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Moose writes:
Elisha Graves Otis
Elisha Graves Otis was born on August 3, 1811 in the small farming community of Halifax, Vermont. After several failed business attempts and bouts of serious illness, he moved to Albany, New York, where he worked as a master mechanic in a bedstead factory. During his three years with O. Tingley & Company, Otis devised a way to run rails for four-post beds and invented a railway safety brake. In 1852, Otis moved to Yonkers, New York to work as the head machinist for Josiah Maize, whose bedstead company needed a hoist for lifting heavy equipment safely.
Although neither hoists nor elevators were new, the elevator safety brake that Otis invented helped change the face of urban America. Known originally as the "safety elevator", Otis's invention permitted the building of skyscrapers by preventing passengers from crashing to the ground if an elevator cable snapped. Simple but strong, the elevator safety brake meshed a steel spring with a ratchet. If a rope or cable failed, tension would cause the spring to catch and hold. The ratchet, which was attached to the lower ends of levers in gears with racks, would then lock into place.
To demonstrate his confidence in his invention, Otis ascended an elevator in an open-sided shaft at the Crystal Palace Exposition in New York. Perched high above the crowd, Otis ordered the only hoisting cable to be cut. As onlookers gasped, the platform dropped a few inches and then came to a stop. Otis's elevator safety brake held, and the company he had recently formed began its rise to the top.
In December of 1853, the Otis Elevator Company reported an inventory of just $122.71, including two oilcans that were assessed at $1.50 apiece. Although the patent which Otis received in 1860 provided the inventor with a measure of protection, diphtheria soon took its toll. On April 8, 1861, Elisha Graves Otis died, leaving the business to sons, who grew the Otis Elevator Company into a multi-million dollar corporation.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisha_Graves_Otis
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One small problem...
