Safety elevator
Ascensor con freno de seguridad
- Date
- 1852-1854 · confidence high
- Place
- Yonkers, New York, United States
- Credited to
- Elisha Otis
- People
- 👤 Elisha Graves Otis1811–1861
- Field
- Tools
What it is
A ratchet mechanism that locked the car if the hoisting rope broke, demonstrated by Otis cutting the rope in front of the crowd at the New York Crystal Palace in 1854. It turned the lift into reliable passenger transport.
The first passenger lift was installed in 1857 at the Haughwout department store, Broadway (New York); the factory was in Yonkers.
What it led to
- Tall buildings and skyscrapers (together with steel-frame construction)
- A reversal of property values: upper floors became the most expensive
- Multi-storey department stores and hotels
- Vertical urban densification
Built on
- Steam hoist
- Wire cable
- Ratchet (pawl)
Made possible
- Lacerda Elevator (urban elevator in Salvador)1873
- Steel-frame skyscraper1885
- Escalator1892-1899
- Hydraulic and electric lift
- Department stores