While digging around the archive for our storytelling class, I stumbled across the story of Aurel Vaszin, a Romanian immigrant that founded the National Amusement Device Company here in Dayton. Vaszin left Romania at the age of 19 without making it past the sixth grade. He was hired by a New Haven, Connecticut amusement park company as a carpenter. When the Lakeside Amusement Park in Dayton was being built, Vaszin’s company sent him out there to help the engineer. After the job was complete, he headed back to Connecticut and continued to work and save his money. In 1919, Vaszin had $2,500 in savings and decided to move to Dayton, where he founded the National Amusement Device Company.
Most of the rollercoasters that Vaszin built were wooden, but his company also designed miniature trains that were destined for the Cincinnati Zoo and Busch Gardens. By 1945, it was estimated that National Amusement Device Company had built 75 percent of the rollercoasters in the United States. Later in 1964, Vaszin built the world’s largest rollercoaster in Mexico City named Russian Mountain for $600,000. The rollercoaster is still in use today, but it is no longer the world’s largest.
Russian Mountain
From Lincoln Park, MA.
In 1973, Vaszin sold the company and it was renamed International Amusement Device Co. There is a website dedicated to rollercoasters from around the world, and there is an entry for National Amusement Device Co. and it describes if the rollercoaster is still in operation. Many of the kid’s rollercoasters are still in service, like the Comet Jr. in Glen Echo Park, Maryland.
Below is the link to the rollercoaster website:
http://rcdb.com/r.htm?ot=2&co=6867
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