In 1853, a man named E. G. Otis invented the first elevator safe enough to be used for passengers. After he had invented the elevator, Otis couldn’t find anybody who wanted to buy it.
In 1853, office buildings were only three or four stories high, and everybody walked up and down stairs. A few buildings had elevators that were used for freight, but these were so unsafe that anything valuable was carried by hand. Unable to sell his elevators because people were afraid of them, Otis decided to show the world how safe they were.
He took his invention to the Crystal Palace Exhibition in New York City in 1854. There, he set up an exhibit of his elevators in a big hall that would permit them to go up and down in full view.
People watched as he rode his elevator up, then, on the way down, he cut the rope that was holding it up. The crowd gasped, for it should have fallen. Instead, there was Mr. Otis still high in the air, bowing and waving.
Soon, his little company couldn’t make elevators fast enough to fill the orders for them. Perhaps more than any other man, E. G. Otis made the modern skyscraper possible.
Related Posts
-
If an elevator cable snaps will the elevator fall down the shaft?
Elevators have multiple safety features, including brakes to stop them immediately if a cable breaks. This is done mechanically, using variations of an idea dreamed up by elevator engineer Elisha Graves Otis, founder…
-
How Would Jumping Just Before You Hit the Bottom of an Elevator Shaft Reduce the Impact of a Falling Elevator?
Hollywood clichés aside, it's almost impossible for an elevator to fall down an elevator shaft, thanks to Elisha Otis's 19th-century patent acceleration-sensitive safety brake. The instant an elevator car starts to fall, multiple…
-
Who invented “electric eye” elevator doors that open if you walk through them when they close?
Two of the "fathers of the atomic bomb," Albert Einstein and Max Planck, are also responsible for the development of elevator doors that reopen automatically if they start to close as a person…
-
Is the Elevator a New Invention?
Even though you might think that there was no need for elevators before high-rise office and apartment buildings were built, the idea of vertical, or up and down, transportation has been in the…
-
How does a high speed elevator take you 60 floors in 30 seconds?
When an elevator lifts you almost instantaneously to the 60th floor, you feel you must be traveling at a tremendous speed. Actually, the elevator rises 800 feet in 30 seconds, or only 18…
-
Can I Jump Up At the Last Instant In a Falling Elevator To Cancel the Impact?
Ho hum. I don't know how many times this question has flashed into the minds of worrywarts in elevators, or how many times it has been asked of every friendly neighborhood physicist. It…
