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Monday 15 June 2020
#amusement parks

Magicland: the Valmontone park reopens. Brief history of the roller coaster.

From June 19th, the largest amusement park in Rome reopens. As well as the only one of its kind.

The expression roller coaster derives from the first structures built in Russia. In Anglo-Saxon countries the name Roller Coaster is used.

Between 1500 and 1600, the first frozen slides appeared in Russia: wooden structures, about ten meters high, with sledges. In 1817, in France, the first version appears with rails and trolleys.

The final version appeared in the United States, in 1827. The Mauch Chunk Switchback Gravity Railroad originally served to transport coal, letting the carriages slide from upstream to downstream, without using any type of power supply. Soon people found it fun to go down instead of coal.

In 1846 the first "loop of death" appears.

In 1955 Disneyland opens, with the first version of the tubular steel rail; with this track the wheels can slide below, above and to the side, ensuring maximum safety.

In the following years, the basic operation remained practically identical, but exciting variations on the theme were added, such as:

- dive coaster: with practically vertical descents that touch the 90 ยฐ
- inverted coaster: the trolleys are hung on the tracks and the passengers remain with their feet suspended
- spinning coaster: the trolleys rotate on themselves
- wing coaster: the carriages are on the side of the rail
- stratacoaster: higher than 120 meters (like a 40-storey building)
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