science · 22 March 1857 · 167 years ago
In 1857, the first department store elevator for passengers was installed at E.V. Haughwout & Co. in New York City. Elisha Graves Otis was the inventor, who had sold his first safety elevator machine for freight only four years earlier, on 20 Sep 1853, the year in which he started in that business. Shortly thereafter, in May 1954, at the Crystal Palace in New York City, he created public interest with a daring demonstration. He was hoisted high in the air on a platform fitted with his safety feature. When he called for the rope to be cut, the safety device stopped his fall. As he continued to collect orders, he continued to invent ways to improve the elevators he manufactured. By 1889 he used the electric motor to power elevators.
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