Although early "pleasure wheels" may go back as far as the 1500s, the first commercially successful Ferris wheel was designed and constructed by the Galesburg, Illinois native and engineer, George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. (1859-96) for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Ferris owned a company that tested iron and steel for railroads and bridges. He used his knowledge of structural steel to design an immense steel structure 264' tall that would amaze the visitors to the fair. It was the most popular structure at the fair. In the first five months after its debut in 1892, more than 1.4 million people rode the world's first Ferris wheel. The Ferris wheel was dismantled and then rebuilt in Lincoln Park, Chicago, in 1895, and dismantled and rebuilt a third and final time for the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. It was ultimately demolished in 1906. Modern versions have been called Observation Wheels, the tallest being the 820' Ain Dubai, which opened in late 2021 and is located in the United Arab Emirates.
A George Ferris biography can be found here.
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