The first passenger elevator, designed with a safety brake, was installed at a New York City department store, helping to usher in the building of skyscrapers and other tall buildings. In addition to the braking device, Elisha Graves Otis established an important design principle: Elevator operations did not have to depend upon central factory steam engines for motive power but could be powered independently by small steam engines that could be easily installed in stores and office buildings.
The earliest elevators
The loss of goods, however, and not the potential loss of life, was enough to drive the desire for a more reliable way to hoist heavy items. One method used was the hydraulic hoist, which operated on a piston principle. Because this device was supported by a water-driven piston from below, the platform could not crash down. Such devices, however, were limited to moving a few floors in height only because the plunger device had to stretch as high as the car was to be sent.
Other elevator manufacturers switched from hempen ropes to ones made from braided wire, which would be less likely to fray. George H. Fox
Elisha Graves Otis, an active and industrious inventor who had been working on various kinds of mechanical hoists, quickly realized that the only way to produce a truly safe elevator was to remove the operator from the braking process. The brake would have to engage automatically upon detection of a free fall and then bring the car to a halt quickly and safely. He developed a sort of spring that would be held into position by tension on the hoisting rope. If the hoisting rope were to fail, the spring would untwist and send brake shoes into notches cut in the hoist-way rails, and would then bring the car to a halt mechanically.
Otis did not immediately patent his invention, in part because he saw in it nothing unique. His rivals, however, saw the invention’s uniqueness, but Otis was able to work without piracy problems for the next several years, selling a few safety hoists to his employer and to neighboring factories. All this changed in 1853, when his employer’s business grew more shaky. For the first time, Otis began to think about manufacturing elevators as a business. His big opportunity came the following year, when P. T. Barnum
After the vivid demonstration at the World’s Fair, business quickly took off for Otis, leading him to install one elevator each month for industrial applications in factories and warehouses throughout New York City
Although the 1857 installation proved ultimately to be a failure, Otis had established that the operation of an elevator could be run independently from a building’s central steam engine
The company nearly failed when Elisha Graves Otis died suddenly during a cholera
The Gilded Age also saw the development of the term “elevator.” As long as the lifting device was used mostly for moving equipment and supplies in factories, warehouses, and the stock areas of stores, monosyllables such as “lift” and “hoist” were considered completely satisfactory. However, the words seemed awkward and proletarian to the upper classes, who rode elevators in department stores and high-rise fine hotels. Furthermore, “lift” and “hoist” both suggested downward as well as upward movement, and, by extension, reminded people of the days of broken ropes and plummeting cars, smashed to bits in basements. By contrast, a person could “elevate” upward only, so the term “elevate” served in a metaphoric sense as well. For example, one could elevate one’s tastes or speak in an elevated manner. Thus, the term “elevator” suggested sophistication as well as a reassuring emphasis on upward movement. Those Gilded Age elevators were indeed sophisticated in a design sense, too, as they often were ornately decorated little rooms complete with furniture and operated by a button-pushing, but, importantly, not brake handling, attendant in a smartly designed uniform.
The safety elevator played a significant role in allowing for the development of the modern American skyscraper, which became practical to build at ever-increasing heights. People were freed from having to climb stairs or risk their lives in rickety, unsafe elevators. Although the elevator was not the sole driver of skyscraper construction, its development was critical to the skyscraper’s expansion. Other constraints on construction, such as land prices and the sheer technological challenge of building structures so high, were lifted because of the elevator’s practicality. Furthermore, elevators would be designed so that their drive motors could generate as well as consume electricity, helping to earn their own keep.
The company Elisha Graves Otis founded has since been incorporated into United Technologies. However, the name has not vanished. There remains a good chance that a person entering an elevator will find the name “Otis” placed somewhere in that car.
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Anderson, Paul, ed. Tell Me About Elevators. New York: Otis Elevator Company, 1975. A brief overview of the technology and history of the elevator, from ancient times to the second half of the twentieth century. Written especially for younger readers. Includes discussion of Otis’s 1857 elevator. -
Goetz, Alisa, ed. Up Down Across: Elevators, Escalators, and Moving Sidewalks. London: Merrell, 2003. A large and colorful book exploring the history of elevator and escalator technology, with a large number of photographs. -
Goodwin, Jason. Otis: Giving Rise to the Modern City. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2001. A history of both the Otis Elevator Company and the social changes brought about by the elevator. -
Gray, Lee Edward. From Ascending Rooms to Express Elevators: A History of the Passenger Elevator in the Nineteenth Century. Mobile, Ala.: Elevator World, 2002. This comprehensive work includes chapters on “Technological Origins: Freight Hoists in England and America, 1800-1860,” “Ascending Rooms and Vertical Railways: The Passenger Elevator, 1800-1860,” “New Settings and New Problems: The Elevator and the Early Skyscraper, 1870 to 1875,” and “The Amelioration of Elevator Accidents: Safety, the Public, and the Elevator Industry in the Nineteenth Century.” End notes and bibliography. -
Landau, Sarah Bradford, and Carl W. Condit. Rise of the New York Skyscraper: 1865-1913. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1996. A history of the early skyscraper.
First Modern Department Store Opens in Paris
Westinghouse Patents His Air Brake
World’s First Skyscraper Is Built
P. T. Barnum; Daniel Hudson Burnham; Louis Sullivan.