Who invented the very first roller coaster?

Question

Who invented the very first roller coaster?

Answer 1

John C Allen

Here is his bio:

http://search.eb.com/coasters/i_allen.ht...

Allen, John C (b. May 21, 1907, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.--d. Aug. 17, 1979, Philadelphia), American designer of roller coasters who ignited the coaster boom of the 1970s following the mid-century decline in amusement parks.

After attending Temple University, Philadelphia, Allen began his career in 1934 on the bottom rung of the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, as a coaster operator in Holyoke, Mass. Eventually, he became the main troubleshooter at Philadelphia Toboggan, working on a variety of projects, such as the 1953 lift system that pulled golfers from the 18th hole to a clubhouse atop a 280-foot hill. His entry into coaster design came in 1947 when he reworked the wood-and-steel bracing of Harry Traver's Cyclone (1927) at Crystal Beach, transforming it into the massively successful Comet.

In 1954 Allen became president of Philadelphia Toboggan and went on to design two dozen coasters, with the Skyliner (1960) at Roseland Park in Canandaigua, N.Y., being his first big ride. But Allen is perhaps best known for the elegant Racer,Racer inaugurated in 1972 at Kings Island near Cincinnati, Ohio. The beautiful wooden Racer, with its two adjacent tracks that split off mid-ride, gave rise to modern "megacoasters" while tapping nostalgia for the classic "woodies" of the 1920s.

Other coasters that bear his stamp include the Great American Scream Machine Great American Scream Machine (1973) at Six Flags Over Georgia, Rebel Yell (1975) at Kings Dominion (Doswell, Va.), and the Screamin' Eagle (1976) at Six Flags Over St. Louis.

"You don't need a degree in engineering to design roller coasters, you need a degree in psychology," Allen once said. "A roller coaster is as theatrically contrived as a Broadway play."

But Allen believed it was his advancements in roller coaster technology and design techniques--the use of technical specifications instead of drawings, parabolic hill shapes, and aluminum cars--that were his most important contributions to coaster history.

Answer 2

I dont know who invented the first roller coaster but I know who invented the first inverted coaster which happenes to be Bolliger & Mabillard.

Answer 3

Roller coasters originated from ice slides built in russia in the 1400's

Answer 4

Technically speaking fbjohn117 is correct. It is a known fact that the origins of the roller coaster can be traced back to the Russians, who built them out of snow.

It later was modified by adding wheels. Both of these incarnations were strictly gravity rides, basically going downhill.

In the late 1800's the Scenic Railroad made it's debut. This is the true forerunner of the Modern Roller Coaster. From this point forward, it was an evolution of sorts: Lift hills, loops, safety devises, rail types, etc.

Answer 5

The Russians----

In Spanish and Portuguese the word for "roller coaster" is "montan(h)a rusa" which translates directly into "Russian Mountain"

Answer 6

LaMarcus Adna Thompson patented the rollercoaster but Phillip Hinkle developed the lift hill.The oldest coasters decended from the Russian Mountains, which were constructed by hills of ice.