Elisha Otis

Elisha Graves Otis ( born August 3, 1811 Halifax ( Vermont), † April 8, 1861 ) was an American mechanic. He invented in 1853 a safety catch device for elevators, which prevents a crash of the cab, and founded the Otis Elevator Company.

Elisha Graves Otis was born on a farm near Halifax, Vermont, the youngest of six children. In his early days he made several unsuccessful attempts to start a business. However, his chronically poor health led to continued failure.

Finally, in 1845 he tried his luck with a relocation to Albany, New York. There he worked as a mechanic in a factory for bedsteads of O. Tingley & Company. He stayed for three years, and during that time he invented a safety brake to produce rails for four-poster beds and improve the use of turbine wheels.

1852 Elisha Graves Otis moved to Yonkers, New York. There he installed machinery for the bedstead company Maize & Burns. When he was commissioned to construct a freight elevator, he began by hedging against possible breakage ponder. He found the answer in the form of a hard steel spring, at which the suspension rope was attached. By the weight of the cabin, the spring biases. If the rope breaks, the spring relaxes and engages in dental splints, which are located next to the guide rails. This will catch the elevator car and holds despite torn rope.

1854 Otis by PT Barnum had his safety device at the World Exhibition Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations at the Crystal Palace in New York show. He gave the crowd in horror when he ordered to sever the support cable of the platform on which Barnum, soaring high above their heads, stood with an ax. The platform fell, but only a few centimeters. Then she stopped. Its revolutionary new safety brake worked and prevented the fall of the platform. "All safe, gentlemen ," he announced.

With this dramatic demonstration of the Otis Elevator Company secured, now part of United Technologies Corporation, is the leading producer elevator system, their first jobs, so they sold twenty-seven elevators until 1856. On March 23 1857 the world's first passenger elevator with safety rail could be put into operation in New York's Haughwout Store. The steam-powered elevator abolished the five stories in less than a minute.

1861, after the death of Elisha Otis, his sons Charles and Norton took up the torch - in 1867 they founded Otis Brothers & Co.

The invention of the safety equipment from Elisha Otis increased public confidence in elevators and led not only to advances in construction technology to ensure more houses could be built.

Source

  • Today in History: September 20, 1853 Otis Elevator
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