One-hundred and fifty-seven years ago, on September 20, 1853, mechanic Elisha Graves Otis opened his own elevator factory in Yonkers, New York, after inventing the safety hoist the previous year.
At the start, Otis had only two unsolicited $300 orders for elevators. So, he demonstrated his invention at the Crystal Palace Exposition in New York City in 1854.
In two years, he sold more than 40 freight elevators Then, he installed the first passenger elevator, with an enclosed car, in a five-floor building in New York City.
Otis created his design without a drawing board, blueprint or prototype, but he had succeeded in developing the first safety elevator, which used a special device to lock the car in place if the hoisting ropes failed.
His talents did not extend to business, however. When Otis died of diphtheria and nervous depression in 1861, he left an estate worth just $5,000, as well as $8,200 in debts.
His two sons, Charles and Norton, took over the business, which became known as Otis Brothers & Co. They acquired 53 patents for elevator design and safety devices.
By 1872, the company built more than 2,000 steam-powered elevators and made more than a million dollars. Six years later, it introduced a faster, more economical hydraulic elevator.
In 1880-81, the company received orders to install elevators in the White House, the Capitol and the Washington Monument. In 1889, it introduced the first successful direct-connected, electric-powered elevator.
The Otis Elevator Co. was formed in 1898 from the $11 million merger of Otis Brothers & Co. and 14 other firms, and began to buy overseas companies in 1902. By 1912, it owned seven factories in the United States, and had subsidiaries in Canada, Belgium, Italy and Germany by 1924.
Otis, the world's largest manufacturer of vertical transportation systems, was acquired by United Technologies in 1976 and is a wholly-owned subsidiary. Based in Farmington, Connecticut, it has more than 60,000 employees, with revenue of $11.88 billion in 2007.
Otis has installed elevators in the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center and the Petronas Twin Towers. It is estimated that the equivalent of the world's population rides Otis elevators, escalators and walkways every nine days.
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