WHO INVENTED THE WORLD'S FIRST SAFETY ELEVATOR?丨Potensi Elevator

author: Potensi-Ella

2021-11-11

WHICH COMPANY INVENTED THE WORLD'S FIRST SAFETY ELEVATOR?

Guide: Nowadays, there are tall buildings everywhere in cities, and elevators have become an indispensable part of people's urban life. And who invented the world's first safety elevator?

In the mid-nineteenth century, during the deepening of the industrial revolution, the demand for vertical transportation of goods and people was so urgent. However, the steam elevator at that time could not solve a key safety problem-as long as the hoisting rope suddenly broke, the elevator would fall rapidly. This natural safety problem caused its use to be greatly restricted.

In 1852, in order to solve the safety problem of elevators, Elisha Otis (the founder of Otis company) invented a device. He fixed the serrated iron bar on the guide rail, set a spring sheet on the upper part of the car, and connected it with the mechanical linkage and the brake pawl. The traction rope is fixed in the center of the spring leaf. When the traction rope is broken, the spring leaf returns to its original shape, forcing the mechanical linkage to move, and then the brake claw extends into the sawtooth iron bar to prevent the elevator from falling. In 1854, at the World Exposition held at the Crystal Palace in New York, Elisha Graves Otis presented his invention to the world for the first time. Otis stood on the elevator platform full of goods, ordered his assistant to raise the platform to a height visible to the audience, and then sent a signal to make the assistant cut off the lifting cable of the elevator with a sharp axe. Surprisingly, the elevator did not crash, but was firmly fixed in mid-air-the elevator safety device invented by Mr. Otis worked.

（Original Caption) Elisha Graves Otis shows his first elevator in the Crystal Palace, New York City, 1853

"Everything is well, gentlemen." Mr. Otis, standing on the lift platform, waved to the people watching around. No one would have thought that Otis was the first safety elevator in human history, and in a sense, it was also the earliest elevator in the world.

In this way, the world's first "safety lift" was invented. Since then, the elevator ushered in the beginning of a real development in history. However, Otis' business did not immediately boom. Otis’ records show that they only sold a few elevators in 1854, and only 15 in 1855. By 1856, they sold 27 elevators. At that time, all elevators were only used for freight. In March 1857, the world's first safe passenger elevator was installed in a store specializing in French porcelain and glassware in Broadway, New York. The store has five floors. Even though it was a fairly tall building at that time, the power of the elevator was driven by a series of shafts and belts by the steam power station in the building. The ladder can load 500 kilograms and the speed is about 12 meters per minute.

An advertisement for an Otis Elevator Company elevator, circa 1890. (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Because the beautiful scenery can be seen from the elevator, it is very popular with many people in the upper class. Although Otis is known as the "father of elevators", in fact, Otis himself has never built a real elevator, because in his time, the power of the machine was steam fired from coal. It was not until December 1889 that the Otis Elevator Company installed the first veritable elevator in the Dimarist Building in New York. It uses a DC motor as power and drives the rope wound on the drum through a turbine reducer. Suspend and lift the car.