Elevator

The earliest known reference to an elevator is in the works of the Roman architect Vitruvius, who reported that Archimedes built his first elevator probably in 236 BC

The Colosseum in ancient Rome had 24 elevators manually operated by more than 200 slaves.

Henry Waterman invented the modern elevator in 1850. He intended it to transport barrels of flour.

In 1852, Elisha Otis introduced the safety elevator, which prevented the fall of the cab if the cable broke.  After having made several sales, Otis took the opportunity to make an elevator company out of it, initially called Union Elevator Works and later Otis Brothers & Co..

Otis demonstrated his invention at the 1853 World Fair in New York by standing in an elevator and having its cable cut with an axe. It jerked slightly but didn't fall, demonstrating to a shocked crowd that his safety device worked.

Elisha Otis demonstrating his safety system, Crystal Palace, 1853 Wikipedia Commons

The first passenger elevator was installed at E V Haughwout’s department store at 488 Broadway, New York City, on March 23, 1857. It was rather slow travelling at 40 feet per minute. The elevator, which cost $300, was powered by a steam-engine installed in the basement.

The invention of the elevator fostered the development of the skyscraper in modern cities. Before the widespread use of elevators, most residential buildings were limited to about seven stories.

The Equitable Life Building completed in 1870 in New York City was the first office building to have passenger elevators.

The Hammetschwand Lift, built in 1905, is the highest exterior elevator of Europe and is located in Switzerland. The lift whisks passengers up the face of the rocky cliff, making the 153 meters journey in just under a minute.

On July 28, 1945 a plane crashed into the Empire State Building, injuring elevator operator Betty Oliver. When rescuers attempted to lower her on an elevator, the cable snapped, plunging her 75 stories down. She survived the fall and was later found by rescue workers among the rubble. To this day Betty Oliver holds the record for longest survived elevator fall.

There was an elevator driver strike in New York City in 1945. Up until then people were afraid to use automatic elevators but the strike drove their mass adoption. The elevator driver job driver demand started to decline which ultimately meant their job is lost forever.

Daryl Hall and John Oates (Hall and Oates) first met in in 1967 in a service elevator. They were, escaping gunfire between two rival gangs, at Philadelphia's Adelphi Ballroom where they were both competing in a music competition.

76-year-old Kively Papajohn of Limassol, Cyprus, was found trapped in her apartment block elevator after six days on January 2, 1987. She survived the cold and beat dehydration by rationing fruit, vegetables and bread that she had in her shopping bag. It is the Guinness World Record for longest time trapped in a lift.

The world's first bicycle escalator was installed in Trondheim, Norway, in 1993. It was built on a long, uphill road to help tired cyclists (or parents with baby strollers), and encourage cycling in the city.

Elevator 'close door' buttons in the U.S. were made to have a delayed response because of a section in the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act that mandates the doors stay open a minimum of three seconds to allow those with disabilities to enter/exit.

There is an elevator company named Schindler’s, meaning that there are Schindler’s lifts!

It takes one minute for the lifts in the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world’s tallest building, to reach the observation deck on the 124th floor, travelling at ten meters a second.

When elevators fail, they typically don't plummet to the ground like in movies, they go up instead due to the counterweights.

Unlike in the movie Die Hard, the escape hatch on an elevator can't be opened from the inside; by law, it's bolted shut from the outside. It’s there so that emergency personnel can get in, not so passengers can get out. If an elevator is in trouble, the safest place to be is inside the elevator.

Due to ADA requirements, elevator chimes must sound once when it's going up, or twice if it's going down. This is to assist those who are unable to see.

Elevators contain mirrors in order to make the elevator seem larger to help people who are claustrophobic and suffer anxiety.

Some elevators in Singapore are equipped with Urine Detection Devices that detect the scent of urine, setting off an alarm and closing the doors until the police arrive to arrest the offender.

There are 12 million elevators in the world today.

As of 2014, Spain was the country with most elevators per 1,000 inhabitants. Exactly 19.8 per 1,000 people. That is roughly one for every 50 people.

Elevators make 18 billion passenger trips each year in the United States, according to ConsumerWatch.com.

In New York, the home of skyscrapers, the average elevator journey takes 118 seconds.

The Shanghai Tower is home to the world's fastest elevator traveling at nearly 46 miles per hour. The elevator can zoom from the second-level basement to the 119th floor in just 53 seconds.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that all those ups and downs result in a yearly average of 27 deaths.

Sources Daily Express,  Wikipedia