The precursors of roller coasters first appeared in Russia in the fifteenth century, in the form of huge ice slides. The first modern coasters opened in Paris in 1817, but it took another sixty years and the invention of the inclined railway for the rides to really take off.
Regarded as the father of the roller coaster in the United States, La Marcus Adna Thompson filed his first patent for a roller coaster in 1865 and built the first such ride in 1884 at Coney Island, New York. Charging five cents a ride, he was soon grossing over $600 a day. Thompson's Switchback Railway consisted of two parallel tracks undulating over a wooden structure 600 foot (182.8 m) long. A small train with seats facing sideways for sightseeing started on a 50-foot (15 m) peak at one end of the beach, and rolled down the grade at around 6 miles (9.6 km) per hour until the momentum died at the other end.
Over the next few years there was a rapid development in roller coasters. Charles Alcoke created a continuous oval track, while Philip Hinkle added a hoist to pull cars to the top of a steep hill, and had the seats facing forward. Thompson, meanwhile, concentrated on building elaborate scenic railways with impressive indoor tableaux of biblical and ancient Egyptian scenes.
The 1920s were the golden age of the roller coaster, with nearly 2,000 being built, but depression and war led to a decline that continued until the opening of Racer in 1972 at King's Island in Cincinnati, Ohio. The revival continues to this day, with theme parks around the world striving to outdo each other in speed, complexity, and screams.
