MERRY-GO-ROUND DRIVEN BY HAND (Sep, 1934)
MERRY-GO-ROUND DRIVEN BY HAND
Children provide their own power to take an exciting spin on a merry-go-round produced by a Dallas, Texas, inventor. Occupying seats at the ends of a long board, the two children push hand levers back and forth. Wires leading from these handles actuate a ratchet wheel which causes the board to spin rapidly about. The board is mounted on ball bearings on a single support set in concrete. Adjustable steel stirrups are fitted to the board.
For extra fun, count the finger mashers and leg manglers in the picture.
I’m not one to play the Ralph Nader card, and I do think that at times we’re overprotecting our children today. But that thing scares me to death.
Comment by Jim Dunn — July 22, 2007 @ 6:05 am
I don’t know if we’re overprotecting our children. I think we’re under-estimating the dangers because we were never killed by them, and the ones who were killed aren’t here to point that out.
There’s that chain e-mail about how “everything was dangerous in 1979, and we survived, so safety rules are stupid”. The thousands upon thousands worldwide that didn’t survive because of lack of safety rules aren’t here to rebut the e-mail.
Accidental child deaths have been cut in half since the 60s in most of the Western world, and that’s specifically due to laws. Without laws, thousands more would be dead.
Comment by Blurgle — July 22, 2007 @ 8:26 am
Merry-go round driven by hand…
Kid powered merry-go round, Popular Science 1934 – Link. More: PlayPumps – Kid powered merry-go-round water pumps – Link. Propeller drives homemade flying merry-go-round – Link…….
Trackback by MAKE: Blog — July 22, 2007 @ 2:13 pm
There was similar one of these that used foot pumps rather than hand levers in the town where I grew up on the Jersey Shore.
I loved it becdause you could operate it alone and still get in really spinning.
Dangerous? Sure, but considering that all the kids there spent the summer evenings chasing and running through the clouds of DDT sprayed by anti-mosquito trucks, probably pretty small change.
*cough*
Comment by Stannous — July 23, 2007 @ 3:45 am
How about generating electricity with a merry-go-round?
http://news.byu.edu/archive07-.....round.aspx
Comment by James — October 24, 2007 @ 11:33 am
I had a more modern version of this contraption when I was a kid. Mine was a bit smaller, and it had 4 seats and was VERY heavy. It must have been made in the forties or early fifties. My dad brought it home on the back of the truck. The worst that ever happened to me or any kid who played on it was throwing up all the way home! But that’s what we were trying for!
Comment by Noam — November 21, 2007 @ 1:12 pm
We had this contraption of a toy too in the early 60s ours had 4 seats and one day we were playing on it and all 4 seats were taken..sooo I had the big idea to sit in the middle on the metal that turns the whole machine Well once all the kids started pumping hard to get the thing spinning it took a whole 30 seconds or so to turn that metal and trap half my buttocks I flew off screaming and crying and ended up with a very large and painfull bruise that covered all of me. There was no such thing as safety c aps or covers for them. This was a horrible experience and I think Im still tramatised. I wonder if I have a lawsuit?
Comment by carmengratton — May 16, 2008 @ 6:26 pm
Oh my gosh. Our neighbors had one of these. It was so much fun. It had four seats and it was red and blue. 1,2,3,or 4 children could ride on it. This was the best toy ever. It was so, so, so , much fun. I guess there is always a safety problem with anything that is fun but this was the best toy ever. Bikes can be dangerous too, it all depends on how they are used. This toy was the best.
Lots of hours of fun.
md
Comment by M. Dittmer — January 2, 2009 @ 10:18 pm
I remember those too, both the commercial ones and some big home rigged ones at campgrounds and such. Our school, on the other hand, had two massive merry-go-rounds of the traditional sort – 2″ diameter steel pipe welded to a 6″ center pipe and connected by 2×10″ wooded seats. To get it really going fast, you’d get some kids to run inside the wheel, then try to hop up. If you tripped, you could break a leg or crack your skull. If you slipped off, it was your arm in danger.
No pinchy bits, though, and the bearings were covered (and very very smooth.)
