A CENTENNIAL.

Somewhere on the midway there ought to be a Tilt-a-Whirl.

The first of these operated at the 1926 Minnesota State Fair.

With screams and giggles, whipping ponytails and white-knuckle grips, Minnesota fairgoers are taking delight in the magic of the Tilt-A-Whirl ride as it turns 100 years old.

The iconic ride and its brightly colored cars debuted at the Minnesota State Fair in 1926, and it has been a mainstay at fairs across the country ever since.

The inventor originally hoped to create a watergoing carroussel that would offer less predictable motion than the up-and-down of a horse on a sliding pole.

Herbert Sellner “created a water merry-go-round and, basically, one boat was driving, and all the other boats were tied together,” [Rice county historian Jenna] Nelson said. “It got destroyed by a storm in 1925.” Herbert’s brother, Martin, suggested adapting it for land.

In January 1926, Sellner started sketching drawings for this new ride, calling it the Tilt-ulator. On April 24, he filed a patent in Minneapolis, and a month later, according to Sellner’s notes, he had made a significant change: The new ride — with nine cars, as one advertisement put it, “tilting, sweeping, spinning, swooping, swaying, speeding, sliding, skidding, rounding, rotating, rising, revolving, hesitating, flying, falling, curving and circling” — would be called the Tilt-A-Whirl.

The concept is elegant.  Motors power a segmented undulating turntable on which nine (now seven) cars freewheel around a center pivot on each segment.  Sometimes a car simply rocks back and forth.  Other times, it gets into a positive feedback loop and pivots ever faster, which might be what the hardcore riders are hoping for.

The ride is powered by seven individual motors around a circle — and gravity makes the car spin around its dips. Weight from the riders shifts the cars’ positions as they lean, sending the cars off balance, said ride operator Thomas Lauthier, who brings his Tilt-A-Whirl to fairs around the country.

Lauthier has been operating the Tilt-A-Whirl at the Minnesota State Fair for the last 12 years. He said Midwesterners have a particular affinity for the ride.

The Sellners were skilled in the woodworking and mechanical arts.

Herbert Sellner was born in Faribault in 1887. His father was a skilled cabinetmaker, and Herbert inherited his father’s creativity and talents. In 1912, at the age of 25, he established the Sellner Woodcraft Company in Faribault to manufacture mission furniture, lamps, and other wood articles. Sellner also created the Ideal Lamp Company. A 1917 catalog listed magazine racks, smoking and telephone stands, folding dining tables, and lamps with leaded stained glass shades. When World War I affected supply availability, Sellner began manufacturing wood toys for children.

By 1923, Sellner’s creativity evolved, and he invented both a water toboggan slide and a water wheel that became popular items at bathing beaches. The slide was thirty feet high, featured a 100-foot-long track, and occupied a space of 18 by 100 feet. With 12 toboggans priced at 50 cents a ride, the owner could earn $6.00 every hour.

During the War, the Tilt-a-Whirl factory retooled to produce bomb carts.  Larson International in Texas subsequently purchased the Sellner firm and they continue to produce Tilt-a-Whirls.

A century ago, Minnesota creativity gave us Burma-Shave and its roadside signs, and a midway classic, as long as your stomach is up to it.