Ed Morgan
Ed Morgan and Karl Bacon set the standard for roller coaster design technology when they engineered the world’s first tubular steel track roller coaster, Matterhorn Bobsleds, which debuted at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, in 1959.
Born in Detroit in 1915, Morgan was a lifelong tinkerer and a self-taught engineer. While working as a machinist at Hendy Iron Works, a U.S. Navy contractor that built torpedo launchers and marine steam engines during World War II, he met fellow National Inventors Hall of Fame® Inductee Karl Bacon in 1943.
Morgan, Bacon and two of their Hendy colleagues, Bill Hardiman and Andy Anderson, co-founded a small machine shop called Arrow Development in Mountain View, California, in 1946. The company made truck parts and tools, built vending machines and playground equipment, and performed machine work for HP Inc. “We generated ideas and projects together,” Morgan remembered. “I was the guy that made them happen from the mechanical standpoint. Karl was the guy who did the math.”
Arrow also began building carousels and other rides for local amusement parks – a line of work that led Morgan and Bacon to work with National Inventors Hall of Fame Inductee Walt Disney.
In 1953, Disney hired Arrow to work with WED Enterprises, now Walt Disney Imagineering, to create original rides for Disneyland’s Fantasyland area, which would open in 1955. Following the success of these rides – including the Mad Tea Party, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Snow White’s Scary Adventures and Casey Jr. Circus Train – Arrow was contracted to build several more, including Matterhorn Bobsleds. This would be Disneyland’s very first roller coaster.
The inspiration for Matterhorn Bobsleds had come to Disney while visiting the Swiss Alps. He wanted to create a ride that would make Disneyland guests feel like they were racing down icy slopes in a bobsled, so his team of Imagineers designed a 147-foot-high, 1/100 scale replica of the Matterhorn, a famous Swiss mountain, in steel and concrete. To bring Disney’s vision to life, Arrow needed to create two intertwining 80-foot-high steel roller coaster tracks.
Morgan and Bacon understood that conventional iron tracks could not be bent into a small enough radius to fit, so they developed tubular steel tracks that could be bent precisely. They also chose to use polyurethane wheels, finding that they were quieter than steel wheels and created less friction than rubber wheels.
To prevent the Matterhorn’s cars from derailing as the coaster navigated curves at high speeds, Morgan and Bacon designed the rails to surround the car wheels, rather than having the wheels ride on top of the rails. To keep each car moving at the same pace, they also developed a novel “booster” device, allowing control room workers to speed up or slow down the ride as needed. The ride also ended with a splashdown, further helping to decrease speed before the brake run.
Compared to wooden roller coasters, Morgan and Bacon’s design offered smoother, quieter rides. It also laid the foundation for future innovations, like longer drops, loops, corkscrews and other features that were previously too dangerous or even impossible to create.
Arrow also built dark rides and built the world’s first log flume ride, El Aserradero (The Sawmill) for Six Flags Over Texas in 1963. The company later sold more than 50 flume rides to theme parks across the U.S. and Europe. According to the Los Angeles Times, “by the second-half of the 1960s, Arrow was churning out one success after another,” including It’s a Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean, Adventures Thru Inner Space and Haunted Mansion.
Morgan and Bacon, who sold their interests in Arrow in 1973, made an enduring impact on the amusement park industry. They were awarded the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions Hall of Fame Award in 1998 and Matterhorn Bobsleds was recognized with the American Coaster Enthusiasts Coaster Landmark Award in 2003. Looking back on his and Bacon’s impact, Morgan said, “I remember seeing children on the rides and seeing their smiles. But our main drive was to take challenges and find answers to them. That’s what made our eyes light up.”