Inventor, born in Halifax, Vermont, USA. A master mechanic in a bedstead factory, he was put in charge of the construction of a new factory at Yonkers, NY. There he designed a spring-operated safety device which would hold lifting platforms securely if there was any failure of tension in the rope (1852). He opened a shop, patented his elevator, and exhibited it dramatically in a rope-cutting incident at an Exposition in New York City in 1854, after which orders came in rapidly for passenger as well as goods lifts. He also patented a new type of steam-powered lift in 1861.
Elisha Graves Otis (August 3, 1811 — April 7, 1861) invented a safety device in 1852 that made elevators much safer by preventing them from falling if the hoisting cable broke.
At New York’s Crystal Palace, Elisha Otis amazed the crowd when he ordered an axeman to cut the only rope suspending the platform on which he was standing.
Mr. Otis sold his first safe elevators in 1853. The first passenger elevator was installed by Otis in New York in 1857. After Elisha Otis' death in 1861, his sons, Charles and Norton, built on his heritage, creating Otis Brothers & The company he founded grew to become Otis Elevator Company, the largest elevator company in the world.
The Otis family currently owns a home on the Intracoastal Waterway in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
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