Heh. I just looked them up on Wikipedia (took me a little while to find the page -- here it is -- and apparently there is a version that's used in African to pump water out of the ground! Kids spin it and pump water for the village; how cool is that?
My search also netted me this hilarious (to me) quote from the website of a playground equipment manufacturer:
"Today’s Playgrounds are not as simple as they use to be. In the good old days you could put a swing-set up and some type of spinning merry-go-round (that would launch a child to the moon), and just let the children play.
But today’s commercial playgrounds are highly engineered for fun yet with safety as priority #1. At Sun Country Systems, we take safety, fun & the imagination of a child and combine it with the best commercial playground systems the industry has to offer."
Sounds fun, all right... :D
Of course, "But we survived!" is probably not the best argument for the steel-and-concrete school of playground design...
Re: OT: questions about Americanisms of a different sort - okay, not so much about YOUR fic ;-P
My search also netted me this hilarious (to me) quote from the website of a playground equipment manufacturer:
"Today’s Playgrounds are not as simple as they use to be. In the good old days you could put a swing-set up and some type of spinning merry-go-round (that would launch a child to the moon), and just let the children play.
But today’s commercial playgrounds are highly engineered for fun yet with safety as priority #1. At Sun Country Systems, we take safety, fun & the imagination of a child and combine it with the best commercial playground systems the industry has to offer."
Sounds fun, all right... :D
Of course, "But we survived!" is probably not the best argument for the steel-and-concrete school of playground design...