Elisha Graves Otis, American Inventor

Elisha Graves Otis, American Inventor

Elisha Graves Otis (August 3, 1811 - April 8, 1861) was an American industrialist. At the age of 40, he wondered how he could get all the old debris up to the upper levels of the bedstead factory he was working in. He and his sons designed their own "safety elevator" and tested it successfully. He thought so little of it he neither patented it nor requested a bonus from his superiors for it, nor did he try to sell it. After having made several sales, and after the bedstead factory declined, Otis took the opportunity to make an elevator company out of it. At the New York Crystal Palace, he amazed a crowd when he ordered the only rope holding the platform on which he was standing cut. The rope was severed by an axeman, and the platform fell only a few inches before coming to a halt. After that, he received continuous orders, doubling each year. In his spare time, he designed and experimented with his old designs of bread-baking ovens and train brakes, and patented a steam plow in 1857, a rotary oven in 1858, and, with Charles, the oscillating steam engine in 1860. Otis contracted diphtheria and died in 1861 at age 49.

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