Biography on elisha otis williams

Barnum's Traveling World's Fair in New York, Otis rode up in an elevator and then slashed the retaining ropes with a saber. As the crowds screamed in horror, Otis fell for only a second or two before reassuring them, "All safe, ladies and gentlemen, all safe. A ceaseless tinkerer created the first safe elevator, then died before he could see it revolutionize architecture, cities, and the way we live.

Mechanically Inclined Although the concept of a powered hoist had been around for some time, Elisha Otis designed the first elevator that could lift and lower people and cargo safely. Born to a Vermont farmer in , young Elisha preferred hanging around the blacksmith's forge to working on the farm.

Who invented the first elevator

Otis's interest in tools and in making things led him to innovate everywhere he worked. He helped his brother, Chandler, who was a builder, by designing a hoist system to transport materials two or three stories high. Working for a bed manufacturer, he built a machine that sped production by a factor of four. Safe Elevator Hoist systems had existed since at least the time of the ancient Romans.

But none of them had been safe. Otis designed the first safe elevator when he needed to lift heavy building materials, while converting a sawmill into a factory in Yonkers, New York.