The wheel was supported by two 140-foot(43-meter) steel towers.
The 45-foot(14-meter) axle was the largest single piece of forged steel at the time in the world.
The wheel itself had a diameter of 250 feet (72 meter), a circumference of 825 feet (251 meters), and a maximum height of 264 feet (80 meter).
Between the two rims of the wheel, Ferris hung 36 wooden carriages, like railroad car, that could hold 60 people each.
Every car hung from its own axle.
This meant that the cars wold swing slightly back and forth as the wheel slowly rotated, but they, and the people inside them, always stayed upright.
The Ferris wheel turned by the power of steam.
Two huge boilers, located off the main fairgrounds, generated steam and kept it under high pressure.
A system of underground pipes delivered the high-pressure steam to a large wheel on the ground under the Ferris wheel.
The energy input from the steam caused the ground wheel to rotate, which drove the movement of the whole structure.
The ground wheel and the axle of the Ferris wheel were connected to each other by a massive chain that wrapped around them both.
The ground wheel and the axle both had a band of raised pieces around them, called sprockets.
The links of the chain fit over the sprokets and held the chain in place.
As the steam from the boilers forces the ground wheel to rotate, the chain was pilled along the sprockets.
This caused the axle above to rotate as well.
The axle then turned the Ferris wheel.
A series of brakes and other control devices regulated the energy input to keep the wheel's movement smooth and steady