American inventor and engineer Jesse Reno demonstrated his design for a spiral escalator at Earl’s Court in London, U.K., in the early 1900s. Reno, one of several individuals credited with developing the modern escalator, intended to feature his spiral escalator on the London Underground’s under-construction Piccadilly line. Reno’s plans included two spiral escalators wrapped around a central core — the outer descending and the inner ascending. The equipment would operate continuously in a clockwise direction at a speed of 100 ft/min, providing a 45-s trip to street level.
In 1988, the forgotten remnants of Reno’s engineering experiment were discovered at the bottom of a lift shaft at the Underground’s Holloway Road station. While the spiral escalator was partially installed, its lack of safety rails suggest the project didn’t reach completion. Perhaps the spiral escalators, built during a period in which standard up-and-down escalators weren’t in use on the Tube, were deemed too futuristic and scrapped for safety concerns. The surviving parts of Reno’s invention were salvaged by London Transport Museum and used to restore a large section of the equipment, which is currently on display.
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