Elisha Graves Otis and his two sons liked to tinker with devices, always looking for things that could make life easier. Focusing primarily on public high-rise buildings which were being built in big cities, they were experimenting with safety devices for the steam-powered elevators that were in place since 1823. Steam was changed over to hydraulics in 1835 and in 1845, hydraulics began to work in unison with counterweights and balances to increase the elevator's lifting power.
The public was deathly afraid to ride high up in the sky in elevators. The safety devices that were invented in the following few years helped to reassure the public that the electric elevator was safe.
Elisha Graves Otis was all about making small devices to assist bigger devices and making existing machines safer or less complicated. He established the Otis Elevator Company in 1852, long before ever building his first elevator.
The shortlist of inventions attributed to Otis and his two sons were a railway safety brake to quick-stop a locomotive, rails to move four-poster beds, devices to improve turbine operations, a hoist to lift heavy equipment, and the one that would bring him fame - a safety device which kept the cab of an electric elevator from falling if the cable broke.
For two years, he tried getting his invention to catch on but no orders came in. He busied himself with inventing other devices until 1853 when an idea came to him.
He took his device to the 1853-1854 World's Fair held in New York and signed up as an exhibitor at the New York Crystal Palace which was constructed for the "Exhibition of Industry of All Nations." Otis and sons built a platform which was raised high in the air, and in a death-defying demonstration, he gave the signal for the rope to be cut that lowered the elevator to safety. To his surprise, the orders from office buildings came flooding in.
The first passenger elevator was installed in 1857 using his safety device. However, Otis did not invent the elevator. He invented a safety device. Elisha Otis died April 8, 1861. Just a few months before, he obtained a patent for his drawings of the safety device on January 15, 1861. His foresight made the Otis Elevator Company a household name.
The first electric elevator was invented by Anton Freissler in 1880, based on ideas of a German entrepreneur named Werner von Siemens who was a builder. He installed 584 electric elevators in Austria and Hungary.
Ideas by an American naval officer/inventor and business associate of Thomas Edison named Frank Julian Sprague further developed the electric motor, electric trolleys, electric railways, and electric elevators. His company, the Sprague Electric Elevator Company, was sold to Elisha Otis in 1895.
The first office building in New York City to have passenger elevators was the Equitable Life Building which opened in 1870.
Columnists and newspaper stringers sure knew how to write a story in those days. They kept the article short, just the facts, and they made the headline grab the reader's attention. Boy, did they ever!
Consequently, from the late 1800s to 1900, one of the most common headlines we saw while doing some research was "Beheaded By Elevator" or "Decapitated By An Elevator."
 |
| Passenger and freight elevators changed over to electric |
Take a look at some of these stories and notice the various styles of how reporters wrote about bad news.
 |
| May 9, 1880, 11-years-old |
 |
| May 14, 1880, handyman &  &  &  &  &  May 29, 1891, 15-year-old boy &  &  March 12, 1896, grocery porter &  September 18, 1896, elevator man &  &  & 
June 26, 1898, elevator operator
&
November 29, 1900, 30-year-old man
We stopped with the year 1900 because there were about 120 more articles that were similar in content. It was amazing how many people had accidents in elevators, some caused by the victim themselves, and to see how safeguards have come such a long way since then. Thank you for stopping by today.
|