Harry Guy Travers

Credits:

Encyclopedia Britannica

Roller Coasters by Todd Throgmorton

Harry Travers, an American roller coaster designer, is known for his daring, bone-rattling coasters of the 1920s.

Educated in Nebraska and New York City, Travers took up work as a mechanical engineer in Omaha, Neb., Denver, Colo., and New York City. His career in amusement rides is said to have begun in 1901 on a transatlantic voyage when he took notice of seagulls circling the mast of the ship. Their graceful motion inspired his Circle Swing (1903), his first and arguably most popular invention.

In 1919 Travers relocated from New York City to Beaver Falls, Pa., and started the Travers Engineering Company, which produced the Circle Swing, Tumble Bug, and other rides. Within five years he had built the nation's largest coaster company. He even experimented with steel tracks, preferring their ability to withstand the stress of extreme speed. Teaming with Frederick Church and Thomas Prior throughout much of the 1920s, he gained a reputation for designing thrilling rides--such as the influential Bobs (1924-67) at Riverview Park in Chicago and Cyclone Racer (1930-68) in Long Beach, Calif.

Travers became best known, however, for his terrible trio of ferocious coasters, all built in 1927--Cyclone at Crystal Beach in Ontario (which a a nurse on duty at all times), Lightning at Revere Beach (Revere, Mass.), and Cyclone at Palisades Park in Fort Lee, N.J. The Lightning had a lifetime of only six years, because crowds gathered to watch but not to ride the monstrous coaster; a passenger had plunged to her death from the coaster on the second night of operation.

In the 1930s Travers left Beaver Falls for Chicago and designed rides for the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition and subsequent world's fairs.

For his innovations in terrorizing enthusiasts to the fullest, Harry Guy Travers deserves the distinction of being a Great Mind in roller coasters.