The owner of a central Syracuse, New York, building found this old Houser water-hydraulic elevator engine behind a wall that was close to collapsing. The 25-ft.-long system dates to 1883 and is in mint condition with all markings. Owner Gary Ritch is considering donating this remarkable piece of history to a museum for preservation and posterity. The diagram at right, found in EW “History” columnist and Elevator World Elevator Museum Curator Dr. Lee Gray’s book History of the Passenger Elevator, is excerpted from Philander P. Lane and Samuel R. Smith’s patent of the equipment.
Gray visited the historic building that contains the system in April and will have a more compre-hensive article on it in a future issue. For now, more on it can be seen in this month’s Online Extras at www.elevatorworld.com.
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