by Peter Parken
“Hey, buddy. I saw you through the window. You’re not returning phone messages so I figured I’d just grab you.”
Nate smiled at his friend. “Sorry, Tom. I’ve been on the phone for two days now with anyone and everyone. I should have called you back.”
“No problem, Nate, I understand. How are you doing?”
“Well, not bad I guess. I just visited that woman I helped on the coaster. It was going okay until a little sleaze of a lawyer burst in and announced that he’s launching a Class Action suit. And then, of course, I had to tell her who I was.”
Tom squeezed Nate’s shoulder. “That must have been tough. And I heard about the lawsuit—no surprise, of course. I’ve already talked to our lawyers and our liability insurers. Neither of them seem concerned. Told me that we should just hang tight while the investigation continues—once we have the results of that, we’ll have something to discuss. A lawsuit was inevitable. And we’ve had those before. It’s pretty much normal now to expect a lawsuit after even the most minor incident.”
“Yeah, I understand all that. The lawsuit doesn’t concern me. Once the NTSB finishes their report, we’ll be vindicated—I have no doubt about that. We don’t make mistakes. But—the look on that woman’s face, Tom, when she realized who I was. I really felt bad.”
“That’s just a normal reaction, Nate. Put yourself in her shoes—she meets her hero and then finds out he’s got warts. She’ll get over it and realize that you risked your own life for hers. I sure couldn’t have done what you did.”
Nate laughed. “Yeah, what was that all about? You—afraid of heights? I never knew!”
“Well, it wasn’t something I wanted to tell you. I’ve ridden our coasters with you many times, but it seems that it doesn’t bother me as much when I’m securely in a car with a bar protecting me. On that track that day, totally exposed, open all around me, I panicked.”
Nate patted him on the back. “It’s okay. I won’t tell anyone. Just another little surprise about my best friend that I’ll have to absorb!”
Nate pulled his keys out of his pocket. “Have to go, Tom. I’ll be in the office again in a couple of days.”
“I hope so. The troops are asking about you. Anxious about how you’re doing.”
“Yeah, I expect they are. Tell them I’m doing fine.”
Nate turned toward his car.
“Oh, Nate, before you go, I got a call from the NSPE organizers. They wanted to know if you still plan on speaking at the convention next week.”
Nate had forgotten completely, and forgetting anything was a hard thing for Nate to do. “God, it slipped my mind.” He paused. “Feels funny, giving a speech after what happened.”
“I can fill in for you if you’re not up to it.”
Nate scratched his forehead and looked out at the street with one eye and at Tom with the other. “No, I committed to speak and that’s what I’ll do. After seeing Shelby’s crestfallen face today, I know I can handle anything. The sooner I get back up on the horse, the easier it’ll be for me to ride again. Tell them I’m coming.”
“Great. They were quite worried. Ticket sales have increased fifty percent since the accident—I know you don’t need to hear that, but they know the main reason for the jump in ticket sales is the publicity surrounding the Black Mamba.”
Nate shook his head. “Human nature. Everyone loves sensationalism.”
“Okay, Nate. I’m heading back into the trenches. I’ll hold down the fort until you get back.”
Nate got into his car and pulled out of the parking lot. And started thinking about next week’s convention. It was the annual gathering of the National Society of Professional Engineers. Nate attended the convention every year, but this was the first time he’d been asked to speak. The notoriety of his company had gained worldwide attention over the last few years, so his speech was one that the organizers were looking forward to. His topic was ‘The History of Rollercoasters.’ And boy, was that going to be a topic of interest to everyone now. Nate wasn’t surprised at all that ticket sales had increased so much in the last few days. He was sure that everyone would be sitting on pins and needles wondering if he was going to address the accident. He wouldn’t. With a lawsuit pending, he wouldn’t take the risk of saying anything about what had happened. The Press would be there and there was a Q & A scheduled after his speech. He would just have to be careful.
The convention was being held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center across the river in Washington, D.C. Nate knew that the keynote speaker was a representative of AE911Truth, an organization of thousands of architects and engineers from around the world. That organization had been fighting for years to force a re-opening of the investigation into how the three World Trade Center towers had fallen on Sept. 11th, 2001. Nate himself was a member of that organization; primarily just to support his profession and his fellow engineers who belonged. Being a structural engineer, he knew full well that the official story about 911 was bunk. It was scientifically impossible for those three towers to have collapsed the way they had. Something was terribly wrong with that original investigation. Despite the gallant efforts of AE911Truth, he doubted that the case would ever be re-opened. And while his analytical brain told him that something terribly sinister—more sinister than mere terrorism—surrounded that horrible day in 2001, the proud American citizen inside of him didn’t really want to know the truth.
So, Nate would indeed deliver his speech as planned. There was very little he and his engineering colleagues could do about what had happened thirteen years ago, but he certainly wasn’t going to hide from what had happened two days ago. The sooner he confronted the big world again, the better his own little world would become.
But he had to admit he was a bit relieved that at least one other speech would be more controversial than his.
