Disneyland and the Rise of Automation : How Technology Created the Happiest Place on Earth.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Betancourt, Roland.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (435 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

2026.

Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2026.

Summary:

A history of the engineering marvels behind one of America's most innovative and beloved entertainment experiences When Disneyland opened to the public in 1955, it demystified the hidden world of factory automation through its extraordinary new attractions.

Contents:

Cover

Contents

Preface: Making Magic

Introduction: Walt Disney at the River Rouge

I. Automation

1. The Amusement Park Is a Factory: 1918, Coney Island

2. What Is Automation?: 1952-70, Challenge of Automation

3. Feedback Control: 1952, Automation for the Masses

4. This Is Automation!: 1955, General Electric's This Is Automation

5. Operations Research: 1953, Planning and Engineering Disneyland

6. Closing the Loop: 1955 Onward, Guest Feedback and Automatic Control

II. Systems of Control

7. Relays: 1955, Rocket to the Moon and Circarama

8. Tracks and Sensors: 1955, Fantasyland Dark Rides

9. The Block System: 1950, Walt Disney and the Railroad

10. Industrialization and Automation: 1955, Peter Pan Flight

III. Feedback

11. The Rise of the Modern Roller Coaster: 1959, Matterhorn Bobsleds

12. Self-Regulating Control: 1959, Safety Control System of the Matterhorn

13. The Assembly Line, Remade: 1964, Ford's Magic Skyway at the World's Fair

14. Automation for Mass Transportation: 1964-67, From the Magic Skyway to the PeopleMover

15. The Mass Handling of People: 1967, Goodyear PeopleMover

16. Eliminating Blocks, Controlling Vision: 1967, The Omnimover

IV. Computerization

17. The Computer: 1969, Programmable Logic Controller

18. Representing Computerization: 1977, Space Mountain

19. Beauty in the Breakdown: 1978, Matterhorn Bobsleds

20. Fred, the Computer Made Audible: 1979, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

21. The Ascendancy of the PLC: 1982, Matterhorn Bobsleds

V. Animation

22. Space-Age Animation: 1963, Audio-Animatronics

23. Animating the Inanimate: 1955, Movement in the Postwar Period

24. Magnetic Tape: 1945-55, From Spoil of War to Symbol of Automation

25. Guided Missiles and Automation: 1962, Controlling the Audio-Animatronic.

26. Eliminating the Human Element: Labor, Automation, and the Human

Conclusion: Automationland

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Photo Credits.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-691-26298-5

0-691-28588-8

OCLC:

1577545832