Comment by Toronto — January 3, 2009 @ 1:14 am
Cool, so does anyone know where you can get plans for one of these??
Comment by Matt DeGroot — February 11, 2009 @ 8:54 pm
Matt – I think it’s been reprinted a few times, in some of those ’100 things for Boys to Make’ books.*
Similar things are in some of the Lee Valley reprints series (either The Boy Mechanic or the Popular Mechanics series.)
* Look for the ones with a warning against actually making things from their articles – they tend to have all the cool stuff. ;0)
Comment by Toronto — February 11, 2009 @ 11:27 pm
What is the name of that contraption with the 4 seats. I have been looking for one all over. My neighbor had one and it was sooo much fun. Any idea where I can purchase one now Do they even still make them?
thanks.
Comment by jami — May 19, 2009 @ 9:38 am
i have the toy you are talking about. we called it a whirlly bird.i found it in the bushes on an old plantation. icould not get it to work. so i built one in my fabshop .it works great but it does have pinch points in the center
Comment by Dennis Watts — September 14, 2009 @ 2:16 pm
I also had one of these when i was a kid. we had hours of fun and had the whole neighborhood on it at times. we had two to the seat sometimes. Wish I could find one or a picture of one. Thanks Todd
Comment by Todd — September 19, 2009 @ 2:38 am
todd i am new at this.my son emailed me a picture of my toy.iam not sure how to email it to you.i am trying to figure it out .my email is metalmanwatts@hotmail.com if you are interested i will kept trying.
Comment by Dennis Watts — September 20, 2009 @ 8:47 pm
I had one of these in the seventies. It was already pretty old back then. Someone gave it to my dad, he fixed it up and it worked great! It had 4 seats and was hand AND foot powered. As you pulled the hand lever towards you, you pushed the sturrups with your feet. I don’t remember anyone getting hurt with the working parts of it, but when 4 kids powered the thing, we could get it moving very fast, and the object of that was to see who fell off first! The more sensitive kids would throw up too. LOL. Good times!!!! I’ve never seen another one like the one I had, but I’d love to find a picture of one. I imagine that they were popular at one point in time.
Comment by ATHENA — October 29, 2009 @ 3:52 pm
BTW, mine also had a protective dome-like cover in the middle to hide the moving parts. Someone could sit in the middle, but they wouldn’t be able to stay there for very long! LOL
Athena
Comment by ATHENA — October 29, 2009 @ 3:56 pm
Dennis watts, I would love to buy the plans or whirlly gig for our grand kids. when i was a kid we had a 2 seater. I would love to see photos as well. Please e mail me at jcolclough@ec.rr.com. your help is greatly appreciated by our grand kids!
Comment by joey colclough — December 6, 2009 @ 11:38 pm
joey colclough: Apparently the toy we remember from the 60′s-70′s was the Hedstrom Whirly Bird (or Whurly Bird). It’s no longer manufactured and I can’t even find a photo online. The company that made it closed their doors. Details are here http://www.ballbounceandsport.com/olditems.php
Comment by Firebrand38 — December 7, 2009 @ 1:56 am
Thanks for comments, been very helpfull. Please continue to post. I will have one built and if anyone remembers how the center geering worked and post a sketch would be helpful. thanks for the help. Joey
Comment by joey colclough — December 11, 2009 @ 12:35 pm
I would think some kind of friction clutch not dissimilar
to the ones used in tape cassette players and lawn mower starters.
Pulling on the handlebars pulls a wire that grabs the stationary center post
causing the rest of the assembly to turn.
Releasing the wire releases the pressure so the center post turns freely and
the handlebars return to the forward position.
Comment by jayessell — December 11, 2009 @ 3:32 pm
jayessell: If you don’t know don’t guess. One version of this operated on a much simpler principle http://www.google.com/patents?.....38;f=false
Comment by Firebrand38 — December 11, 2009 @ 4:21 pm
I have a pull-a-way merry go round that’s been in our familiy for 45+ years. We got it from a old drive-in theatre. It is similar in function to the one above, only massively larger. It is a octagon shape with wood seats all around. It was dangerous but we played on it forever. Still works in great shape. It measures 13 ft. in diam. and about four foot tall in the center. Has two opposing pump and pull stations that connect to a flat disc in the center that makes it spin. It also has a metal mesh center that we could sit in. It has a patent in Litchfield, Mi. and I would love to see what it’s worth.
