Shaft

“The History of the Elevator

Mary Bellis

Primitive elevators were in use as early as the 3rd century BC, operated by human, animal, or water wheel power. From about the middle of the 19th century, power elevators, often steam-operated, were used for conveying materials in factories, mines, and warehouses.

In 1853, American inventor Elisha Otis demonstrated a freight elevator equipped with a safety device to prevent falling in case a supporting cable should break. This increased public confidence in such devices. Otis established a company for manufacturing elevators and patented (1861) a steam elevator. In 1846, Sir William Armstrong introduced the hydraulic crane, and in the early 1870s, hydraulic machines began to replace the steam-powered elevator. The hydraulic elevator is supported by a heavy piston, moving in a cylinder, and operated by the water (or oil) pressure produced by pumps.

Electric elevators came into to use toward the end of the 19th century. The first one was built by the German inventor Werner von Siemens in 1880.”

“One killed, one injured in Vietnam elevator accident 

Last updated: 6/3/2010 11:05 

A woman was crushed to death and another injured when an elevator malfunctioned in the central Vietnamese province of Khanh Hoa on Wednesday morning.

 

Witness Tran Thi Ngoc Lai, chief accountant of the State Treasury in Dien Khanh District, said that she and director Nguyen Thi Thu Ha and cashier Tran Thi Huong took the elvator to the first floor from the ground floor of the treasury’s headquarters.

 

However, the lift didn’t stop at the first floor, but at some 40 centimeters above, Lai said, adding that she then quickly got out of the lift, whose door was always left open.”