■ Wen 丨 Shijing Financial Columnist Ye Kefei
Nowadays, in the square in front of the city's large shopping malls, the carousel is a very common facility. We can always see such a scene: those carrying large bags and small bags, after the end of the shopping, the square, the result is that the children just refuse to go, have to play.
The love for the carousel is not the child's patent, and the adults cannot resist it, otherwise how can there be the sentence "If she is not involved in the world, then take her to see the prosperity of the world, if her heart has been vicissitudes, then take her to ride on the carousel"? Countless people go to Disney, and the first stop is the carousel. If you look at it from the side, you will find that many adults sit on it and are happier than children. That's why, at Disney all over the world, the carousel is the first device to start and the last device to stop every day. At the beginning of the opening of Shanghai Disneyland, many people would rather queue up for an hour to play for two minutes.
As for the carousel on the square in front of the city mall today, the workmanship is generally rough, but it costs at least 10 yuan or 15 yuan to play once, which is not cheap, purely to make money for children.
European cities also often have this kind of carousel placed on the square, from the same company, the trojan workmanship is very exquisite and dreamy, but the price is more expensive, generally more than 10 euros, that is, nearly 80 yuan. Foreigners are more casual, so these carousels sit on horseback, generally adults and children half.
The carousel has been a business for more than a hundred decades, all thanks to the Industrial Revolution.
The carousel originated from combat training
The earliest historical record of the carousel dates back to the byzantine Empire.
Today's carousel, the English word is Carousel, also means luggage carousel. The word is a translation of carosella in Spanish, which originally means "combat training".
You read that right, the carousel was originally a kind of military training, which was a kind of riding training for medieval knights. In the 12th century, knights would sit heavily armed in baskets hanging from a crossbar, practicing blocking and stabbing in baskets that were bobbing up and down. This method of training has continued for hundreds of years, training generations of knights. Of course, it has also changed greatly with the popularity of various eras such as court equestrian performances. For example, the basket was changed to a legless wooden horse fixed to a rotating table, pulling the turntable with horses, mules and even human hands, and then in a rapid rotation, using a sword or spear to accurately pierce the small ring hanging high. This training also has a strong playful nature, so many nobles will treat it as a kind of leisure.
In the 17th century, because of the popularity of this Trojan horse training, some people made it into a children's toy. First, a Trojan horse rocking chair was placed in front of the store, and then someone used a wooden frame to support the wooden horse, form a circle, and use a real small horse to move, sometimes directly by human pull and rotation. Because of this, the appearance of early carousels is exactly the same as that of medieval knights. In the urban parks of the time, there were human, animal or hydro-propelled carousels for people to play.
When human beings entered the modern industrial society dominated by the steam engine, the knight, the most powerful army class, gradually disappeared, and the military training role of the carousel was lost. However, it is precisely because of the existence of the steam engine that the carousel has given a new soul and has become an iconic facility for the rising theme parks.
The carousel, which used to require human or animal power to turn, has achieved a huge technological breakthrough in the mechanical age. In the 19th century, the first steam-powered carousel appeared and became a popular and popular entertainment facility. This carousel is fixed to a rotating platform and extends various power arms on the reels, which is basically what it is today.
The steam engine is applied to the carousel, and there is another side meaning, which gives the carousel the most fascinating factor - romance. This is because the steam engine, as the heart of the carousel, will rumble and spit out white smoke, and the colorful wooden horse is like traveling through the clouds, which is extremely dreamy, which makes the Europeans at that time addicted to it and regard it as a romantic symbol.
The carousel was once a symbol of America's economic take-off
The carousel that arose in Europe became a symbol of economic take-off in the United States.
In the second half of the 19th century, the carousel became the most fashionable pastime in the United States at that time, suitable for all ages, and as a result, the "carousel economy" was promoted, and there were carousels all over the United States, and the first interveners made a lot of money. Later, there were more and more carousels, industry competition was getting bigger and bigger, practitioners had to dig their minds to find gimmicks, so the workmanship of carousels became more and more gorgeous, and the styles began to diversify, no longer limited to horses, but evolved into various themes. In particular, Frederick Savage's set of ship-type carousels designed with the theme of the sea opened up an era of diversification of carousel design and stimulated people's imagination. So, the carousel we see now, in addition to horses, there are many elements such as swings and cars.
At that time, the most rapid period of industrial development in the United States, the widespread use of internal combustion engines and electricity benefited various industries, and the carousel was an important symbol.
In addition to being an economic symbol, the carousel was originally a symbol of freedom in the United States. The first people to bring the carousel to the United States were a group of craftsmen who had experience in making carousels in Europe. In the early days, people immigrated to the United States, most of them were dissatisfied with the shackles of the motherland and were bent on pursuing freedom. This is evident on the carousel. At that time, the carousels in Europe were the same, and in the United States, craftsmen not only refined their craftsmanship, but also dug their minds in style and design.
