Parts of a Carousel – Labeled Diagram

All 12 parts on the diagram

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The whole carousel 8

Center pole The post in the middle of the carousel. The sweeps are fixed to it.
Sweeps They radiate from the center pole like the spokes of a wheel. The platform hangs from them.
Cranks Bends in a shaft geared to turn while the carousel turns. A horse hung from a crank rises and falls.
Rounding boards Makers painted scenes on them. They also set mirrors and glass jewels in them.
Shields Carved and painted like the rounding boards. Some makers shaped them as jester heads.
Scenery panels They stand round the center of the carousel. Makers often set mirrors in them.
Mirrors Set in the panels and boards to catch and reflect the light.
Platform The riders walk on it. The standing horses and chariots are fixed to it. It hangs from the sweeps.

On the platform 4

Stander Its hooves are set in the platform. Standers often fill the outside row.
Jumper All four feet are off the platform. Its pole lifts and lowers it as the carousel turns.
Band organ A mechanical organ that plays by itself. Many carousels had one built in.
Chariot A bench seat between two carved sides, fixed to the platform.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-09-30 and kept only where two independent sources use it: (1) the National Carousel Association's website, https://carousels.org/; (2) Wikipedia, text only: Carousel; (3) a carousel maker's catalogue of about 1904, https://archive.org/details/catalogue00hers; (4) W. F. Mangels, The Outdoor Amusement Industry (1952), https://archive.org/details/outdooramusement00mang; (5) four carousel books (Fraley, The Carousel Animal; Manns, Shank and Stevens, Painted Ponies; Dinger, Art of the Carousel; The Carousel is Magic), read only as the passages archive.org's full-text search returns. Rounding boards, shields and scenery panels rest on those book passages: at least two of the four books use each name. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; no maker's product, nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

The parts of a carousel, or merry-go-round, on one drawing from the side. Half of the top is cut away to show what turns it and what makes the horses rise and fall.

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Under the top, then on the platform

Numbers 1 to 3 are the frame under the top: the center pole, the sweeps that reach out from it, and the cranks. Numbers 4 to 7 are the decoration: rounding boards and shields on the rim, scenery panels and mirrors in the middle. Number 8 is the platform. Numbers 9 to 12 are what you ride or hear: a stander, a jumper, the band organ and a chariot.

A jumper has all four feet in the air. A stander has its feet on the platform and stays still.
The rounding boards are on the rim; the scenery panels are in the middle.

Questions and answers

What are the parts of a carousel called?

The center pole stands in the middle and the sweeps reach out from it. The platform hangs from the sweeps. Rounding boards and shields trim the rim, and scenery panels stand round the middle. The horses are jumpers or standers, and the benches are chariots.

What makes carousel horses go up and down?

Cranks. A shaft with bends in it runs over the moving horses and is geared to turn while the carousel turns. Each jumper hangs from a bend, so it rises and falls as the shaft turns.

What is the difference between a jumper and a stander?

A jumper is carved with all four feet off the platform and moves up and down. A stander does not move: its hooves are set in the platform. Standers were often put on the outside row.

What are the boards round the top of a carousel called?

Rounding boards. They run round the rim under the top, and makers painted scenes on them and set mirrors in them. The smaller plaques on the rim with them are the shields.