Comment by Trina — March 7, 2010 @ 11:04 am
TRINA ,IF YOU WILL SEND ME A PICTURE OF
IT I WILL TRY TO HELP YOU FIND HOW MUCH
IT IS WORTH. JUST SEND IT TO metalmanwatts@hotmail.com
Denise Watts
Comment by Dennis Watts — March 12, 2010 @ 3:28 pm
Dennis Watts: Please don’t use all caps. It’s considered shouting and quite rude.
Comment by Firebrand38 — March 14, 2010 @ 8:54 am
The Pull-a-Way is amazing–I wish I had one. I believe they were made by GameTime in Litchfield, MI. If anyone has plan or patent# info, please share!
There was a smaller version at a playground near my house when I was very young, but it disappeared. I’m not sure if it was made by the same company, but worked on the same principle.
I found one of the large ones a while back in a town park near Cumberland MD and took some photos with view of getting one made sometime. If you’d like to see, check :
http://myweb.wvnet.edu/~marizel/carousel/
Comment by marizel — April 8, 2010 @ 10:17 pm
We had a 4 seat Whirly Bird growing up. This toy was tremendous fun and exercise!! It kept us fit and strong! Compared to the overweight couch potato kids of today we were fit as a fiddle. We even launched our Grand mother when she came for a visit. She was fine and a good sport my dad had wanted his mom to have a ride we didn’t even know our own strength our ages were 4,5,6, and 7.
Comment by Marcella — June 5, 2010 @ 4:55 am
OK, I hit pay dirt. Here is a collection of patents with drawings of various incarnations of the device that has a generic name of round a bout.
The diagrams should be sufficient to fabricate the center pivot & drive mechanism (and no clutch required).
Comment by Firebrand38 — June 5, 2010 @ 7:34 am
We loved the four seater ride in the 70s! You used your arms and legs (hands & feet). No wonder kids were healthy back then in comparison to today. I did see a very small one the summer before last (2008) @ K-mart in Cincinnati. I’ve been searching for two days for one online. I am going to save this link and check periodically to see if anyone has found the real thing!!
)
Comment by DD — June 9, 2010 @ 10:11 am
I have found a video of the whirly bird i remember that we had as kids here is the link,you have to go through some kids watching a baby walking but soon they jump on it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....ature=fvsr
Comment by Betsy J — June 11, 2010 @ 1:20 am
That is it! Great video, brings back alot of good memories. Thanks for the posting.
Comment by joey colclough — June 11, 2010 @ 5:45 am
looking for merry-go-swing parts. have the pole and the top piece. lacking the chains and handles. we used to have them forty years ago in the area parks. you would grab one of the three or four handles hanging by the chains as high as you could reach and run in a circle propeling the smaller kids out in a circular motion. thanks
Comment by mark crosby — June 20, 2010 @ 9:27 am
Mark – were the handles a bit like small 3- or 4-rung ladders? We used to call that ride a “witch’s hat” due to the conical shape when in use.
If I recall, the handles were just welded up from 1/4″ steel rod, with a loop at the top to connect the chain to via a screw-on shackle.
Comment by Toronto — June 20, 2010 @ 5:25 pm
Toronto: Apparently there are several different variations on the Witch’s Hat
Comment by Firebrand38 — June 20, 2010 @ 7:40 pm
This is available in a safe version at twirlgoround.com
Comment by Daryl — August 10, 2010 @ 6:27 pm
Nice looking product, Daryl. Wish I had one at the appropriate age.*
By the way, your web site’s “title” html items are a bit bland (“Home”?) “Twirlgoround Home” would be better (and less likely to confuse the easily befuddled such as me.)
* I think that’ll come around again in a few more years…
Comment by Toronto — August 10, 2010 @ 7:26 pm
Thanks Toronto
Do not understand the comment.
Please respond with a more detailed explanation .
