From freight hoists to electric lifts

Manually operated elevators were used for lifting freight in warehouses and manufacturing plants as early as the 1600s. The modern elevator is a direct descendant of a design first shown by Elisha G. Otis at the New York World's Fair in 1853. A notable feature of the Otis elevator, and the principal reason for its popular acceptance, was a safety device that immediately engaged and held the elevator in the event the hoisting cables broke. The first elevators were operated by steam power to turn the cable drums. In 1871, the first hydraulic elevators were introduced using water pressure as the source of power. At first the hydraulic rams were one-piece, which meant a hole had to be dug under the elevator shaft as deep as the elevator was to be high. Later multiple-section, telescoping hydraulic rams allowed shallower holes. In many cities hydraulic power for these early elevators was supplied by power companies which installed and maintained networks of hydraulic piping throughout the city. The first commercially successful electric elevator was installed in 1889, and electricity quickly became the accepted source of power.