The History of Elevators
Without elevators, there would be no skyscrapers. Disabled people would be tethered to the ground. In overcrowded cities like Tokyo, residents would have even less space to lay their heads. Elevators have allowed man and his imagination to go vertical, forever changing the world's landscape.
Other People Are Reading
-
The Hoist
-
The earliest elevators, called hoists, were used in ancient times. They relied on human, animal or water power to lift loads. In the third century B.C., the Greek mathematician Archimedes introduced ropes and pulleys, which provided a better way for lifting. Several hundred years later, gladiators and the beasts they battled were riding rudimentary elevators from holding areas up to the Coliseum's arena in Rome.
A Kingly Conveyance
-
In 1743 in France, Madame de Pompadour, referred to as "the king's favorite" on the Versailles palace website, had a "flying chair" installed to whisk her from her apartment on the second floor of the palace down to King Louis XV on the first floor. This was the first elevator built to carry a person. At a word, servants would use weights and pulleys to raise or lower the chair the distance of one floor.
-
Elisha Otis
-
In the 1800s, the modern elevator began to evolve. In 1850, a steam-powered freight hoist was installed in a New York City building. It moved only between two adjacent floors. In 1852, an invention by Elisha Otis made it possible for elevators to carry people. His steam-powered elevator was designed to keep the car from falling down the shaft if the hoisting rope broke. At first Otis promoted his elevators only to businesses that needed to haul freight from one floor to another, but in 1857 a New York City department store installed the first commercial elevator for passengers.
Werner von Siemens
-
In 1880, German inventor Werner von Siemens applied electric power to elevators, putting an electric motor underneath the car to propel it upward by means of revolving pinion gears and racks inside the shaft. An electric motor was also used in an elevator with a hoisting rope that wound around a revolving drum, but the length of rope required for a tall building rendered that design impractical. By 1903, further innovations produced the gearless traction elevator, which could serve buildings of 100 or more stories.
Modern Elevators
-
After World War II, advances in electronics also brought advances in elevator technology. Today's elevators have numerous governors that control the speed of each car in all circumstances, and they operate with the push of a button. Computerization allows for precise scheduling and optimum efficiency for all elevators serving a large building, such as the 109 cars at Chicago's 110-story Sears Tower. High-speed elevators at the Sears Tower can take passengers upward at the impressive pace of 1,800 feet per minute.
-
