Question about the Lagoons

I wasn't around in 1906, so I can't tell you. 8-)

The launch track on Dragster is lubricated with clean tap water. It's the hydraulic motor house that apparently has some system with lagoon water flowing through it. And the comparison with an automotive cooling system is not too far off.

In an automobile, water circulates through the engine block and around (but not through!) the combustion chambers. As noted, the idea is to move a whole lot of heat from the engine block into the water. The water, in turn, is passed through a radiator, which is nothing more than a coil of pipe used to allow air to try and separate the heat from the coolant. In some systems, the coolant also flows into a reservoir, which allows for thermal expansion of the coolant, and also allows for a larger total coolant volume, which translates into greater heat capacity and lower operating temperature, since the reservoir also gives the coolant a chance to cool off. Notice that the only mechanical part the coolant actually comes into contact with is the pump. Otherwise, it flows in a jacket around the mechanical components, not through them.

In an automobile, this cooling system is a closed system, which is convenient because otherwise you'd need to drag a garden hose along with you to keep the engine cool. But fixed systems can be open or partially open. The lagoon can be used as a reservoir, making for a much larger reservoir than would otherwise be possible, further increasing the coolant volume in the system and further increasing the system's heat capacity.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

From what I have been told and seen, the lagoon water is not pumped through hydraulic system. However, there are coils laid out on the bottom of the lagoon under the water. The hydraulic fluid is circulated through these coils which in turn cools it (its circulated from the resivoir I believe), so the analogy of a raditor is close. A couple of years ago one of those coils sprung a small leak which caused the oily film to form on top of the water in lagoon which I am sure all of you saw around the trestles.

they do pump the water from snake in to the lagoon when the water in the snake pond gets too high for the ride to run as the safety system will not let the ride run if the water is too high to prevent the boats from going out of the flume track

Disney Mike,

The lagoons have transformed through many variations over the years. They have been fishing areas, canals in which ferries brought in resort guests from Cleveland and Detroit. In fact up until the construction of Cedar Point Rd, the Lagoons/Canals were the way into Cedar Point Resort.

The creation of the lagoons or canals at the time would have been laborious as a large part of the soil content is sand with limestone bedrock not to far under the soil. Does anybody remember how far down you have to go to hit the bedrock is it 5 - 10 feet? The bedrock being near the surface also poses a problem with ride construction as they need to pour large wide footer foundations on top of it, with the exclusion of Space Spiral which is embedded some 30 feet into the bed rock.