The Incredible Scream Machine: A History of the Roller Coaster

Both of these books are published under the University of Wisconsin Press' Popular Press imprint. In 1984, America celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of the first successful roller coaster device - La Marcus A. Thompson's switchback railway - erected at Coney Island. Although more than a century has gone by, the literature of the amusement park and its history is still in its infancy. Robert Cartmell examines every phase of roller coaster history, from the use of the roller coaster by Albert Einstein to demonstrate his theory of physics, to John Allen's use of psychology in designing one.