Elisha Graves Otis was an American inventor and the founder of the Otis Elevator Company. In 1853, he created a safety device that stops elevators from falling if the cable that lifts them breaks. On March 23, 1857, he put in place the first elevator with this safety feature for people to use at the store of E.V. Haughwout & Co. in New York City.

Biography

Otis was born on August 3, 1811, in Halifax, Vermont, to Stephen Otis and Phoebe Glynn. At age 19, he left home and eventually moved to Troy, New York, where he lived for five years as a wagon driver. In 1834, he married Susan A. Houghton. Together, they had two children, Charles and Norton. Later that year, Otis became very ill with pneumonia, which nearly caused his death. However, he earned enough money to move his wife and three-year-old son to the Vermont Hills near the Green River. He built his own gristmill but did not make enough money from it. He then changed it into a sawmill, but still did not attract customers. After having a second son, Otis began making wagons and carriages, which he was skilled at. His wife later died, leaving him with two sons, one aged eight and the other a baby.

In 1845, Otis moved to Albany, New York, where he worked as a master mechanic in a bedstead factory. During this time, he invented a railway safety brake. By 1852, he moved to Yonkers, New York, to work at the Maize & Burns bedstead factory, installing machinery. The factory needed a way to lift heavy equipment to the upper floor, but this process was unsafe. To solve this problem, Otis invented the safety elevator, which stops automatically if the lifting rope breaks. The next year, he left the factory and started his own company, the Otis Elevator Company. After demonstrating his invention at the New York Crystal Palace in 1854, more people began to want the safety elevator. In 1857, he installed the first safety elevator for passengers at the E. V. Haughwout Building in New York City.

In his free time, Otis worked on designs for bread-baking ovens and train brakes. He also patented a steam plow in 1857, a rotary oven in 1858, and, with his son Charles, an oscillating steam engine in 1860. The steam plow was not successful in business. Otis later became very sick with diphtheria and died on April 8, 1861, at age 49. He was buried in Oakland Cemetery in Yonkers, New York.

Legacy

An employee of the Otis Elevator Company created the name "escalator" for continuous-loop moving staircases that can move upward or downward. In 1976, the Otis Elevator Company was purchased by United Technologies. In April 2020, Otis Elevator Company became an independent company after being separated from United Technologies.

A U.S. Liberty ship named SS Elisha Graves Otis was built during World War II and was named in honor of Elisha Graves Otis.