After 32 years of delivering fun, the ”Jolly Wheel” (or Human Centrifuge) was coming down in 1928.  The Giant Wheel was never really able to challenge the Blackpool Tower, so the end was nigh.  Built by British Naval Engineer Walter B. Bassett, this was the second Giant Wheel out of four that he was to construct between 1895 and 1898.  Earls Court (London), Blackpool, Vienna and Paris all received variations of Bassett’s Giant Wheels.  Bassett died penniless in 1907.  In 1896 he was challenged in the Courts by James Weir Graydon, an American Giant Wheel inventor and patent holder.  Bassett claimed he had Continue reading The Demolition of a Giant Wheel →