It is worth mentioning that it was Also Frederick Savage who made a great technological innovation to the carousel. Prior to this, the carousel was just a simple circle rotation, and Savage let the trojan move up and down while rotating with the revolving table according to the feeling of human riding. He also designed a walking area for the revolving table, so that parents have enough space to walk and communicate with the children on the carousel. The musical function necessary for today's carousels was also created by Savage, who at that time mainly used organ repertoire.
At the beginning of the 20th century, because of the use of alternating current and the invention of electric lights, colorful lights were also applied to carousels, which completely laid the characteristics of today's carousels.
The glory of the carousel in the United States continued until the eve of the Great Depression. In the tragic days of the Great Depression, the operators of carousels, like other industries, went bankrupt, traditional craftsmen changed their professions, and the carousel never returned to the pomp and circumstance before the Great Depression, and there was no longer a leap forward in craftsmanship. However, it is still the first choice for major playgrounds. It is worth mentioning that to this day, there are still some centuries-old carousels that can still be used normally after restoration. The oldest carousel still in operation in the United States is in Salem, Massachusetts, and first worked in 1799.
Those romantic carousels, waiting for you to travel all over the world
Many of the carousels that have spread around the world have become part of the urban landscape. For travelers, riding the carousel all over the world is a dream that is impossible but worth working on.
The city with the most carousels is Paris, which is almost everywhere and is part of the romantic character of Paris. In the city, several of the most famous carousels are the ones under the Eiffel Tower, on the banks of the Seine, in front of the Hôtel de Ville in Paris, in front of the Sacre Coeur, and the green-topped carousel in the Jardin du Luxembourg, built in 1879 by Charles Garnier, the builder of the Paris Opera House, and is the oldest carousel in Paris. There is also a carousel museum in the 12th arrondissement of Paris.
In the United States, the carousel in Santa Clara, California, is included in the Guinness Book of World Records as the "world's largest carousel". The Carousel at Riverfront Park in Spokane, Washington, was built in 1909 and is included in the National Register of Historic Places and is one of the best-preserved hand-carved carousels in the United States. The antique carousel in New York's Central Park began operating in 1871 and is still in operation today.
There is a 24-seat carousel called "Solar Eclipse" in Stockholm, Sweden, and its special feature is its height, more than 120 meters, not only is it the world's tallest Trojan horse, but also the best place to see the panoramic view of Stockholm city. Imagine sitting on a high carousel and looking at a fairytale city in a whirlwind.
Chinese the most familiar exotic carousel should be the one in The Korean Lotte World, where many Korean dramas have been filmed, such as "Stairway to Heaven".
China already had carousels during the Republic of China period, and Zhu Ziqing mentioned the park in Harbin in the Westbound Newsletter: "This is now called "Special City Park". The size is similar to the Zhongshan Park in Beiping, but the layout is natural. There are many flower beds, with various colors of flowers in a variety of symmetrical patterns; the most interesting is the two grass lions at one entrance. It was crouching, covered with green oil and tender grass, larger than the common lion, and its spirit was very natural. There are hills in the park, there are meandering waters, there are pavilions and bridges; the bridge is foreign-style, and it is won by Linglong. You can paddle in the water, and there are also some twists and turns. This is intriguing. There are also cafes, movie theaters, electric horses (Shanghai Great World and other places) and so on. ”
The "electric horse" is the carousel. As early as 1917, when the Shanghai Great World opened, a carousel had been set up and became the memory of many old Shanghainese.
Today's carousels in Chinese cities, the price is basically about 50,000 yuan, if the workmanship is better, about 60,000 or 70,000 yuan. Therefore, it is not easy to recover the cost of setting up a carousel operation in front of the mall or in the square.
As a manufacturing country, the production of domestic carousels and even large-scale amusement equipment is thriving. Like Zhengzhou Child Star, Zhengzhou Jinshan, Zhengzhou Xiaoyanzi, Zhongshan Jinbo, etc. have a certain reputation in the industry and are the main providers.
epilogue
The carousel in the large-scale project of the modern amusement park belongs to the project that lacks the sense of excitement and speed, the threshold is very low, it looks like a pure children's project, but its charm has long surpassed that of children, and it has always attracted adults for more than a hundred years.
People also find many life principles on the carousel, such as regarding it as the most cruel game in the world, because it "chases each other, but maintains a distance that can never be touched, and it is close to the end of the world."
The significance of the carousel to modern society is that it is part of the process of modern urbanization. It must be set against the backdrop of the city, and even if the city is scarce, it will still leave a little space for it. And this small space just lets imagination and happiness take off. In other words, while people always say that cities are too complex and shackle people's imaginations, the carousel is an exception.
It is precisely because of this that the carousel became popular during the period when industry in the United States was at its most rapid and the early urbanization process was at its fastest.