History
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...
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...
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....
History of the Safety Gear
Research into U.K. patents and standards tracks the development of the component that made the passenger elevator mainstream. This paper was first presented at the Symposium on Lift & Escalator...
Early 20th-Century European Elevator Regulations, Part Two
The series further examines the continent’s framework for its first codes. Part One of this series (ELEVATOR WORLD, January 2018) introduced “Apparecchi di Sollevamento e di Transporto: Gli Elevatori Industriali...
Early 20th-Century European Elevator Regulations, Part One
Self regulation got the gears of standardization turning. The June 19, 1910, issue of L’industria Rivista Tecnica ed Economica Illustrata featured the first in a 24-part series of illustrated articles...
All I Want for Christmas Is a Meccano Moving Stairway
Finding and assembling a model from 1916 is a mission that evokes a range of emotions. The genesis for this article was the discovery, approximately two years ago, of a...
