Elisha G Otis

Answer 1

In the mid-1850s elevators were too dangerous to be used for anything but freight. If the rope snapped, a rider would certainly risk life and limb. It was this problem that Elisha G. Otis solved in 1854. Otis had a knack for things mechanical. By age fifteen, he was already an engineer at a bedstead factory. In 1852 Otis was sent to Yonkers to supervise the construction of a new factory, and it was there that he developed several new enhancements to the elevators as they were being designed and installed. Otis' elevators were equipped with a simple spring device that would trigger if the cable broke and prevent the elevator from falling. The invention was patented, and Scientific American called the device "excellent." Otis built a similar elevator at another factory, and while he was installing that one, he received a request for another.

Otis was encouraged by the interest in his elevator and formed the E. G. Otis Company in 1853. Then, orders virtually stopped. Companies were simply unwilling to build an elevator for public use. To address this fear, Otis decided to prove his safety device's usefulness by building an elevator and demonstrating it to the crowds at a New York fair. Although he was successful, orders still came slowly. It was not until 1857 that Otis finally built his first elevator specifically for passenger use. Although he died in 1861, Otis's sons took the company into prosperity, and by the turn of the century, Otis elevators were a key element in the appearance of skyscrapers.