Elisha Graves Otis

In the 1850s, Elisha Graves Otis developed a safety device to keep elevators from falling, eventually giving people the confidence to use them.

In Finance, Too, Learning Entails Risk 2009

Called in its day "the parthenon of New York," it boasted the first passenger elevator in the country, installed by Elisha Graves Otis in 1857.

The Big Apple 2010

Inside, the building once contained the world's first commercial passenger elevator, a steam-powered device invented by Elisha Graves Otis.

The Big Apple 2010

Newton might have viewed gravity differently if he had had the elevator, but that mode of transport didn’t start to catch on until after 1852, the year Elisha Graves Otis solved a little engineering problem: how to keep passengers from plunging to their death when the cable snapped.

Euclid’s Window Leonard Mlodinow 2001

Newton might have viewed gravity differently if he had had the elevator, but that mode of transport didn’t start to catch on until after 1852, the year Elisha Graves Otis solved a little engineering problem: how to keep passengers from plunging to their death when the cable snapped.

Euclid’s Window Leonard Mlodinow 2001

Newton might have viewed gravity differently if he had had the elevator, but that mode of transport didn’t start to catch on until after 1852, the year Elisha Graves Otis solved a little engineering problem: how to keep passengers from plunging to their death when the cable snapped.

Euclid’s Window Leonard Mlodinow 2001