Everything you never wanted to know about elevators and escalators

I don't know much about Halifax, Vermont, though I did find some information on virtualvermont.com, which I'm happy to share. Apparently, it is one of the oldest towns in the state and is named after George Montagu-Dunk (1716-71) who was the second Earl of Halifax. He added Dunk to his surname when he married the heiress to the substantial assets of Sir Thomas Dunk, which I guess is a relatively small price to pay. The Earl was a big macher in colonial administration.

Elisha Graves Otis whose name still graces many an elevator was born there on August 3, 1811.

In 1851, while working in a bedstead factory in Yonkers NY, he designed and installed what he called the 'safetyhoist' which had an automatic safety device to prevent it from falling if the lifting chain or rope broke.

Elisha Otis had dreams. The next year he resigned from his job and, on September 20, 1853, set up a small shop in Yonkers, selling his first elevator machine. It hauled freight. Orders were few and over the next few years, I'm not sure if he was married or not, but I'm sure he took a lot of crap from someone who thought he should be doing something more secure.

On March 23, 1857, he installed the first safety elevator for passenger service in the store of E.V. Haughwout & Co. in New York City. On January 15, 1861, he patented an independently controlled steam engine for elevator use (installed in 1862). I'm not sure if he saw the installation and was able to say 'I told you so' as he died in Yonkers in the early 1860s.

His invention laid the foundation for the business that was to become the Otis Elevator Company, run by his two sons, Charles and Norton. Where I went to school, someone called Norton Otis would have been given a hard time, unless he was very good with his fists.

In my mind, Otis is almost always associated with - in fact preceded by - Waygood, when it comes to brass elevator plaques. I'm not sure who Waygood was. (There was also a blues band in the 70s from Bulawayo called Otis Waygood, the story of which, by South African author Rian Malan, is available here.

Someone called Westinghouse invented an electric version of the elevator some 30 years after Otis' first efforts. That's another good elevator name. Not so good for a blues band though.

For those who prefer a more gentle ascent, one Jesse W. Reno invented a moving staircase in 1891, inclined at an angle of 25°. He designed it as a novelty ride at Coney Island.

The earliest known patent for that idea was assigned to Nathan Ames in 1859, but I have absolutely no idea who he was.

At the Paris Expo of 1900, the term 'escalator' was used to describe Reno's invention which was re-designed by Charles Seeberger in 1900. Reno was an aristocrat. Seeberger was an engineer. Seeberger registered "escalator" that same year, selling it to Otis with his business in 1910. In 1950, the US Patent Office ruled that the word "escalator" had become a common descriptive term for moving stairways.

Modern escalators are usually inclined at 30°. I guess people like to live more dangerously these days.

Comments

[Tara Stiner]

Hello
You are right, there was a band called Otis Waygood from Rhodesia and they did name their band after an elevator lift company....My boyfriend's uncle was the drummer in Otis Waygood

Tara Stiner
Denver, Colorado

[Matthew McDonald]

Any idea if any of the brothers had any children?