Chapter 8
“…and trying to define that sinking feeling in the stomach is a tough one for most people. They forget that their bodies are not completely solid. The human body is constructed of a bunch of loose parts, barely connected to each other. When the body accelerates in a rollercoaster those parts accelerate independently of each other.
“In normal everyday activity, gravity works to push all of the body parts against each other. That’s a normal feeling that people are used to. But when the body goes into ‘free fall,’ all of that changes. There is virtually no net force. The various parts of the body stop pushing on each other. In essence, they are weightless, each falling all by themselves.
“This is what people describe as a ‘sinking feeling’ in their stomachs. The stomach is suddenly as light as a feather because there is much less force pressing on it. In a rollercoaster, the entire body feels the sensation—and visual tricks help achieve this. There are upside down curves on some coasters, twists and turns, perilous heights, near misses and structures whizzing by. This visual stuff is an important part of the entire experience because the human body can acutely detect acceleration, but not velocity. A rollercoaster designer’s challenge is to create a ride that gives the illusion that the train is rocketing at out-of-control speeds, and all the visual stimuli along the way help create this illusion.”
Nate paused for effect and took the opportunity to gaze out over the audience. There were a couple thousand in attendance in the huge ballroom, most of them engineers or architects, but some he knew were also members of the general public who had some connection with the engineering profession. He knew there were a lot of contractors in attendance, as well as developers. Those professionals had a serious interest in the latest engineering trends. The front rows were reserved for the Press and he was more than aware of the cameras aimed in his direction.
Nate had been talking for about half an hour and he could tell that he had everyone’s rapt attention. It could be the content of his speech, or his dynamic delivery of it—but more likely it was his notoriety. Everyone was probably waiting with baited breath, wondering if he was going to mentio
n the Black Mamba.
He looked down at his notes and continued. “Rollercoasters have been with us for an awfully long time, long enough to now be an actual fabric of our civilization. Human beings love to be scared, but only if they’re convinced it’s an illusion. They like to be scared if they know they are still safe and secure. Because, simply put, being scared is exhilarating. It’s fun. That special adrenaline rush is hard to define or duplicate.
“I wonder if any of you are aware that rollercoasters actually began their ascendant rise as ‘ice slides?’ They were long, steep, made out of wood and completely covered in ice. This was way back in the 16th century in Russia. Daredevils would shoot down the slope in wooden sleds or even in carved-out blocks of ice, crashing at the bottom into a sand pile. There was no smooth braking system back then such as we have today.
“The ice slides evolved from there by the able assistance of the French. They were enamored with the concept—but the warmer climate in France tended to melt the darn things, so they decided to build waxed slides. That proved to be too slow, so they finally added wheels. In 1817, they invented the first coaster where the train was actually attached to the track—the axle fit nicely into a carved groove, allowing it to careen down the slope while still staying under control by the guided groove in the track.
“Here in America, the first rollercoaster was the ‘Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway,’ which snaked its way around the Pennsylvania Mountains in the mid-1800s. Sorry, folks, even though we’ve been first in a lot of inventions, the Russians and the French actually beat us to the punch with rollercoasters. The ‘Mauch’ was actually built first as simply a track that could carry coal to a railway for shipment across the country. When that service was no longer needed, the track was reborn as a scenic tour that tourists could pay one dollar to ride. It was a leisurely ride up to the top of the mountain, but a wild and bumpy ride back down. This became a big hit with tourists and imitations popped up all over the country. And they got scarier and scarier, but also safer and safer.
“With the advent of the Great Depression and then World War Two, production of rollercoasters declined—no one had the money to spend on frivolous entertainment anymore. But the amusement park industry boomed once again in the 1970s and has continued unabated ever since. Rollercoasters became more innovative, as most of you are well aware. And most of you here will agree with me that education has certainly been the cause of this innovation. We know so much more now about physics—our schools are top-notch and engineers are learning techniques and principles that couldn’t even have been imagined 100 years ago. The engineering profession has come a long way and the amusement industry has been a direct beneficiary of that.”
Nate paused again. You could hear a pin drop in the audience. Of course, most of them were engineers and certainly must be enjoying a certain sense of pride in being reminded of how far their profession had come. But…he knew what they were really thinking. Probably some admired him for just showing his face today. Others, competitors of his, may even be enjoying his fall from grace. And yet, some were probably looking at him as some kind of curiosity. A man who had climbed the structure of a rollercoaster—his rollercoaster—to save a stranger. And they were probably wondering how he was able to sleep at night, knowing his invention had killed so many people.
Virtually every analytical brain in the audience—and there were a lot of them—was looking at him, listening to him, while at the same time trying to figure out in their own minds what could have possibly gone wrong. What could have caused the track to snap? What could have caused the lap bars to unlock? What colossal errors had occurred during the design and manufacturing processes of this deadly rollercoaster?
Nate took a deep breath that he hoped no one noticed and started speaking again.
