February 14th is an unofficial holiday in honor of the birthday of George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., the inventor of the Ferris Wheel. Among other things, of course. ;-)

It's 1889 and the tower designed by Gustave Eiffel is the hit of the Paris World Exposition. All seems bright and gay until someone dies on a viewing platform. Was it really just a bee sting? Murder on the Eiffel Tower, by Claude Izner is the first in a great series featuring Paris bookseller Victor Legris. It also sent me in search of other books about Expositions.

The first ferris wheel was seen at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. It was an effort to 'outdo' the biggest attraction of the last fair .... that one in Paris ... where the Eiffel Tower was a main attraction. Mr. Ferris and His Wheel, written by Kathryn Gibb Davis and illustrated by Gilbert Ford is a children's book about the designing and building of the great wheel. Many were sure it wouldn't work, but it did. During the run of the fair (19 weeks) more than one million people rode the wheel. It held up just fine during storms and gale force winds and never needed a repair. Lots of fun details.

Robert Lawson's The Great Wheel is for slightly older readers (tweens and teens). Conn Kilroy's aunt read his fortune in tea leaves and told him that one day he would ride a great wheel. Taking a job offered by his uncle, Conn ends up working on Ferris's Folly for an upcoming exhibition in Chicago. As with his other books, Lawson does the illustrations, which, as usual, are delightful.

For a more detailed (and intense) look at the Chicago Fair there's The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America, by Erik Larson. There's a lot on the planning and building of the fair and the Ferris wheel here, as well as the ongoing story of H.H. Holmes. During the time the fair was open there were many reports of missing people. When it was over it was realized just how many, and how many were women. The investigation uncovered a trail of horror as detectives (and then the world) learned of what, and how, Holmes did what he did. Well written, but gruesome.

The 1939 World's Fair in New York seemed doomed from the start: built on a former dump site; record bad weather (both heat and rain); bombs (threats and the real thing); hard times; a war brewing in Europe .... Twilight at the World of Tomorrow: Genius, Madness, Murder, and the 1939 World's Fair on the Brink of War, by James Mauro was an interesting but rather sad read. Hoping for record crowds, prices were often set too high for the common man. Hoping to show prefab houses that would be affordable, vendors filled them with furniture and appliances that put the cost out of reach. And then there were displays of food featuring fly lobsters. All in all, it just seemed .... baffling.

Again from the Images of America Series is Seattle's 1962 World's Fair by Bill Cotter. Covering just a small area, as world's fairs go, there was a lot to see and do. Some things were designed for use just at the fair, others for use long after the fair ended (and not just the Space Needle). Again I was impressed with the photographs in these books and the care taken to gather them into such nice books.

And don't forget (from the June 17, 2014 post) The Future Remembered: the 1962 Seattle World's Fair and It's Legacy, by Paula Becker and Alan J. Stein.

Many cities now have Great Wheels. The one in Seattle was the tallest Ferris wheel on the west coast when it opened in 2012.

Reading Hermit with Dog