Without elevators, cities wouldn’t exist as they do today. And without safety elevators, most people would never get on one. The first safety elevator — which, in the event of the cable breaking, ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American 2013 marks 160 years since Elisha Graves Otis ...

On Sept. 20, 1853, Elisha Graves Otis sold his first “hoist machine,” or elevator, featuring an automatic safety brake he had patented. His seemingly simple invention was designed to stop a platform ...

Elisha Otis invented the first passenger safety elevator - the patent for which can be seen here - 160 years ago Riding in an elevator used to be dangerous business - until Elisha Otis, of Otis ...

In Bristol, Conn., just a 9 iron from the campus headquarters of ESPN, in a valley near a historic amusement park, a strange white tower is the only building sticking up into the sky. Hawks nest in ...

Elisha Otis demonstrates his new “safety elevator” at the Crystal Palace exposition hall in 1854. Though the illustration shows an assistant cutting the elevator cable with a knife, the Otis Elevator ...

After a demonstration of his new safety elevator at the New York World’s Fair in 1854, Elisha Otis, the inventor of the Otis elevator began a business that would end up making Otis elevators the world ...

Many technological advancements have changed the way we design in the past 150 years, but perhaps none has had a greater impact than the invention of the passenger elevator. Prior to Elisha Otis’ ...

The history of the elevator, if you define it as a platform that can move people and objects up and down, is actually a rather long one. Rudimentary elevators are known to have been in use in ancient ...

Last week German conglomerate and elevator-maker ThyssenKrupp unveiled the 21st-century equivalent of Roald Dahl’s the Great Glass Elevator. MULTI doesn’t quite blast into space, but the cable-less ...