Posted on 26 Nov 2018
The word ‘elevator’ usually describes a vertical transportation device that moves people or materials between floors in a structure; although in agriculture and manufacturing it can be used to mean a conveyor. Elevators are statistically the safest way to travel. Interesting elevator fact: as a group, they carry the equivalent of the world’s population in three days. They have played an important role in shaping our world and our lives.
Archimedes is generally credited with inventing the elevator in around 236 BC although the Ancient Egyptians used a form of elevators consisting of rope-driven hoists powered by humans, animals or water to build pyramids and temples and irrigate crops.
Elevators have been created in various forms, mostly for moving materials due to safety concerns; most notable was one that used to raise a battering ram to destroy a fortress! The Romans used elevators in the Colosseum and it was also considered very fashionable for elevators to be installed in royal palaces – from Louis XV of France’s ‘flying chair and table’ in 1743 in Versailles (for his mistress) to the first screw-drive elevator in the Russian Emperor’s Winter Palace in St. Petersburg in 1793.
The Industrial Revolution resulted in the widespread use of elevators to move materials, with elevator technology developing to cater to increased loads and distances. This saw the introduction of steam-driven elevators (1800) and hydraulic-driven elevators (early 19th century). Passenger elevators were still rare due to a lack of safety systems, although there was a tourist attraction in London in 1823 called the ‘ascending room’ which gave a panoramic view of London to paying customers
A common misconception regarding elevator history is that the elevator was invented in 1854 by Elisha Otis. The elevator facts are that he invented the safety elevator, which prevented the car from falling if the cable broke by use of a safety brake.
This proved that elevators were safe and therefore practical for large-scale use and lead to the first passenger elevator in a New York department store in 1857.
Interestingly, the first elevator shaft had been built a few years before Otis revealed his invention due to the confidence of the building designer that a safety elevator would soon be invented; Otis rewarded this confidence by designing a special cylindrical elevator for the building later.
Otis’ invention began the transformation of building practices; buildings became skyscrapers and safety elevators allowed the secure movement of people and materials within much larger buildings. It also turned the desirability of living spaces literally on its head, with the wealthy now choosing to live higher up than the poor – in the ‘penthouse’.
After Otis revolutionized passenger elevators, the pace of development sped up considerably:
1880 – Werner von Siemens invented the electric elevator
1880 – Frank Sprague made significant developments in elevator speed and safety
1883 – Schuyler Wheeler patented his electronic elevator design
1874 – J. W. Meaker patented the first method for elevator doors to open and close safely
1887 – Alexander Miles patented car with automatic doors that close off elevator shaft
1894 – Push-button controls appeared
1895 – Traction-drive allowed taller elevator shafts and greater car speeds
1900 – Completely automated elevators but passengers wary of ‘elevator sickness’!
1904 – Addition of gearless feature made car speed virtually unlimited
1915 – Automatic levelling precisely positioned cars, power-controlled doors followed
1932 – First double-decker elevator, serving two floors at each stop, installed
1945 – Elevator operator strike, automated voice, emergency buttons/telephones
1950 – Manned elevators became thing of the past
As well as continuing to enhance all aspects of elevators, more recent developments include:
Finally, the next big development being worked on is the space elevator – something Elisha Otis and the other elevator pioneers could only have dreamed of!
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