Europa Park in Rust, opened 2002 and the fastest with 128 km/h is called Stealth in the Thorpe Park in England (since 2006). The highest wooden rollercoaster has incidentally 66 meters and is the Son of Beast in the Paramount's Kings Island in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Eurostar from showman Oscar Bruch is the biggest transportable Inverted Coaster of the world, built by Intamin. The coaster has a looping, a revolution and two corkscrews. Premiere was in 1995 in Düsseldorf.

Because the vehicles are wider than the railtrack, and the curves are right-angled, a feeling of  "been thrown out" is typical for this type of coaster. At the end of the 70s and 80s there was almost no more Wilde Maus, but in the 90th the coastertype became again very appreciated. Nowadays there exist also wild mouses with spinning cars.