A Brief History

    As early as the 3rd Century BC, primitive elevators were used and powered by human, animal, or water power.  However, the modern elevator is a product of the 19th Century, although these 19th Century elevators were mostly steam powered.

    The first passenger elevator was built in 1743 for King Louis XV in France. It only went up one floor, carried only one person, and was built on the outside of the building. The King called it the “Flying Chair,” and it was entered via his balcony. The mechanics consisted of a balanced arrangement of weights and pulleys that hung inside a chimney, and men inside the chimney would raise it and lower it.

     In the early 19th century, hydraulic plunger elevators were used in some European factories. These elevators were mounted on a hollow steel plunger that drops into a cylinder in the ground. When the cylinder is filled up with water, it raises the car, and when the water is released, the car falls. Early on, the flow of water was controlled by hand with vertical ropes that ran through the car.

     A predecessor of the modern elevator was used in Great Britain in 1835. With this elevator, the hoisting rope passed over a pulley to a counterweight traveling in guides. The downward pull of the two weights held the rope tight against the pulley, creating sufficient friction between the two so that the turning pulley pulled the rope along.

     In 1852, a man named Elisha Graves Otis invented the safety brake for elevators. The first installation was in 1853, and this started the elevator industry. This invention allowed buildings to be built higher than ever before, and a variation of his design is still in use today.