The safety elevator
technology · earth · United States, then worldwide
A hoist fitted with a governor-and-ratchet device that grips the guide rails if the hoisting rope fails, so that a falling car stops instead of falling. Elisha Otis demonstrated the safety mechanism publicly at the New York Crystal Palace exhibition in 1854, cutting the rope on a loaded platform; the first passenger installation followed in a New York store building in the later 1850s. Its importance to architecture is that it converts height from a liability into an asset. Before it, upper floors were cheap because nobody wanted to climb to them; after it, upper floors command higher rents for light and view, and the economic case for building tall inverts. The steel frame made great height structurally possible and the elevator made it worth paying for; neither alone produces the tall building.
Read in · 1
Evidence · 1
Timeline
No dated observations are stored for this object. Atlas shows what was observed and when — it does not infer a history.
Connections · 0
Assembled narrative · 1
Assembled from 10 blocks · 1 evidence · 8 related
- Story
- A hoist fitted with a governor-and-ratchet device that grips the guide rails if the hoisting rope fails, so that a falling car stops instead of falling. Elisha Otis demonstrated the safety mechanism publicly at the New York Crystal Palace exhibition in 1854, cutting the rope on a loaded platform; the first passenger installation followed in a New York store building in the later 1850s. Its importance to architecture is that it converts height from a liability into an asset. Before it, upper floors were cheap because nobody wanted to climb to them; after it, upper floors command higher rents for light and view, and the economic case for building tall inverts. The steel frame made great height structurally possible and the elevator made it worth paying for; neither alone produces the tall building.
- Knowledge
- The safety elevator
- Connections
- Home Insurance Building, Chicago
- Burj Khalifa
- Otis demonstrates the elevator safety brake
- Evidence
- Jenney's Home Insurance Building (1885) is conventionally identified as the first tall building carried on a metal skeleton frame, and the claim is qualified in the scholarly literature. Supports the frame, elevator and Chicago School records. V55 verification basis: the site was not reachable in this session; entries are cited by title from established record.
Observed changes · 0
No public Signals are attached to this object. Signals show what changed and when it was observed — never a direction or a rank.
Actions
/atlas?object=TECH_SAFETY_ELEVATOR&experience=TECH_SAFETY_ELEVATOR