Today in history - 1853

On this date Elisha Graves Otis opened a small factory on the banks of the Hudson River in Yonkers, New York. In order to fulfill an unsolicited order for two freight elevators equipped with his newly invented automatic safety device, Otis abandoned plans to join the California Gold Rush.

Six months after opening his factory and still without a second order, Otis publicly demonstrate his device--a safety clamp that gripped the guide rails if tension was released on the guide rope. He mounted an elevator in New York's Crystal Palace, and while hoisted to the ceiling ordered the rope cut. His showmanship launched the passenger elevator industry, albeit slowly. In 1856, Otis's sales totaled just 27 elevators.

The world's first safety elevator for passengers was installed on March 23, 1857 in the E.V. Haughwout and Company Store in New York. It rose at a speed of 40 feet per minute. Many early passenger elevators featured steam operate cars, conductors, and posh seating. Hotels such as the St. Charles in New Orleans were among the first enthusiastic users of passenger elevators. Enhanced accessibility rendered the quiet upper floors even more desirable.

The passenger elevator and steel frame construction made the soaring skyscraper possible. Generally considered the world's first tall building, William Le Baron Jenney's ten story Home Insurance Company Building in Chicago was the first to incorporate steel as a structural material. Built in 1885, it was serviced by four passenger elevators. The 1913 Woolworth Building boasted 26 elevators; the 1931 Empire State Building required 58. The first fully automatic self-service elevators were installed in Dallas, Texas in 1950. Twenty years later, elevators in Chicago's John Hancock Center soared upward at 1800 feet per minute and, until its catastrophic destruction on September 11, 2001, the 110-story World Trade Center in New York operated 252 elevators and 71 escalators manufactured by Otis.