“Engineers have taken us well beyond the wooden rollercoasters to the point where they’re almost extinct now. Although they still exist and are actually still being erected in some parts of the world. They do give a different kind of thrill—the noise factor. The tracks are always steel, of course, but it’s the wooden structure itself that rattles and crackles, giving the illusion to the rider that the thing is just going to fall apart. The tracks used in wooden coasters are almost identical to regular railway tracks. The range is very limited with wooden coasters though. The wooden track and superstructure are very cumbersome, and not flexible enough to accomplish complex twists and turns, and certainly can’t handle an upside down ride. With these wooden coasters, the thrill is mainly an ‘up and down’ one.
“But, with the introduction of tubular steel tracks and steel superstructures in the 1950s, the world of rollercoasters changed forever. This introduced an era of inverted rides, along with twists and turns that only the flexibility of steel could accomplish. And steel brought to the amusement world a smoother ride as well. The wheels used on steel coasters are manufactured out of polyurethane or nylon, allowing the riders to enjoy a smooth ride while concentrating their fear instead on the steep drops, twists, turns, and being in inverted positions. No more rattling noises to contend with, or to be distracted by. Steel gives so much more flexibility to the rollercoaster designer, that the sky really is the limit. And the track works in conjunction with the wheels to give that super smooth ride—because, with a tubular steel coaster, all of the track pieces are welded perfectly together to give a safe and seamless ride.
“And no longer are some rollercoaster designs relying solely on gravity. Historically, coasters build up potential energy as a chain-drag system pulls the train up to the top of the first hill. At that point, potential energy converts to kinetic energy, as gravity forces the train to drop. From that point on, the coaster continues to run based only on this kinetic energy. Each hill gets progressively smaller, as on these subsequent hills there is no chain drag to pull the train up. It has to make it on kinetic energy alone. So, when it reaches the top of the second hill, kinetic energy is exhausted and converts back to potential energy again—until it drops a second time when kinetic takes over again. And this goes on and on for the rest of the ride and through progressively smaller hills, until the ride comes to an end.
“No more. We have electromagnetism at our disposal now and some designers are making full use of it. Acceleration can now occur at any time in the ride, and at the most unexpected times. And the hills no longer need to get progressively smaller—because magnets can get our trains up any hill height we design. It’s a remarkable innovation that can only enhance the enjoyment of rollercoaster enthusiasts in the years ahead.
“And I’m one of those enthusiasts. I enjoy what I do and I am extremely proud of our profession. Thank you, ladies and gentleman, for your kind attention. Enjoy the rest of the convention and, of course, the fascinating city of Washington.”
Nate knew that a Q & A was supposed to be allowed after each speech. But there had been three speeches before his and only one of those speakers had to field any questions. So, Nate wasn’t going to press his luck and invite questions. He just wanted to get off the podium as fast as he could. So, to the sound of applause, that’s exactly what he did.
He turned away from the microphone and began walking across the stage to the wing at the rear. But then he heard his name being called. The Master of Ceremonies was at the podium and calling him back. He turned and saw that several people in the audience were already standing at the floor microphones that were stationed throughout.
Damn!
He walked back to the podium and pointed to a young lady in the front row.
“Thank you, Mr. Morrell. I enjoyed your speech. I’m Kate Sheridan with the Chicago Times. Could you please tell us the current status of the investigation into the accident that occurred last week at Adventureland?”
Nate leaned into the mike. “I’m sorry, I can’t answer that. The investigation is being headed up by the NTSB and so far there are no findings that I’m aware of.”
She nodded a thank you and took her seat. Nate pointed to
an older gentleman in the fourth row.
“Mr. Morrell, my name is Clark Livingston—I own a consulting engineering company in Dallas. Do you think that rollercoaster designs are getting out of control—are they pushing the limits too far?”
Nate expected there would be a question like this. “No, I don’t, Mr. Livingston. I think the designs over the last 200 years that I referred to in my speech reflected the knowledge, skill and education that existed at the time. So, ‘pushing the limits’ is a relative term—relative to what we know. A coaster manufactured 100 years ago was probably considered ‘out of control’ at that time—but it wasn’t at all. It was in line with what knowledge the manufacturers had when it was built—very much the same as today. We know so much more now that cars, airplanes, rockets, weapons, ships…and yes, even rollercoasters, have evolved to a level that couldn’t have been imagined decades ago. Well, maybe George Orwell imagined them, but he was probably the only one.”
There were a few chuckles throughout the audience.
The Master of Ceremonies once again stepped forward to the mike. “Folks, this will be the last question. We still have a heavy program ahead of us today.” He nodded at Nate to continue.
Nate pointed to an older lady near the back of the audience. But, before she had a chance to ask her question, a booming voice came from another mike. Nate’s right eye picked him up right away, while his left eye was still watching the woman. He was hard to miss—about six and a half feet tall, well-tanned, and dressed in probably the most expensive suit in the house. Plus—Nate knew him well. It was his former boss, Andrew Wingate, the man who had given him his start after college, and the man who Nate handed in his resignation to fifteen years ago to start his own company.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, dear lady, but I needed to get the last question.”
Nate wasn’t surprised—Andrew was still the rude, arrogant bully that he’d always been.