OTIS ELEVATOR COMPANY
COMPANY CENTENARY
The world did not exactly beat a In May 1889, nine Otis hydraulic high-which meant that a cylinder path to the door of the first elevator elevators were ordered for the World had to be sunk an equal distance in shop on the banks of the Hudson Building (Pulitzer Building) in New the ground. The plunger elevator no River at Yonkers, New York. Otis York. This was the tallest office build- longer is installed for high-rise ser- elevator sales at the end of the first ng of the time, and its famous gilded vice, but they are still made for freight year, 1853, amounted to precisely dome, long since dwarfed, dominated service and an improved plunger- $900.00. The total inventory was the downtown area. Since then every electric unit was recently developed. $122.71. including a second-hand "tallest building" ever built in the
The third and most important de- lathe, two oil cans, and the account United States has been equipped with velopment was the "gearless traction" book in which these figures were Otis elevators.
electric machine, first used in 1903. written.
It did not seem so important at the These machines can be used for any The year before, Elisha Graves Otis time, but the first successful, direct- rise and, depending on size, at any had built a hoist for the Yonkers Bed- connected electric elevators were de- desirable speed. So far as is known, stead Manufacturing Company, where livered to the Demarest Building, New not one of these machines has ever he was employed as Master Mechanic. York. in December 1889. The ma- worn out. At an age when any other Although people had been building chines had no name. just "R. Smith's transportation equipment would hoists for at least two thousand years electric screw-machines" on the fac- before that, their hoists had the tory orders, but these elevators de- serious fault of falling to the bottom livered faithful service until the build- should the lifting cable break. But ing was torn down in 1920. Mr. Otis invented something that no one had ever seen before. He built a hoist equipped with an automatic safety device to prevent the car from falling.
The "gay nineties" were busy years for Otis Brothers. With the intro- duction of steel frame construction in Chicago and later in New York, build- ings soared upward and the "skyscra- per" became a reality.
be
relegated to a museum, even the very earliest of these machines is in every- day service.
First
Important elevator sales during the building boom of 1907-1912 were con- tracts for the Singer Building, 612 feet high; the Metropolitan Tower, 700 feet; and the Woolworth Build- ing, 780 feet each the "tallest in the Totally unimpressed with the im-
world", and each equipped with Otis portance of his invention, Mr. Otis
There never was a question about gearless traction elevators. was preparing to join the gold rush the ability of elevators to serve the When the Woolworth to California when he received an un- new skyscrapers.
Building The standard Otis elevators were modernized in 1947 the solicited order for the installation of hydraulic elevators of the period were criginal gearless machines, each 35 two of his "safety hoisters" in New capable of higher speeds than an York City. So on 20th September, elevator operator could control, and miles of service, were found to war- years old and with at least 250.000 1853, Elisha Otis opened his own shop car speed was held arbitrarily to 600 rant being retained for another to build these elevators, and thus or 700 feet per minute. This speed similar period and to justify being founded the elevator industry.
of about eight miles an hour, inciden- equipped with modern Signal Control All of these early elevators were tally, was the maximum legal rate for operation. freight machines. Then, on
bicycles on the streets of the city at March 23rd, 1857, Otis installed the world's
In 1915 Otis developed Micro-drive, the time.
or self-levelling for elevators. first passenger elevator in the store Meanwhile, the new electric eleva- used on U.S. Navy mine-layers, and of E. V. Haughwout & Co. in New tors had won almost immediate ac- then in U.S. Army Bases during the York.
ceptance, particularly for residences.
war, this invention greatly increased By 1868 Otis Brothers had develop- More and more new buildings rose the quality and comfort of elevator ed a steam passenger elevator with an to greater heights and the volume of service everywhere by providing ac- elaborate car and half a dozen safety overseas business steadily increased curate stops at floor landings. devices in addition to the original in- the records show shipments to 31 dif-
An important factor in the increased vention.
ferent countries In the early 1890's. sales of Otis elevators had been the At first. hotels were the most
It was on June 10th, 1898, at the development of Signal Control in 1924. enthusiastic users of Otis steam pas- Auditorium Hotel, Chicago, that Otis This type of operation relieves the senger elevators.
and eight other elevator companies operator of all duties except that of first agreed to form one corporation pressing buttons and opening the car to acquire the assets of all. Negotia- doors. Thus the speed of an eleva- tions for the new company had been tor was no longer limited to the in progress for about ten years, guid- ability of a human operator to judge ed mainly by W. D. Baldwin, vice-pre- blurred floor numbers and to answer sident of Otis Brothers & Co.
flashing signals. Elevators could make accurate, automatic stops from twice the speed possible with manual operation. Taller buildings than ever before were economically justified. In a period of three years. four succes- There were three significant de- sive "world's tallest" were completed type influenced by improved passen- velopments soon after Otis Elevator in New York: 40 Wall Street, 60 Wall ger elevators.
Company was organized. The year Tower, Chrysler, and Empire State. In April, 1878, the first hydraulic 1900 saw the first "escalator" in public All have Otis Signal Control elevators, elevator was installed at 155 Broad- use at the Paris Exposition, where it with a total of 58 serving the 102 - way, New York. Later in the year, was awarded a grand prize. The word storey Empire State Building. another was installed in the Stock “escalator", an Otis trade name for
for In 1946 the pent-up demand Exchange.
fifty years. is now in every-day use, new elevators and for modernization the Company's contribution to the In September 1879, four
Otis English language.
of existing equipment created a flood hydraulic elevators were ordered for
of orders 42% greater than the pre- the Boreel Building, New York. This Second, in 1902, the first "direct vious peak year of 1929. It was not was the first installation of a group plunger" elevators were installed for expected that this volume of business of higher speed elevators for a com- high-rise passenger service. Otis had could continue, but sales in the mercial building, and now it was pos- been building them for years for seven post-war years have been great- sible to build upward until the limit freight duty, but now they were used er than during the first 75 years of of brick bearing walls was reached. for buildings up to 25 or 30 storeys Otis history.
A slump in building construction ended in 1878. and Otis was ready for the business revival with two impor- tant developments: a hydraulic eleva tor that provided higher speeds and was more economical to install and operate than the steam machine, and
So the Otis Elevator Company was a governor-operated safety device to incorporated at East Orange, New bring the high-speed car to a gradual Jersey, on November 28th, 1898, with stop in case of emergency. Thus be- a capitalization of $11,000,000. gan building construction of a new
50-
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