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- Sean
Pleasure Railways, a new Fad for New York?
June 7, 1902

Coney Island, located in Brooklyn New York is considered to be the “World's largest and premier amusement area.”  It is also home to the fantastic invention aptly dubbed the “Pleasure Railway.”  Its name is literally what it is, a small rail car that, by means of gravity rolls and tumbles along a long wooden track.  The peculiar railways first showed up in Coney Island at around 1884 when LaMarcus Thompson invented the Switchback, little more than a slow tour of the beach.  But at five cents a ride, along with a little bit of exercise, it was a bargain. Loop-the-loop Soon other advancement in railway technology were invented between the years of 1884 and 1885 when Charles Alcoke came up with an idea to connect the tracks to form a large circle.  Phillip Hinkle advanced that technology to a point where the large hill that provided the initial inertia to power the ride had a mechanized chain that would pull the car to the top of the hill instead of the ride workers having to manually reset the ride.  The next large advance in railway technology came around the turn of the century.  In 1895 Lina Beecher tried the

  idea originally invented in France, of creating a large loop in the track.  His coaster the “Flip-Flap Railway” was a huge success, but it’s jerky entry out of the loop caused many riders to have back and neck injuries, so the ride was not popular when I rode it.  I found myself suffering from upper-back pain, and throbbing headaches for weeks.  In 1901 Edward Prescott created a more ‘rider friendly’ coaster called “Loop-the-Loop.”  This design employed the use of a gentler elliptical loop that presented less health hazards.  This is a very popular ride.  So popular, that I had to get special permission to even get close to riding it.  So many people were flocked around the ride, that recently, the ride administrators decided to make people pay to watch the ride in action.  The sensation is closer to flight than being dropped off a hi- rise building and hitting the ground abruptly.  So if you are looking for something new to try in New York,  I would recommend the Pleasure Railways of Coney Island for thrills and good fun that you will never forget.

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Inventor may Change the way Millions Drink Their Beverages
 September 24, 1906

 Before January 3, 1888, if people wanted to drink without getting their lips wet, they had to resort to using hollow grass stalks or “Straws.”  Most of us northerners, not being in that hot climate in which hollow reeds grow have never heard of this concept.  To drink out of a “Straw” one must place the bottom of the hollow reed in the beverage, fit your lips around the top end of the reed, forming a tight seal, and suck.  The liquid miraculously travels up the tube and into your mouth.  But on the third, an inventor named Marvin Stone decided to revolutionize this design.  He experimented with winding two strips of paper around a pencil and gluing them together, creating a man-made straw.  He also experimented with wax-coated paper so that the straws would not become soggy after extended use.  Marvin made sure the diameter of the straw was small enough so that items in beverages would not become lodged in the tube (i.e. lemon seeds, crushed ice).  Earlier this year, Stone’s company created the first automatic straw winder (now called “Stone Straw Corporation”). This has ended the tedious hand winding process.  New York has just been receiving these new hand-wound, man-made straws, and they are buying them as fast as they come in.  Due to the large demand in the north, Stone’s process of developing drinking straws faster will let more and more of us enjoy this curious invention.