Rings of Saturn Amusement Park Ride Mashup
Thomas Casey, an inventor has created an interesting amusement park ride which he calls the Rings of Saturn. It’s something of a mashup of a merry-go-round and Ferris wheel. He claims to have patented the ride, but I was unable to locate a patent in his name or one for anything similar and the document he displays in his video does not show any specifics.
His ride is insane. The mechanism would be huge and massive. It would have to be suspended very high in the air to clear the ground. I’m not sure how you would load the inner circle of riders. And the ride doesn’t seem all that much more exciting than simpler, current rides that are in actual operation. In addition, when you watch the ride run, some seats don’t really move much at all, while other are whipping around at ridiculous speeds. The folks at the axis of the outer ring barely move at all, just flipping over every half-turn. Hopefully the full-size version will run more smoothly than the model, which seems to get a little crazy every half-turn.
But, it certainly seems like he spent quite a bit of time and money on his model and idea. I think he has more of a future as a model builder than a ride inventor.
I’m a little surprised that he doesn’t seem to have a website and his listed email is fairly generic (I sent him an email, but received no reply).
It would certainly be fun to watch it run. I’m just not sure I’d ride it.
Would you ride this thing? Do you think we’ll see it an amusement park anytime soon?
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Dave,
I definitely have a Patent, issued by the U.S. Patent Office. The model represents a ride that would be roughly 70 Feet in diameter, therefore in the starting position it has to be a little over 35 feet high. The passengers simply walk to the inner wheel on a walkway that doesn’t show up too well on the model. A lot of people don’t realize that any seat on the outer wheel goes through the same motion as any other seat on the outer wheel. In other words, they make one complete trip around the circumference for every twelve turns that the wheel makes. The same holds true for the inner wheel. All seats make one complete trip around the circumference for every twelve turns that the inner wheel makes. I have been making models for over 40 years. Tom Casey
i 11 yr old i am doing a brochure in science class i have to be doing a brochure about Saturn well can i use this idea in my brochure please i will give u the praise