History
What’s in a Word?
The first multilanguage technical dictionaries were rich visual resources in small packages. In 1906, German engineers Kurt Deinhardt and Alfred Schlomann, working with publisher R. Oldenbourg of Berlin, produced the...
William Baxter, Jr., Conclusion
The final phase of Baxter’s career included significant contributions as a technical writer, new engineering projects and pursuits, and a return to elevator technology and design. Baxter Electric Motor Co....
William Baxter, Jr., Part Two
The continuation of this industry innovator’s biography focuses on his elevator-industry engineering and attempts at forming electric companies. In 1904, Thomas Brown, Otis’ chief engineer, claimed that William Baxter, Jr....
William Baxter, Jr., Part One
A look into the life of an important industry innovator in the dawn of the electric age William Baxter, Jr., author of Hydraulic Elevators, one of the first books on...
Elevator Accidents 1870-1920: Causes
The second of two articles examining elevator safety in the U.S. from 1870 to 1920 While the first article in this series (ELEVATOR WORLD, February 2019) focused on reporting and...
The Invalid Lift, Part Two
The conclusion of a series on early elevators for handicapped persons begins with the early 20th century. The invalid lift, a hand-powered elevator system introduced in the mid 1800s, was...
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...
