h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Capital Flight: The Story of The London Eye - A922745
Author: Witty Ditty: Fielder of the Labour Ward - U173978

Myself and CP went on the Eye on Christmas Eve - and having a rare moment of spare time, I thought I'd throw in my

Any comments, as always, gratefully received

Stay ,
WD

So *that* is what I saw last time in London!

I didn't quite get the description of the pods' suspension: do they rotate about a vertical axis (so that you get a panoramic view with every full rotation of a pod) or does the gear only make *sure* that the floor keeps being the floor? What's that to do with a hamster wheel?


Great piece anyway!


Bossel

Bossel!

Re the pods:

It's a bit difficult for me to explain without a diagram... I'll find a photo of a pod...

Just a mo...

Right, the best way I can explain it is that as the wheel rotates, the pod rotates around the wheel. What I mean is that when you get on at ground level, the rim of the wheel is above your head - when it gets quarter-way up, the rim of the wheel is on the side. Once at the top, the rim is underneath your feet, 3/4 round, and the rim is on the other side of the pod, and in disembarking, the rim of the pod is above your head. So yes, the floor when you get on remains the floor throughout the flight.

If the pod was fixed to the rim, then the passengers inside would have to keep walking around the inside of the pod in order to keep upright - much like a hamster runs in a wheel

Unfortunately, the only way for me to explain it would to go up to the Eye and watch it rotate for a bit - however, it's closed throughout January, so live webcams of it tend to show a rather closed Eye...

Sorry if I've confused the matter further...

...and here's the picture which I was trying to find... what I really want is some video of the wheel rotating to explain myself fully...

...and the link I wanted to provide was this on... http://www.londoneye.com/about/images/gallery/main_sunsetwheel.jpg

Sorry - I'm really scatty today

Just taking this one up for another spin



Any comments, as always, gratefully received

Stay ,
WD

PS - sorry about the pun

Interesting Article. You seem to have covered everything there is to know about the London Eye.

Just one observation:

You say that you can see from Earl's Court to Greenwich Village.

I have never heard of Greenwich, London being called Greenwich Village. However, there is a Greenwich Village in New York. Surely you don't mean that one.

Stuart

Hmm - I've always called it Greenwich village.... but maybe because it looks more like someone's plonked down a village plus green into London...

You're right, I've changed it now

I'm glad you liked the entry!

Any futher comments, as always, will be gratefully received
Stay ,
WD

Fantastic

... and i thought you were exaggerating about the price list...

ummm... how exactly were the different pieces assembled on the river? supported on various different barges? however it was done, sounds like a pretty daunting operation. heh, i'd never heard about this part of the construction before - like it suddenly materialised over the thames

Witty, this is great! I love all entries about London.

You write about the Millenium Bridge: "...providing the River Thames with its first footbridge for quite some time..." which sounds like there might not have been one. Perhaps you should change this to "first new footbridge" ? (btw have you seen the new Hungerford bridges at night? Very pretty!)

I watched the bits of the wheel being transported and fitted. This was all on the BA webcam placed at the top of the Shell building, overlooking the Jubilee Gardens. Whenever I was in London I went to look at the progress in person. When, at last, the weekend came for the real lift, I waited until I could see on the webcam that it had finally started, then drove up to watch. I stood right underneath it at dusk on the Saturday and talked to the Dutch engineer on duty. It was an awesome sight!

On Millenium Eve, as I recall (I was there, directly opposite the Eye at the time) wasn't Tony Blair on a boat to press a button to fire a laser beam which started the official turning? The beam from the BT tower might have been there too, but I don't remember it. At some point in the evening the Queen went past in a boat too.

Phew - managed to get some sleep last night, it was a pretty quiet night on the Labour ward

Changes made:

> Added new to the sentence about the wobbly bridge
> Added a bit more about its constuction, and an aeriel photo taken at the time when the Eye was horizontal
> Added that Tony Blair was the one which pressed the button that set off the laser

Thanks for commenting - I'm glad you both liked the entry

Any further comments, as always, gratefully received

Stay ,
WD

Ps - I love the new Hungerford bridges - they're a grest vantage point, and I'm always a sucker for blue lighting I was standing on the north bridge watching the Lord Mayor's fireworks - simply marvellous

Right - a few more changes:

> Added pictures and a bit of time-lapse video into the construction section to aid the minds-eye (sorry that the video's a bit grainy - not sure why though....)
> Added to the further links section why the public can't up the Eye by going to the taller buildings of 1 Canada Square, BT Tower or Tower 42 - but if they have the money to burn, then there are restuarants on the 24th and 42nd floor of Tower 42

Any comments, as always, gratefully received

Stay ,
WD

A shameless plug - no changes to report

Any comments, as always, gratefully received

Stay ,
WD

WD, you have surpassed even your own high standards with this entry.

This is fantastic, and ought to go into the guide if only for the use of the adjective "Izzardian". I've been on the London Eye, and it was great. All the staff were Australian, for some reason.....

Is that bizzare photo booth still there? You have your picture taken as you get on (in a darkened room) and then your image is superimposed onto a picture of an empty pod halfway up the wheel on a clear day, which was presumably taken from a crane or helicopter or something. It's the ultimate erzatz souvineer - remember your trip with a faked picture!

Otto

Oh, and I think the heading for the individual pod hire section in the price list bit ought to be "Private Eye" rather than "Private Hire".

Right, changes made:

> Changed the 'Private Hire' title

Thanks Otto! Glad you liked it

Loved that title suggestion - so I've taken the advice

When I went on it - there wasn't that photo booth that you described - but there was a photo opportunity on the way down - that does sound very odd though...

Thanks again for reading

Any further comments, as always, gratefully received

Stay ,
WD

A grand entry Witty
Did you see the photography exhibition mounted in the gallery at the OXO tower soon after it opened? It showed some of the project photography (pictures of the wheel being put together, pulled up, some of the outer rim being built in the Netherlands, the pods on the production line in Italy etc) Very good it was. There are some photos on display in the booking hall area. All were taken by by one chap (who I can't remember the name of) employed as project photographer by Marks Barfield.

One of the things I noticed in your personal account, you put it has booking gates, don't you mean boarding gates (the outdoor waiting area for your flight).

I think that doing an evening flight as the light starts to go down and London lights up is fantastic. That and watching the model trains going into Waterloo and Charring Cross stations.

As for explainging how the pods rotate, they're driven with the negative of the angular velocity of the wheel (held on by rings to the outside) so they rotate once every time the wheel rotates. Or for a simple visual experiment try putting a pen into the ring end of a ring spanner, hold the other end of the spanner between two fingers and move the pen keeping any logo or branding on the pen at the top. (much easier to do than describe as I found out last night when this forum/article was pointed out to me).

Still a article about a bit of architecture/engineering. Now where did I put those photos of the big bycycle wheel at funny angles over the river...

You're right - it is the *boarding* gate rather than the booking gate

Have changed that

I'm afraid I didn't see the exhibition, but I did notice the rather lovely photos in the booking hall... I wonder if it is the same guy who does the photography in the guidebook - if so, the guidebook photos were mainly taken by Nick Wood

I'm glad you liked the entry - thanks for reading

Any further comments, as always, gratefully received

Stay ,
WD