Dr. Lee Gray
Dr. Lee Gray, professor of Architectural History and senior associate dean of the College of Arts + Architecture at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, has written more than 200 monthly articles on the history of vertical transportation (VT) for ELEVATOR WORLD since 2003. He is also the author of From Ascending Rooms to Express Elevators: A History of the Passenger Elevator in the 19th Century. He also serves as curator of theelevatormuseum.org, created by Elevator World, Inc.
The Invalid Lift, Part One
Early elevators for handicapped persons emerged in 1869. A primary focus of the vertical-transportation industry is the efficient movement of able- bodied persons. Of course, this (perhaps logical) focus does...
The Electromagnetic Elevator
Two inventors competed to produce a precursor of today’s linear elevator concept at the end of the 19th century. In the closing decade of the 19th century, two American engineers...
The Royal Institution’s Micro Leveling Elevator
A rare Otis Construction Handbook sheds light on the story of a unique, newly restored elevator in London’s Faraday Museum. London is filled with architectural, cultural, historical and technological treasures....
The Ritter Controller and Door Locking Device for Elevators
The story of an amateur’s limited success in the development, manufacture and selling of elevator components in the early 20th century Nineteenth and early 20th-century patent records include hundreds of...
The 2018 CTBUH Tall + Urban Innovation Conference
Two-day conference at IIT sees success in simpler format. A contemporary trend — of books, articles, presentations and conferences — is the long, two-part title. A recent conference hosted by...
Darling Brothers
The past alludes to the present with the story of an early Canadian manufacturer. The development of the elevator industry in Canada followed a pattern common to Europe and the...
Elevcon 2018
Berlin hosts 22nd IAEE congress on elevator technology. photos by Bülent Yılmaz The 22nd biennial congress of the International Association of Elevator Engineers (IAEE) took place in Berlin on May...
Big Data in the Early 20th Century
Common today, the important information concept began in the elevator industry more than 100 years ago. “Big data” is one of the dominant intellectual concepts of the early 21st century....
Where No Man (or Elevator Cab) Has Gone Before
This month’s History column investigates the “futuristic” elevator cabs in Star Trek: The Original Series. On September 8, 1966, the U.S. TV-viewing public tuned in to NBC to watch a...
The Hocquart Escalator in the Gare d’ Orsay
Many details on an early high-profile escalator are uncovered. The June 1908 issue of the French transportation engineering journal Revue Générale des Chemins de Fer et des Tramways included an...
