Who invented the elevator? | History of the Elevator: Its Inventor

Foysol Islam 11/19/2023
Who invented the elevator? | History of the Elevator: Its Inventor

Who invented the elevator

As you zone out in an elevator, waiting to reach your floor, do you ever wonder who came up with the idea? Probably not. We only expect safe, functional elevators in tall buildings -- and are quite annoyed when we have to take the stairs instead. Although innovation is usually credited to one person, it is naturally more complex than that.

Elevators existed as far back as ancient Rome; Archimedes was building them in 336 BC, and by 80 AD gladiators and animals were riding elevators in the Roman Coliseum arena. Of course, those early "lifts" weren't enclosed cars. These were simple platforms and hoists, usually used to perform tasks such as carrying water for irrigation or lifting heavy construction materials such as stone. These lifts were powered by animals, humans or even water wheels.

What we are actually talking about is the modern passenger lift. The first was built for King Louis XV in 1743 and was known as "The Flying Chair". Placed outside the king's palace at Versailles, his elevator went from the first to the second floor (connecting the king's apartment to his mistress's). The king entered it from his balcony and then men standing inside a chimney lowered the elevator using ropes and cranes.


Elevators became more common in the mid-1800s during the Industrial Revolution when they transported freight in factories and mines. These elevators were often based on hydraulic systems. A piston inside a cylinder uses water or oil pressure to raise and lower the vehicle. The drawback was that buildings with hydraulic elevators required holes in the bottom of the elevator shaft to allow the piston to return fully. The taller the building, the deeper the hole should be. This design was impractical for very tall buildings, although it became popular in palaces because it could block the public water system.

Another elevator design (and the one most often found in passenger elevators) uses a cable system, where ropes raise and lower the car via a pulley and gear system. A counterweight, raised and lowered at the same time as the car, acts like a lead and helps conserve energy. Such elevators are easy to control and do not require the extra room required for hydraulic systems in buildings.

By the 1850s, such elevators were powered by water pressure or steam, but they were still not very common. Read on to find out why — and whether or not the man who solved the problem may or may not be considered the inventor of the elevator.

Elisha Otis and Otis Tufts

At the time, elevators powered by a cable system were considered unreliable and dangerous, as the elevator would go down if the rope broke. Cargo may be damaged, but, more importantly, passengers are often killed by the fall. The man who found the solution to this problem revolutionized the concept of elevators. But is it Elisha Otis, or Otis Tufts?

While working in a factory in 1852, Elisha Otis and his sons came up with an elevator design that employed a safety device. A wooden frame at the top of the platform would slide down the side of the lift shaft if the rope broke, essentially acting as a brake. Otis called it the "safety hoist" and dramatically demonstrated the design at the 1854 New York World's Fair. He rode in the air above the platform and then cut the rope, but, thanks to the brakes, it only fell a few inches before stopping. Otis founded an elevator company, Otis Brothers, which installed the first public elevator in 1874 in a five-story department store in New York. Electric elevators came in 1880.

This means that Elisha Otis is the inventor of the modern passenger elevator, right? It depends on who asked you the question. Until the World's Fair demonstration, Otis had little success selling elevators, and his first elevator patent in 1861 was for a freight elevator -- the open platform type -- with no enclosed passengers. For this reason, some consider another Otis, Otis Tufts, to be the true inventor of the modern passenger elevator. Two years before Elisha Otis, Tufts patented an elevator design that had benches inside an enclosed car, with doors opening and closing automatically.

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There is a key reason why Elisha Otis gets the credit and not Tufts. Tufts' design eliminated the usual rope and pulley system due to safety concerns. Instead, he used the idea of threading a screw up and down a nut. The elevator car was the nut, threaded into a giant steel screw that extended the entire length of the shaft. While this was very safe, it was also expensive and impractical -- especially for very tall buildings. Tufts sold a few of his elevators, but his design was not widely adopted.

The Otis Brothers Company (known today as the Otis Elevator Company) continued to improve the safety and efficiency of elevators. Today, it is the world's largest manufacturer of elevators and escalators, while Tufts is best known for inventing the steam-powered printing press and steam-powered pile driver.

Hit the brakes, baby. The prospect of a plummeting elevator makes for an exciting action sequence in the movies, but in reality, modern elevators are very safe. Not only are multiple steel cables capable of supporting the weight of each lift, but also for the safety of various braking systems -- brakes on both sides of the car -- electromagnetic brakes are activated when the car moves too fast and the lift stops. Lose power Other brakes located above and below the lift shaft come into play if the car moves too close to either end. If all these different systems fail, there is a shock-absorbing system under the shaft to prevent your fall. Most elevator-related accidents have nothing to do with vehicle falls; Typically, they act like walking into an open elevator shaft (due to an elevator malfunction) or hitting or getting stuck in an elevator door.

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