Thanks Daryl
Comment by Daryl — August 31, 2010 @ 5:08 pm
Daryl: Most web browsers set the title bar (at the top of the screen) to whatever the page want it to say – my Firefox says “MERRY-GO-ROUND DRIVEN BY HAND” at the moment, for example. It also says that on the iconized form, when I minimize the window.
Your web page, however, simply says “HOME”, which isn’t very useful to someone hopping between multiple windows.
Usually, the html code “meta name=”title” content=”Title goes here”" is used (with angle brackets around the whole thing.) If you’re using a page creation tool, you usually set an attribute named “Title” in some way.
Comment by Toronto — August 31, 2010 @ 5:18 pm
Would any one know where I can get plans on how to build a four seater whirlybird? This is where you can have two or four people on it. It works like the merry go round in the picture above.
It’s where the foot peddles and the handles for the hands propell it. Step by step plans would be preferable……….thanks…..Fearshaker1@att.net
Comment by Fearshaker — March 15, 2011 @ 3:20 pm
You can buy these cheeper than you can build!
Twirlgoround.com
Comment by Daryl — March 16, 2011 @ 6:22 am
I KNOW WHERE YOU CAN GET ONE OF THESE BRAND NEW: TWO SEATER IS 299.00 AND THE FOUR SEATER IS 399.00 e-MAIL ME FOR INFO…
ruthywho@verizon.net
Comment by ruth harding — March 21, 2011 @ 9:09 am
@Toronto:
The Witch’s Hat! The bestest, funnest, most dangerous piece of playground equipment EVER! There was one of these at a city park in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, back in the 1960s, and my cousins and I used to have a BALL on it! If you were REALLY foolhardy, you’d jump inside and try to avoid being smooshed between the swinging part and the central pole!
It’s too bad cool old playground equipment like slides and swings and teeter-totters and merry-go-rounds are vanishing for fear that some kid might get a bruise or chip a tooth. Eventually playgrounds are going to be little more than big piles of pillows … which is pretty much what the kids of the future will be like also.
Comment by Chuck Anziulewicz — April 13, 2011 @ 8:17 am
Hey fearshaker, did you ever get plans for the whirl go round, interested myself
Comment by John S — August 20, 2011 @ 12:01 pm
Most Dangerous…not!
This was one of the only rides my four kids did not end up in emergency over.
We let our children ride bikes and skateboards on concrete????
They fly down rock and tree covered hills on a slidy device strapped to their feet????
They fall off a Twirl-Go-Round and they hit the grass…..ooooooh!
Comment by Daryl — August 22, 2011 @ 9:04 am
I wish that and adultversion was made. I had a two seater as a child.what a fun way to get outside and get into shape!!!!! Such Fun.
Comment by diane — August 30, 2011 @ 6:48 pm
Your wish is our comand. Twirl-Go-Round Ultra will be out by late fall!
It will hold upto 250 lbs per seat!
Comment by Daryl — August 30, 2011 @ 6:59 pm
[...] MERRY-GO-ROUND DRIVEN BY HANDJul 22, 2007… from the 60′s-70′s was the Hedstrom Whirly Bird (or Whurly Bird). …. know where I can get plans on how to build a four seater whirlybird? … [...]
Pingback by Hedstrom whirlbird | Zerkalot — August 31, 2011 @ 7:48 pm
I have a two seater that I would like to sell. rklococo@yahoo.com
Comment by Kathy LoCoco — October 3, 2011 @ 9:14 pm
How much do you want and why are you selling?
Comment by Daryl — October 11, 2011 @ 1:21 pm
Anyone have any luck finding the real thing?
Comment by cody — December 14, 2011 @ 4:03 pm
Yes just google merry go round, backyard toys or twirl-go-round and you will find the real thing!
Comment by Daryl — December 14, 2011 @ 4:36 pm
daryl i built 4 4 seaters was not able to sell any at all was asking 5 hundred at first got down to3 hundred never sold any i am located in south georgia i hope your economy is better than ours.
Comment by dennis — December 21, 2011 @ 4:48 pm
Dennis
Please email or phone me..all info on website.
Comment by Daryl — December 21, 2011 @ 6:16 pm