Jesse W. Reno

Jesse Wilford Reno (1861 to 1947) was an American inventor and engineer who invented the first working escalator in 1891, patented on March 15, 1892, and used at the Old Iron Pier, Coney Island, New York City. His invention was referred to as the inclined elevator. An earlier escalator machine, termed revolving stairs by its inventor Nathan Ames, was patented on March 9, 1859, but was never built. Reno was born in 1861 in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, the son of the American Civil War figure Jesse L. Reno, and he graduated from Lehigh University in 1883 with an engineering degree in mining, later adding a metallurgical degree. He was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery.